Don’t get married. Just live together. (Part 5 of Five Modest Proposals for Post-Covid Churches)

This is the last of a five-part series of suggestions for churches after the Coronavirus pandemic.

  

Modest Proposal #5. Don’t get married. Just live together.

Pipe down, No-Sex-Before-Marriage and Family-Values crowd, this isn’t what you think. And besides, evangelicals crawling into bed (metaphorically!) with Donald Trump have pulled the rug out from under your bully pulpit. But that’s a different story.

This proposal is for churches, not couples or throuples or any other human configurations.

Proposal Number #5 is that churches should give up their individual buildings and share spaces.*

The church I serve has a fantastic building, situated on a lovely plot of ground. We could use more parking, but the building is pretty, spacious, and well-located. We are fortunate. It’s also expensive and time-consuming. We spend more on our church building, lawn, maintenance, repair, and cleaning than we do on any other thing. And honestly, we only use a very tiny portion of the space when you map out the time and rooms that we use each week.

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Less than a half mile down the street from us are two similar congregations—an Episcopal church that has ample parking and spacious building and a Lutheran church with an intriguing, welcoming mid-century modern building. All three buildings were built in the mid-1900s. None of our congregations fill the buildings to capacity. All three churches spend a lot of time working with tenants and outside groups to fill the building and to pay for upkeep.

What if we shared space? We don’t have to merge into one congregation. We could just co-exist in one building. Why do we have three large, lovely rooms (our sanctuaries) that are used by our congregations for a combined total of about three hours per week, not to mention all the other rooms?

And beyond shared worship space, what if we shared copiers, wireless providers, electric bills, trash removal services? Do three churches need three dish washers, three HVAC units, three pipe organs?

“But what about…?” “And when would we…?” “And do you mean sell…?”

Yep, change. That’s what I’m proposing. It’s not easy.

This pandemic is inviting us to see the world in new ways, to seriously question our old ways, to eagerly explore new ways.

How will change when this pandemic is over? I don't know. But if we go back to normal, we’ve failed.

*An excellent example of shared religious space is the Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha, Nebraska, where Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities are co-habitating on a plot of land.