Wednesday, December 06, 2023

12 Steps to Finding a Partner for Your Congregation

 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.