From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Dec. 24, 1989:

The number of people attending church in Lawrence was on the rise, so much so that local congregations were in need of more space to fit them all in. In some cases, churches were adding on to existing buildings or constructing new ones to cope with increasing attendance. Membership at the First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont, had grown by about 200 persons in the past two years. The church had built a large addition and had moved into it about three years previously. The Free Methodist Church, 802 W. 22nd St., which had had an average attendance of about 90 people in 1964, this year reported an average of just under 400 worshipers every Sunday. The Free Methodists were in the process of building a new church at 31st Street and Lawrence Avenue and were hoping to move there in the fall. Members of the Mustard Seed Fellowship were planning to construct a new church at Sixth and Wakarusa, and the St. Lawrence Center had completed its new building adjacent to the Kansas University campus in 1986. In the past few years, as churches had left smaller buildings for larger ones, some of the city’s smaller congregations had moved into the vacated buildings. The First Regular Missionary Baptist Church had moved into the former Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1646 Vermont, and the Missionary Baptists’ old North Lawrence building, 416 Lincoln, had been purchased by the Unity Church of Lawrence.