Teaching Ways To Reimagine America’s ‘Spiritual Brownfields’
(ANALYSIS) Your town probably has several spiritual brownfields hidden in plain sight — and they are a huge threat to your community.
But what are they? Spiritual brownfields are aging, declining faith congregations in large, deteriorating religious buildings.
Up to 100,000 houses of worship across the U.S. are on the way to closing, according to a former National Council of Churches research chief, as Americans have fallen away from attending faith services. Bob Smietana, national reporter for Religion News Service, said no bigger threat faces American religious institutions today — and I argue they are a huge issue for municipalities, too.
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Dwindling congregations can’t keep up with the costs of maintaining their large buildings, which often fall into disrepair, create unsafe conditions and contribute to blight in a neighborhood, so buildings originally intended to be a blessing to the community are now burdens.
Many aging congregations want to see their beloved church transformed into a place that can continue to serve their community for decades to come, but municipal zoning laws, state building codes, and historic preservation ordinances often make it impossible for churches to reuse or redevelop extra space.
Why? Because the laws assume a house of worship will always be 100 percent a house of worship. These laws weren’t written with a mixed-use space in mind, or with the foresight of a future when houses of worship were no longer full of bustling parishioners on a Sunday.
Leaders from dioceses, annual conferences, and other judicatories are often unhelpful. They live in a world of rules and, being distant from the neighborhood, are often not clued in about the local situation. And church redevelopment takes time. A Northern Virginia church’s affordable housing redevelopment took 20 years from concept to ribbon-cutting. In addition to obstructive local laws and unhelpful judicatories, the overriding emotions of local congregations can overwhelm a good project.
However, the indomitable spirit of individuals — both citizens and clergy — can make great things happen despite tremendous obstacles, no matter the type or location of the congregation.
It’s a multidisciplinary issue spurring conversations among the fields of public policy, religious studies, non-profit management, and urban planning — and one I’ve participated in firsthand.
As a 30-plus-year veteran of city management and economic development organizations, I began working a decade ago for the United Methodist Church’s social justice agency on Capitol Hill, and I’ve taught city planning and urban policy at six major universities. Last year, I was asked to teach an experiential undergraduate course by the Washington Center of my alma mater, the College of William & Mary, and I could think of no better topic than spiritual brownfields.
Over the semester, students heard from 18 national experts and toured more than a half-dozen houses of worship that are reusing and redeveloping their properties. These actions extend the faith institutions’ mission into communities and provide needed revenue to keep congregations operating.
Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church and First Congregational United Church of Christ in downtown Washington partnered with real-estate developers to build Class A office space on their real estate, while maintaining vibrant space for their respective churches.
Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Northern Virginia partnered with not-for-profit affordable housing agencies to build more than 100 affordable housing units on its properties, while Silver Spring United Methodist Church in Maryland is working on a large mixed-use development featuring affordable housing.
Two small, historic, African-American churches — Scotland African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and Pleasant View Church in Montgomery County — were built on land owned by freed enslaved persons. The lots are now educational sites that teach Metro area residents and visitors about the role of religion in the identity of the African-American community.
Spiritual brownfields are a pressing issue for churches and communities, and these congregations and some experts are taking notice, looking for ways to repurpose old buildings and unused land.
Over the course of the semester, we heard from experts like Dr. Nadia A. Mian from Rutgers University, who discussed plunging demographics and new public-policy initiatives to promote adaptive reuse of faith properties, and Dr. Chris Elisara, Director of Faith for Cities, who offered insights on the practicalities of turning church assets into affordable housing.
Yet divinity schools and seminaries hardly mention the huge issue of reuse and redevelopment of faith properties in their curricula, nor do urban planning programs, at least not yet. Perhaps a curriculum that engages experts and examines relevant case studies is in order if we are to form strategies for emptying faith properties — our semester-long adventure can serve as a prototype.
Rick Reinhard is principal of Niagara Consulting Group, focusing on house-of-worship reuse and redevelopment and broader economic-development initiatives. He is author” of “Affordable Housing YIGBY (‘Yes in God’s Backyard’) Movement Seeks to Counter NIMBY Movement” in the Winter 2024 edition of Urban Land. He has a Bachelor of Science from the College of William and Mary, a Master of Business and Public Management from Rice University, and was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He resides in Montgomery County, Maryland.