Saving Faith With Help From Social Enterprise
(ANALYSIS) Houses of worship need social enterprise now more than ever.
Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship are facing a dire situation. Up to 100,000 U.S. houses of worship may close over the next decade. The percentage of Americans belonging to a faith institution has plummeted from 70% to 47% over one generation with no sign of abating.
We’re experiencing a Great Mismatch between small, aging congregations and large, deteriorating buildings. Faith institutions are overbuilt. Indiana, a state with 326 McDonalds, has 675 United Methodist churches.
The city of Rome, Georgia, population 38,000, has 15 churches — many of them struggling — in its 4-by-6 block downtown. The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo last month announced it was closing 70 churches.
Whether big or small, social enterprise is at least part of the answer to the faltering religious sector’s prayers.
Role
Savvy houses of worship are attempting to avoid the Grim Reaper by increasing revenues and decreasing expenses. Social enterprise — defined by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as “revenue-generating businesses with a mission” — can help accomplish both goals as well as a few more. What can social enterprise do?
— Produce revenues: It pays rent on real estate otherwise often used only one or two days a week. A dozen or two senior citizens cannot shoulder the full operating expenses, $7-$10 per square foot, of a house of worship.
— Build traffic: It brings live bodies into the empty spaces. They may or may not become worshipers or funders, but a clever house of worship can get them to consider membership or at least spread the word.
— Achieve relevance: It brings businesses onto the property that may be consistent with the part of a house of worship’s mission that involves delivering goods and services to the community.
— Reach young constituents: It can be seen by millennials and Generation Z activists, turned off by traditional religion, as more current and more relevant than the usual religious ceremonies.
— Provide jobs: It can tap into the labor market of the neighborhoods. Immigrants especially may be a good match for a social enterprise at a faith property.
Reuse
For decades houses of worship have devoted space to such operations as food pantries, clothing closets, child care centers, health clinics, 12-step groups, and other people-serving operations. However, these programs often are viewed by the congregation solely as an extension of the congregation’s mission, with rental income being either incidental or zero. The services, while enhancing the mission, become a drain on finances rather than a boost.
Many different spaces of a faith property should be evaluated as sites of social enterprise:
— Sanctuaries: More and more congregations share their sanctuaries with other congregations, especially growing, immigrant ones. A Baptist church in Silver Spring, Maryland, proudly shares space with four other congregations. Houses of worship wishing to rent out space can use new, Airbnb-like websites, such as Venuely and Thisspace.
— Church halls: Church halls can be rented by outsiders not only for meetings but also for cultural events and physical activities. Two United Methodist churches in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have converted their virtually empty church halls into for-rent pickleball courts.
— Education buildings: Underused classroom space can be sites for child care, preschool, regular school or, with renovation, for offices. A Northern Virginia Hispanic church packs in two revenue-producing operations, a Spanish-language preschool on two floors and a Russian-language primary school on the third.
— Kitchens: Commercial-grade kitchens are rented out to caterers and food truck operators. A rural Maryland United Church of Christ houses a robust pie-making operation.
— Parking lots: Houses of worship near stadiums and arenas can get into the business of renting out their empty parking lots on game days. Apps like Spothero and ParkWhiz make it relatively easy.
Redevelopment
Some houses of worship think big about their real estate and become developers for new properties on their acreage.
With the U.S. facing a deficit of more than 7 million units of affordable housing and churches having a surplus of hundreds of thousands of acres of real estate, building affordable housing is an obvious match. The Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles has proclaimed that the church will develop affordable housing on one-quarter of church-owned land.
Even more ambitious churches have moved ahead with large mixed-use developments. A Washington, D.C., church has developed a 180,000-square-foot campus including not only a church and 99 affordable housing units but also offices, an immigration clinic, and a food pantry.
Most religiously owned real estate in high-demand cities such as Manhattan, Miami and San Francisco is highly prized by for-profit developers, who circle over emptying churches like buzzards, creating the challenge of keeping valuable property in some sort of social use.
Initiatives
Denominations and municipalities lag behind in leadership, but a few have begun to organize initiatives to explore social enterprise at houses of worship.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has compiled “Sacred Spaces, Innovative Places,” a guide offering a dozen documented examples of social enterprise. A United Methodist Church conference has spun off Wesley Community Development to help produce innovative uses of real estate, a model others are mimicking.
Mayors of Atlanta, San Antonio and Seattle have formed initiatives to partner with houses of worship on innovative reuse of faith properties.
From the third sector, Enterprise Community Partners, Partners for Sacred Places and Bricks and Mortals are among the organizations forming “cohort groups” of houses of worship and lead them down the path toward innovative uses.
High ambitions at houses of worship are good, but big, shiny new projects aren’t always the answer.
Social enterprise expert J. Howard Kucher, a professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, points out: “Major redevelopment projects can take years and years to accomplish, and their complications can sometimes sink a congregation. Often a simpler form of social enterprise can be a more effective means to fulfill a house of worship’s needs, at least in the short term.”
Rick Reinhard led economic-development organizations for three decades before becoming an official of the United Methodist Church. He now helps churches and municipalities as principal of Niagara Consulting Group in Montgomery County, Maryland. He is the award-winning author of “Affordable Housing: YIGBY (‘Yes in God’s Backyard’) Movement Seeks to Counter NIMBY Movement” in the Winter 2024 issue of Urban Land magazine