For most of the past month they have handed Midtown Mission Church of God over - lock, stock and pulpit - to some of the thousands of missionaries who converged on the Georgia State capital.
While homeowners in the city have reportedly made thousands of dollars by charging Olympic visitors high rents for their temporarily-vacated property, the church is making no profit from the "loan" - and yet sees it as a wise investment.
Strategically located not much more than a javelin's throw from the Olympic village and several key sporting venues, the redbrick building became a hub of round-the-clock activity by hundreds of Youth With A Mission volunteers.
The church sanctuary was turned into a 24-hour House of Prayer for the Olympic outreach, while the basement was transformed into the Street Light Cafe, open from 10 am to midnight, seven days a week.
Other parts of the building were used for a special daycare center run for Arabic-speaking families, and to house some of the YWAM workers - around 4,000 of whom traveled from around the world to take part in the three-week evangelism campaign.
Members of Midtown Mission - which sees an average weekly congregation of about 90 - officially "vacated" the premises after their service on July 14, and were due to return on August 4. Between times they have been meeting at a church in the suburbs, although many have been back to Midtown to help with the YWAM programs.
The handover came about after pastor Steven Lester - whose church has hosted several YWAM teams on short-term ministry trips to Atlanta - learned that the mission was looking for a good location for several of its outreach projects.
Rather than a sacrifice, he saw the loan as "in a sense, an answer to our own prayers... We didn't see it so much as we were turning the church over as we had been praying for God to send reinforcements - some of us were weary and discouraged - and he did in a powerful way.
"We saw this as a key moment in time, and we wanted to seize that moment. There will never be another opportunity like this in our lifetime to impact the city in this way."
The arrangement had been supported by church members, although some "probably felt a little strange if they went into church and were asked by someone they didn't know, 'Can I help you', when it was their church," said Lester.
"At the same time, my prayer is that when the YWAM teams have gone we will still have that problem of so many strange faces because we will have so many new folks."
As well as any new members, Midtown Mission will also get something else out of their Olympic offering - the newly-converted and decorated cafe, which Lester plans to keep as an ongoing ministry.
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