Over the past few months,
we’ve highlighted the ways various common church spaces (kitchens, classrooms, even parking lots!) can be reimagined and used in different ways to have a new, fresh impact in our communities:
Former Sunday School classrooms turned into therapy offices.
Kitchens licensed and made available for the work of food entrepreneurs.
Fellowship halls transformed into neighborhood event spaces and co-working collaboratives.
But so much of the fun comes from the opportunities provided by less common spaces, those unique to individual churches. In our work, we’ve explored possibilities for everything from parsonages and gardens to libraries and wide-open atriums replete with skylights. And whether unique (a puppet theatre?!) or relatively standard (gyms big and small), each space holds potential for providing an ideal home for a community-facing organization or other neighborhood resource.
And as we’ve shared before, when it all comes together that’s where we discover the win!
When spaces find new life and new purpose, the church wins: its previously unused or underutilized space finds new missional purpose, and the church also gains a new source of financial support for its ministry.
The organizations, groups and individuals now using the space win: they not only have a new home for their work, but also at a rate that helps their work to remain financially sustainable.
And the surrounding neighborhood wins (the most important win of all, from our perspective): new organizations and partnerships are present, offering resources that contribute to its flourishing.
We love a good challenge (yes, even puppet theaters)—not primarily because the challenge invigorates us (though it does!), but because we believe with all our heart that no space is beyond transformation and new possibilities, if only we have the eyes to see it and the courage to step into it.
Thank you for your support in making it happen!
Three cheers for the puppets,
