A while back I attended a seminar by an organization called Partners for Sacred Places. It was kinda Philly-centric, but still had a lot of important and useful information for congregations, especially ones with older buildings who are in the process of discerning how to more faithfully use their space.
I took 14 pages of notes, but here is my synthesis of those
notes.
How to find a Partner for your space:
Step 1: Clean up the Church Rolls
Follow the actual definitions of
membership in your polity. Be ruthless. And all those names that come off your
rolls, put them in another category, Friends of the Congregation.
Cleaning the rolls will give both the leadership of the congregation
and those who may want to partner with the congregation a more accurate sense
of who you are. Also, this friends of the congregation list will be used later.
Step 2: Create or Update your Mission/Vision Statement
At base
this statement ought to answer the question “Why do we exist as a
congregation?” Your congregation’s answer to this question ought to also, at
least implicitly, answer the questions “Why are we seeking a partner?” and
“What is the mission of our building?” Also, it ought to be concise enough that
congregants can use it as a springboard for a 1-minute description of the
congregation—an elevator pitch. I’ve heard 6-23 words are optimal.
Step 3: Create a Stakeholder Map and a Friends of List
Print up
a googlemap of the area surrounding the congregation. Really look at it for a
while. Take a little time to think about where your congregation is. If your
congregation closed, who would notice? Who do congregants regularly interact
with, especially going to and from worship? What institutions already partner
with you in big or small ways? Jot down all those people. These are your
stakeholders.
Remember all those folk who you
removed from the Church Rolls. It was painful right? Well, good news, you get
to bring them back as Friends of the Congregation.
Now, between the Stakeholders and
Friends of the Congregation you should have a substantial list of people. Merge
them together into a Master List.
Step 4: Do a congregational walkthrough
Take a representative group from
the congregation through EVERY room of the congregation. In each room stop and
ask, “What do I like about this space? What are its amenities? What memories do
we have here?” Additionally, to sharpen your imagination about future use of
these spaces, also ask the questions: “Why was this room originally built? How
was it originally used? How might that legacy continue through different means?”
Step 5: Follow up on impressions from the walk through
Maybe a
week after the tour, get everyone together and compare notes. Do so with an eye
toward action. Have building/building use committee people there to empower
folk to paint, reorganize, etc.
One thing
that it worth investing in if you can, is a dumpster. Often times, after the
walkthrough those who took the tour will have an impulse to spruce up the
building, as these sorts of tours often times uncover a lot of unused church
things that ought to be chucked.
Step 6: Invite Master List people for a conversation and
tour luncheon
Having a
clear idea about who the church is, both in membership and mission, having
spruced up the place a bit, invite everyone from that list to a lunch at the
church. The one agenda point at the lunch itself will be to listen to folk
answer the question: What are the needs of the community? Then, take
them on a building tour, and in each room ask the question: What could you
see in this space?
Step 7: Imagine how your building can meet the needs of
your community
Gather
together leaders of the congregation to review the information gathered at the
luncheon. Look at the congregation’s mission and assets in light of the needs
of the community. Dream a little!
Step 8: Create a Template Partnership Agreement
Bring
together all the major players in the congregation to determine what the
congregation’s boundaries are for a partnership. For example, is the sanctuary
off limits? Are there groups in the area who would not align with the
congregation’s values? Are we comfortable with outside groups having keys to
the building? Etc.
Additionally,
agree about who will be the contact person with partners and agree on the
logistics of opening and closing the building. Hash out the practicalities of
partnership in general before you get down in the mud of particularity.
Step 9: Reach out to Potential Partners
Think
back to the luncheon and your time of dreaming. As stakeholders dreamed about
uses for rooms, as needs of the community were lifted up, were there concrete organizations
who might make good partners? If so, reach out to them. For that matter, those
dreams and conversations may have created some buzz and shaken loose some potential
partners already.
Step 10: Create a space rental page on the congregation’s
website
If the
luncheon did jar loose a community member who might now be interested in sharing
space, the first place they’ll go is your website. Is your website ready for
them? Do you have descriptions of available spaces, a generic rental agreement,
etc available online for them to take a look at?
Step 11: Create an extremely clear particular partnership
agreement
When you
go through the general agreement with a new partner spell out every little detail.
Don’t assume this or that is common sense, don’t assume they will know your
calendar or how to access it, don’t assume they know not to store stuff in empty
cabinets, etc. Instead take the time to spell out the whole of how both the
congregation and the partner intend to use the space. From this conversation
create particular guidelines to govern that relationship.
Step 12: Meet Monthly
Things
will come up, that’s just how partnerships work. So, have a designated time where
the contact person from the partner organization and the contact person from
your congregation meet. In person.
