The future of church buildings? Hopefully to provide homes for flourishing church communities. But that, of course, is both wistful and wishful thinking in the U.S. today. A few blocks from where I live, I often drive by a gorgeous, rock-of-ages towering granite church building that now houses three spacious condominiums. What a waste!
You may be right. This could be a case of theological sour grapes on my part. Am I depressed or even angry because the American church, in which I have so long invested my professional and spiritual life, has so declined? On occasion, truth be told, I am. But I would like to think that more often than not my response to these condo-churches has been one of righteous indignation.
By no means do I stand in judgement of those congregations that have to sell their properties and then choose to invest those monies in the mission of the Church elsewhere. But I do question the all-to-often insidious effects of market capitalism in our secular society. In this world, things seem to keep working out quite well for the well-to-do. So if you well-to-doers want to live elegantly in a gracious old church building, go for it. Do what you please. Enjoy your sacred condos.
Thankfully, there appears to be an alternative. Consider this recent news story, well summarized in its headline: “Facing empty pews, churches are turning their buildings into low-income housing.”(Boston Globe, August 13, 2025) While such congregations in all probability had to fold, given declining membership, what a way to go!
It sounds marvelously apostolic: “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:6).
If, then, you’re a member of a church which is facing either death in an old building or the promise of new life without one: vote with other congregants in your declining congregation to turn your sacred building into housing for the poor. And then welcome the first day of the rest of your faith. Which is to invite you to claim once again, hopefully with a new intensity, death and resurrection for yourself.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.