Re-Purposing Church - for Entropy

It is no secret that attendance at most churches has been significantly declining over the past three decades.  There are many and varied reasons for this exodus but those issues are not my focus for this blog.  In my travels visiting churches, I have witnessed that many church facilities which were built for larger congregations now have meeting, classroom and gathering spaces which are no longer being used because the congregational population is not there nor active anymore.

I have recently visited four churches who have embraced a gambit which they called the "re-purposing" of their space.  One church turned their entire facility into a daycare program.  It is run by a staff hired by the church and they have over 30 children, none of which are parishioners of the church.  The pastor said it was their bread and butter and panacea for the church's fiscal woes.  Since the church facilities are somewhat small, the daycare takes over the entire church complex including the sanctuary.  The downside of this wonderful program which serves the community is that it cripples the church of any day time use.  As a director of prayer and worship and organist, that would mean I wouldn't have access to the facility for practicing, rehearsals, meetings or recitals midweek.  For me that would be a tremendous handicap since I dedicate my full time to serving and growing the parish which would include and demand weekdays.  Many of the programs I would design would require use of the facilities at this time because most of the regular ministry programs with the laity would naturally take place in the evening.  Still, it is a wonderful service the church provides the community but doesn't do much to build the worshiping community since as I mentioned, the families of the children do not belong to the church.

Another church has a four story Sunday School complex, huge kitchen and gymnasium as part of their sprawling facility.  Now that the congregation size is down to about 50 members, they have no use for all that space.  In the spirit of re-purposing, they now rent out three floors to the Department of Social Services who operates a daycare center for underprivileged families.  This wonderful program provides free daycare to over 200 children each day but likewise, none of the families belong to the church.  Meanwhile, on the ground floor they rent out office space to whomever wants it.  They have an freelance writer, a volunteer organization that repairs books then sends them out to libraries, a supplemental food pantry for the city, an out of town attorney who comes in once a week to meet with clients, and the local police department even has a room for when the officers on foot need a place they can retire to to get warm or, whatever.  The gym is rented out to a Judo instructor who offers classes each evening.  The problem with that is that the choir room is adjacent to the gym and there is only a portable divider wall between the two rooms.  The judo students complain about the choir and the choir complains about the judo classes.  But, such is the level of respect many music programs have in churches.  Money trumps all.  The pastor told me that their small congregation has no further use for the large kitchen facility with two ten burner stoves, two ovens, a large walk in freezer and dinning service for up to 800 settings.  I suggested that they find someone looking to start up a bakery to rent the space or at least offer the space to one of the many organizations who provide meals to the poor.

The other two churches have likewise re-purposed their spaces in an effort to make money and at least gives the appearance that the church is alive and vibrant.  I asked one pastor what ministries his church provides for the community and the only answer he had was re-purposing.  What do they pay him for?

While it is a great value to businesses and individuals who are small, poor, or are community service organizations, to have access to a space they can call their own without exorbitant overhead costs, it doesn't appear that any of these business partnerships bring new people into the churches.  Many churches offer space to AA and NA groups but I suspect that the people who attend these valuable and life saving services ever even consider joining the host church.

I did serve a parish where the AA and NA people using our building began to participate because they regularly interacted with our church staff and were invited to take part in activities.  They started attending my weekly organ recitals, then volunteering to serve as ushers, then they began coming to our pot lucks, then in exchange for rent they volunteered to do work around the building complex, then some of them began attending Sunday services, a few became members and got married in the church and had children.  Growth does work but only if there is the initial and maintained energy to make it work.  Energy begets energy but it has to be sustained and re-worked for any program to sinuously network and bear fruit.  If pastors dedicated their time to doing this, the homily would take care of itself.

The downside of re-purposing dormant church space is that if the church ever hires the right person and the church begins to see growth again, they will no longer have the facility and resources that is required to accommodate that growth - unless they evict their tenants.  I know that many church people reading this will say that their church doesn't have anything going on during the weekday hours so renting out that space doesn't hurt the church in any way.  That may be true so, hire people who will develop programs to begin attracting people willing to serve and minister, thereby filling and requiring those spaces once again.  Start with the clergy.  Many pastors need to get real jobs instead of pretending to serve the community and hiding in their offices five days a week avoiding the people who really need them.  I know one pastor who did that for five years then blamed the congregation for the lack of growth in the parish.  If a pastor is bored, frustrated and depressed from his job, chances are they are not helping the parish or people either.  Churches are becoming irrelevant and they seem to be doing whatever they need to to survive, except actively live out the Gospel. I hate the direction these churches and pastors are going.  They are doing everything to survive except their jobs.  A disgruntled and fed up (now ex) Roman Catholic priest once told me that the place God calls a church to is the place where their deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.  Wow, that is really simple and powerful.  Maybe the church should try that.  Don't say it is easier said than done.  Just do it.  As the great spiritual leader Yoda once said, "There is no try, only do."

