Case Studies That Interrupted My Reading of the Book Gone for Good—Part One
The book subtitle is "Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition"
Case Studies That Interrupted My Reading of the Book Gone for Good—Part One
One aspect of Christian congregational life that captures my attention is how they do and do not proactively address issues of capacity and sustainability. At least in ways that envision and empower the next seven to 21 years of their life.
Addressing these should involve innovative, ongoing, proactive strategic actions. This is rather than only lagging actions when the gap between needed capacities and sustainable movements create panic, hopelessness, heightened resistance to change, and multiple crises.
Too Late! “Congregations Should Have Addressed This Much Earlier in Their Organizational Life Cycle" is a theme of my writing about congregations for 2024. This idea fits my response to this book.
The failure to address church property transitions and changes in congregations early and regularly in their life is one way congregations act too late to use capacities and sustainability to reach their full Kingdom potential.
My personal reaction to this book is not to praise or criticize it, but to share some of the real-life congregational situations I reflected on while reading this book. And, which caused me to gaze out a window and ponder them.
These case studies are presented in the order they occurred to me. What you will notice is that my focus is not so much on the church buildings. My focus is on the value added to people through the programs, ministries, and activities that take place within the buildings.
Here are two of at least seven case studies I will share with you over the next several weeks. The stories include aspects present in various church situations.
Case Study One: Let’s Build a New Christian Education Building
I was present when a capital fundraising consultant met with a county seat First Church. That evening was to help a leadership group articulate their dream for the new building.
It was to replace a 75-year-old building constructed during the depression that followed the 1929 economic crash. The original construction had used inadequate quality building materials and approaches. Its current condition made it so that major renovation was required.
The cost to totally replace the building was not that much more than the retrofitting and renovation. Plus, it needed to be larger with higher quality space now demanded by families in the 21st century.
The pastor, staff, and lay leaders present primarily saw this as a transactional journey. They had difficulty imagining the soft side of added value that would result from occupying the new building. They just saw more and better space and told stories about what does not work in the old building.
Present that evening was the pastor’s adult daughter and her six-month old child. We tried to get them to talk about the spiritual and life values that would impact children teenagers, and adults who learned the tenants of the Christian faith and grew in their knowledge as disciples in that building.
What type of personal qualities might people like the pastor’s grandson exhibit as adults because of the programs, ministries, and activities that occurred in that building.
Thus, let’s not just build a building. Let’s build the Christian lives of people impacted by their regular presence of that building.
Case Study Two: Reschedule, Build New, or Start Campuses
A regional church was once again out of space. Also, the target groups of people by age and lifestyle they were reaching in their area had diversified.
To keep moving forward rather than to stall, they needed to do one or more of three things. One was to significantly revamp their weekend schedule to provide more times the building could be used and thus accommodate more people.
Another was to spend $5 million to build new space. The third was to begin a multiple year strategy to start satellite campuses in growth areas of their county.
A core spiritual issue for this church was that a very small percentage of their new members were people new to the Christian faith. Growing churches tend to have ten percent or more of their new members coming as people new to Christian faith. The percentage for this church was under three percent.
In my talking with the pastor, I asked which choice would best enhance their ability to reach preChristians, unchurched, underchurched, and dechurched people?
Currently the congregation is engaging in a focused season of prayer to discern next by answering the questions around space utilization and building choices.