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Community Outreach Guide Your Sacred Place: Making Spirits Soar Sacred places are landmarks in communities across America-their soaring steeples punctuate the skyline, while their windows and walls serve as reminders of the ancestors who built them. Whether in rural areas or suburbs, farm towns or urban neighborhoods, these churches, synagogues, meetinghouses, and temples showcase the best art and architecture in their communities. But sacred places are not just monuments to craftsmanship, nor are they dedicated solely to prayer and worship. They are also locations for ministry and outreach where people address the spiritual and physical needs of their neighbors. Congregations that pursue the goal of being good neighbors find that their buildings are their chief assets in ministry. After all, soup kitchens, arts groups, neighborhood associations, day-care centers, and Alcoholics Anonymous need places to meet, and congregations usually possess auditoriums, fellowship halls, and classrooms that can easily fulfill these needs.
Resources on Sharing Space One option for congregations that want to expand their ministry to the community is to share space with other groups. Sharing space can be as simple as allowing a support group to use one of your classrooms once a week, or it can be as ambitious as letting another congregation move in with you. Many congregations see sharing their building as part of their religious mandate-providing a home for other worthy organizations or individuals who have a vision for helping the community. Invite the entire congregation to take part in the decision to share your building. Here's one resource to help you think about this issue: Sharing space can also entail sharing expenses; "sharers" can help a congregation pay the utilities or mortgage. Whether or not you hope to make a profit, you should carefully calculate the cost to your congregation of sharing your building before you decide how much, if anything, to charge. Charging rent for the use of your building may have implications for your tax-exempt status. These two articles address the tax issues related to sharing space: Here's an example of one New York City church with a tradition of sharing space: Here is an example of a diocese's approach to managing leases and space sharing:
Two additional publications on sharing space are available from Partners for Sacred Places' Publication Center:
Centers for Urban Life One way that some congregations have reached out to their neighborhoods is by establishing a "center for urban life", a non-profit organization, with an independent board of directors, dedicated to community outreach. The center assumes responsibility for the programs using the congregation's building, such as concerts, day care, meetings, conferences, and other activities. While creating a separate non-profit organization with its own directors takes away some of the congregation's flexibility in the use of its own building, the "center for urban life" model can significantly enhance programming for community activities and fundraising opportunities for the building. With a center for urban life, potential funders can be asked to support not a religious mission, but an independent community resource within an architecturally significant building. Two examples of center for urban life:
Partners' Publication Center offers a booklet on how to create a separate non-profit organization:
Reusing Former Houses of Worship At times, for various reasons, sacred places fall vacant. Sometimes a congregation decides to move to a new location, or two congregations merge, leaving one building empty. When this happens, a religious building can often be put to a new use, thus preserving a significant structure in the neighborhood and providing a home for a new congregation, another non-profit organization, or even a business or a family. The adaptive reuse of an empty religious building for a new purpose can change the gloomy scenario of an abandoned religious building into an opportunity for new life. Religious buildings can be adapted for multiple uses. The simplest transition, of course, is for another religious congregation to occupy the old building. However, even this may require some changes-especially if the new congregation is of another religious tradition.
There are countless examples of new congregations moving into buildings formerly occupied by members of another faith. For example, Omega Seventh-Day Adventist Church in New Haven, Connecticut, was built in 1910 for a Christian Science congregation. Later it served as a synagogue for many years before the current congregation purchased the building in 1992. Each change in ownership required not only alterations to the furniture and the platform area, but also an adjustment in the overall religious symbolism. Here are two more examples of congregations that moved into buildings formerly occupied by a different tradition: When the new occupant of a sacred place is not another religious group, the challenges can be greater. Nevertheless, there are many possibilities for the sympathetic reuse of a former house of worship, including cultural centers, businesses, and residences. Here are several examples:
Not all reuses are created equal. In one notorious case, the Church of the Holy Communion in New York became a nightclub that was later closed down by police. But reuse can be accomplished with sensitivity toward the history of the building and the congregation that once worshiped there. In the best case, a building no longer used for worship can continue to be a source of pride and inspiration for a community-as a library, home, office, or cultural center.
Welcoming People with Disabilities Congregations that open their doors to the community are naturally interested in accessibility-providing a warm welcome to everyone, including people with disabilities. In fact, if you plan to share your building with another organization, you may be required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. But even if you are not required to comply with the ADA, consider how making your buildings more accessible to people with disabilities can enhance your ministry and mission. Here are a few articles that make the case for accessibility and show how modifications can be made:
The National Organization on Disability has many resources to help congregations enhance their vision for welcoming people with disabilities. In addition, the organization has published several guidebooks for congregations that want to improve disability access, including one, Money and Ideas, that offers fundraising suggestions:
All these are available from Partners' Publication Center. Opening your doors to the disabled, to the community, and to other congregations are some of the ways that you can use your sacred place not just for worship, but for hospitality, outreach, and service. Your neighbors will continue to admire your architecture, but at the same time they'll think of your congregation's ministry. And you'll be making spirits soar.
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