(RNS) — If experts were predicting that 100,000 libraries across the United States were likely to close in the next few decades, people would probably sit up and take notice. Certainly, if 100,000 school buildings were going to be empty in small and large communities, someone would be talking about it.
But the possible demise of thousands of churches? Crickets, said the Rev. Mark Elsdon, a Presbyterian minister, author and social entrepreneur who co-founded RootedGood, a nonprofit that works with churches on how to use their space.
“We are not getting the same response when we say that 100,000 churches are going to close,” said Elsdon, who edited “Gone for Good?: Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition,” a new book of essays about the future of houses of worship.
That prediction of church closings is based on the unrelenting math of religion in America—there are ever more church pews with not enough people to fill them. Those who go to church prefer to be part of large congregations, flocking to packed-out megachurches while driving by a host of struggling congregations with 60 people or fewer.
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Elsdon, who is executive director of Pres House, a campus ministry in Madison, Wisconsin, said the 100,000 figure is an estimate based on trends in worship attendance. There is little data about how many churches close or what happens to houses of worship when they are no longer needed by a congregation.
But even a half or a quarter of that number, Elsdon said, would be significant. “The bottom line is that there are fewer and fewer people identifying as Christians and attending traditional church activities in church buildings,” Elsdon said earlier this year at an event introducing his book. “Therefore, there are far more church buildings today than will be viable or needed in the future. That’s just the way it is.”
The book’s chapters, each by a different expert, outline some of the changes facing churches and some of the possible outcomes for former church buildings, from affordable housing to hubs for social entrepreneurship.
The new book’s title is a play on words. Many church buildings could be gone for good — sold off to become apartments, breweries, wedding venues or other secular uses. Or they could be gone but still used for good causes, depending on what the congregations who used to own them decide to do.
Elsdon, who helped revitalize Pres House, a century-old campus ministry that was on the verge of closing when he and his wife were hired as leaders in 2004, spoke to Religion News Service recently about the book and why the future of church property deserves more attention. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Why does it matter if churches close down?
Good question. Church buildings play a central role in the social fabric and social infrastructure of communities in ways we don’t even necessarily think about until they’re not there. Churches host AA meetings, Girl Scout troop meetings and neighborhood association meetings—my neighborhood association just met in the church last night. We vote in churches. There are food pantries that many churches run. Besides the spiritual activities, the social activities that happen in church buildings are vital to the functioning of most communities. Even when churches are all but dead, their buildings are still often doing a ton of work.