Why Atheists should Go To Church

A friend of mine suddenly stopped going to church because his teenage son was arrested for selling pot.  Yes, he is a scary drug dealer and probably has connections to Mexican drug cartels and has been involved in murder, abduction and child slave labor.  Actually, he just sold pot to a friend who entrapped him in an effort to have his own charges dropped.  Back to my friend, he was embarrassed and ashamed that this happened to his family and nobody from his church reached out to him.  He admitted to me that he was an atheist and church had no value to him, he was only going out of a Catholic obligation to a nascent guilt.  I disagreed with him that he shouldn't attend because they needed him and he needed them, but he needs to work through this on his own.  However, here are some generic reasons and granted, I am grasping here but indulge me.

1)  Church gives you a place where you can breath.  Many people will say that they don't sing but in your everyday life, you sing.  If you yell, you are using the same body parts and emotion that goes into singing.  If you scream, the same.  Do you speak with inflection such as you would when you speak with surprise, tenderness, comfort, imitation, sarcasm or chiding?  All that is part of the singing apparatus too so, yes, you sing.  The difference between saying those things and singing them though, that is where the difference lies.  When you sing, you are sustaining tones which forces you to awaken muscles between your ribs, your diaphragm, your chest and head.  An added benefit to actual singing is that you are taking in oxygen more deeply and richly than you would only by speaking.  That increased oxygen gets in your blood where it goes straight to your brain and muscles which are nourished and repaired by the newly oxygenated blood.  Singing is healthy.  If you are a health nut, singing should be part of your weekly routine and church is a perfect place to exercise those muscles without the worry of someone hearing you. If your church has a pipe organ, there is even more acoustical space to hide in.  Pianos and guitars have a natural decay and less secure to hide your voice therein.  Once you play a sound on any of these instruments the sound immediately begins to decay, necessitating more fills and chords.  But singing doesn’t work this way, and the continuity of the sung line is often disrupted.  The organ’s sound lifts and sustains the voice of the congregation through each phrase and guiding each breath.  The organ thrives in an open room and it fills the room almost like sunlight through open windows, the organ warmly invites even hesitant and untrained singers to join in.  An amplified band gives you a directional, electronic copy of the instruments. The pipe organ needs no amplification; the natural sound of the instrument itself fills the space evenly and fully with its massive range.  The organ can breathe musical life into any part of the Gospel story and your body.

1a) When you hear music, there are fireworks going off in your brain.  FMRI scans have shown that when people listen to music, multiple areas of the brain light up and when participating, music engages practically every area of the brain at once, especially the motor, visual and auditory cortex.  Strengthening those areas of the brain allow us to apply those strengths to other activities.  This also bridges the activity in the corpus callosum which regulates the left and right hemisphere of the brain. This allows you to solve problems more effectively and creatively in both academic and social settings. Because crafting music also involves understanding emotional content and message, musicians often have higher levels of executive function; a category of interlinked tasks which include planning, strategizing and attention to detail and requires simultaneous analysis of both cognitive and emotional aspects. This ability also has an impact on how our memory systems work. Transubstantiation may become more physical for after singing an hour in church you will leave a different person, more energized, alert and cerebrally attentive.

2)  Along the lines of music, attending the right church is a great place to hear masterworks of choral, instrumental and organ literature from the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st century, all in one place.  Sure, you can buy a CD or find classical stations on the radio but hearing it live in the space the music was designed and composed for is much better.  Even if you don't sing, sitting there gives you the opportunity to set aside some time to reflect on your life in a holy space with holy sounds among holy people.

3)  You will be supporting local musicians.  Many musicians in churches are volunteers but a few of them such as the director or accompanist are probably paid.  Many of these people also play in clubs, bands, bars, are involved in community theater, compose and teach.  By supporting them in the church, you are supporting the circle of music in the community.

4)  Going to church also helps you to find community.  My friend, whose son was arrested could have found support, comfort and community but unfortunately his church was also embarrassed about the situation and didn't realize that not to act is to act.  It takes a lot of courageous effort to cultivate that sense of courage to seek and heal.  However, after that courage is marshaled, it will be discovered that it takes no effort or courage at all to heal.  I know of another church whose pastor lives in his own house so the rectory was empty.  When one of the elderly members fell into financial instability, there was no question that she could stay at the rectory free of charge. That is what church communities do for one another.  So, you don't have to go to church to find out what they can do for you, you can go to find out what you can do for them.  It is in serving others that we are served.

5)  Many people, even atheists, have a nascent sense of spirituality within them.  That means it is present but not active.  A friend of mine was arrested (hmmmph, I know a lot of people who were arrested) and he stayed at my house for a week because he wanted to get away and hide from everyone and take time to figure out his future life while it was falling apart around him.  A staunch atheist, he decided to attend church with me on a Saturday evening because I had to play and he didn't want to sit home alone.  Something touched him in the service and he went up for Communion.  He said he felt close to the God he didn't beleive in and it was comforting for him to be there.  He made an appointment to meet with the priest during the week but unfortunately the Roman Catholic priest alluded that he was not welcome there but, God bless anyway.  What a missed opportunity for both.  Most often the biggest problem with the church are its clergy because they lack the courage to do the right thing for fear of being accused of doing the wrong thing.  Not to act is to act and everyone loses.  It is easy to do the wrong thing then blame the one you are ostracizing.   They protest too much.

