Club marks 8 years of faith-based fun
By Patti Levine-Brown
River City News correspondent

People played pool in the corner of the darkened room. Others sat at tables and talked, while some stood around with drinks in hand. Within moments, stage lights came on and the sounds of drums and acoustic guitars could be heard. Young adults danced and cheered as band members with jeans, jewelry and long hairstyles, played on.

Everything fit the image that most people have of rock bands, their music, their fans and nightclubs.

But the scene at the Murray Hill Theatre on Edgewood Avenue, which celebrated its eighth year in business last weekend, is not all it appears to be. The club, which offers rock, acoustic, alternative, indie, techno, swing and praise music, is a faith-based nightspot operated by a non-profit community service group.
Alcohol has been replaced by milkshakes and soft drinks, numerous volunteers strictly enforce the rules that prohibit drugs on the premises, and smoking has been barred from inside the club, its cafe and the record store that are all part of the operation.

"I have been coming here since the club opened, and I love it," said Angela Edwards, 25, who recently returned to Jacksonville after graduating from college in Winston-Salem, N.C. "Christian clubs ... are hard to find."

"This is a great atmosphere, and there is a lot to do here," said Daniel Raines, 15, who attends Jeb Stuart Middle School. "If it weren't for this place, I wouldn't have anywhere to go, and I would probably be out getting into trouble."

It seems that the Christian nightspot concept has caught on with a lot of young people, and many are willing to travel quite a distance to get the club at 932 Edgewood Ave. S.

"My whole church group started coming here, so I thought I might as well see what it was like," said Chris Jones, 17, who attends the First Assembly of God in Callahan. "I liked what I saw. The food is great and the music is cool."

Nathaniel Eichholz and Donny King, both sophomores at Hilliard High School, agreed.
"It's great to have a place to go," Eichholz said as he paid the $7 donation to get inside the club. "I really like it."

Parent Mike Day said the club provides a unique venue for young people.

"We had been assured that this was a safe environment to bring our youth group from Mandarin Methodist, so we decided to check it out and really liked it," said Day, who has worked as a club volunteer for two years. "Faith-based is on the edge of rock, but we like the music and so does my son, David."

People's attraction to the nightspot comes as a surprise to Tony Nasrallah, an independent real estate investor, whose concept for the club was born out of a desire to be able to meet with friends, eat and listen to music in a safe and comfortable environment.

Nasrallah grew up in Jacksonville. He said as a teen he went through the drinking and clubbing scene that many young people experience, before deciding that he wanted to turn his life around. He found a place in the Timuquana area of Jacksonville that fit his needs. It was an old convenience store that had been converted to a Christian nightspot.

"This place was a tremendous blessing to me," said Nasrallah. "It gave me a place to go that was safe and comfortable, and I made a lot of good friends there."

Nasrallah said he went away to college, and when he returned a few years later, the club had been torn down.
" I started thinking then that someone needed to open another club like this," he said. "I kept thinking about it for several years until I decided I needed to do it."

Since opening in 1995, Nasrallah said, the theater has hosted more than 850 events attended by more than 122,000 people.

Music is the focus of the nightspot that is usually open from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. However, the club sometimes opens during the week for other events that have included dance nights, comedy shows and video showcases.

Nasrallah, who e-mails about 3,500 people a week about the theater's events, would like to see more people in the community get involved at the club.

"I would like more volunteers to get behind us," he said. "I think what we are doing provides a great service to the community."

For event information at the Murray Hill Theatre and Cafe, call 388-7807 or go to Jacksonville.com, keywords: murray hill theatre.