6)  As I mentioned earlier, going to church may help you find purpose.  An active church can provide you with the opportunity to volunteer to help where it's needed, a way of intentionally focusing on something transcendent and on becoming a more loving person while helping others.  Church's can be a great place for social gathering, too.  People are usually warm, friendly and accepting, at least in a good church! They may have groups that interest you and even have some missions which for you, even as a non-believer, you can participate in toward helping others in need. That is what is most fulfilling in life; having purpose and helping others.   When two hurricanes hit my area I was volunteering to answer a suicide hotline and was moved up to handling a disaster relief hotline for FEMA.  I did that for about three weeks, seven days a week, about ten hours a day.  Albeit exhausting, it was a very rewarding time for me.

7)  The point of the sermon on Sunday of any church is to learn how to apply scripture to your life.  This is a simple concept but many clergy think they have to be creative, gimmicky and entertaining and often miss the mark of breaking open the Word.  Even if you don't beleive that scripture is true spiritually or historically, there is great philosophy in the teachings of both the old and new testaments.  Even if you don't believe in God, you can agree to a lot of the values found in scripture as great truths.  Many of the stories have great lessons and you can find answers to many of your concerns and problems therein.  Our lives become the stories that we listen to and re-tell.  If you don't want to take the time to read the bible, start with the Jefferson Bible which is comprised of only the words of Jesus (the red words).  That can be very inspiring for those without a lot of time to weed through the historical and cultural detritus of scripture.

As long as you are not attending church to cause a disturbance, I would encourage going. The social, psychological, and spiritual benefits of participating in the liturgy and a community can be inspiring. If nothing else, you will get free food and coffee after the service.  That brings up a couple of other more over the top reasons to go.

8) The bible is loaded with good horror stories.  In the Bible, you can find stories of unsurpassed cruelty: murder, rape, incest, torture, slavery, cruelty to women and children, witchcraft, angry gods, natural disasters, plagues, wars, duels, mutilations, crucifixions, more blood than you can shake a stick at, and of course, eternal torment! Much of Hollywood's success comes straight out of the Bible. If you like horror, lust and greed, the bible is a great read.

9) Church is a great place for stand-up comedy.  Practically every page of the bible has something funny, ironic, dry or revealing in it if you look for it.  Preachers are willing to say anything from their pulpits! Many of them start off their homily with a joke and the comedy doesn’t end there either. Seeing some fundamental clerics affirm with a straight face their literal belief in a Noah’s ark, that dinosaurs didn't exist (a distraction planted there by old Scratch himself) or that the sun was “stopped” until some Jews won a battle, is hilarious! Yes, churches can provide hours and hours of knee-slapping entertainment if you know what to look for!

In some churches, you absolutely cannot be a member or be welcome to participate in the liturgy if you are not baptized, a member, affirming or have jumped through some other corporate hoops.  The Roman Catholics have many restrictions, the Episcopalians are more welcoming and lax, some churches require background checks (they don't want sinners), women are second class citizens in some, some are just cold, some don't like gays, while the Unitarians will take anyone.  Do some research, that might be half of the fun.  Visit a different church each week, take pictures and review them on Google or Yelp and talk about the music, homily, people, art, food, windows, flowers, whatever.

In the end, you may discover that some of your hookah-smoking and beer-drinking buddies are church mice.  You can share many a night around a fire-pit with those people discussing the spirituality of STAR WARS, HARRY POTTER and THE LION or THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE or STARGATE.  It can become something you'll never want to give up because even if you still don't beleive, you're a family.  Whatever brings people together is worth exploring.

So, come, all are welcome.  Well, not everyone, everywhere but, try.  If they don't want you, shake the dust from your feet as you leave (That's from scripture.  It was Jesus' polite way of saying, well, I can't say it).

Know Anyone Going Through A Rough Time?

Are they angry?  Depressed?  Worried?  Did their doctor get them addicted to pain killers?  Alcoholic?  Arrested?  Lose someone they love?  Share with them this phone number and web address to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and are there to listen.
1 (800) 273-8255.  Website: www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Over 30,000 people in the United States die by suicide every year which means someone dies by suicide about every 18 minutes in the U.S. An attempt is estimated to be made once every minute.

Share this information.  Print out the NSPL card and leave it in public places such as libraries, work, school, churches, stores.  If you go to church, ask your pastor to publish the hotline number in the church bulletin or newsletter.  Churches are notorious for hating gays, women and sinners and if you have any of them secretly hiding among the "good" people, they may be suffering emotionally and spiritually.  Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those 15-24 years old so churches need to be more careful the things they say for, children will listen.