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Americans aren't attending religious services as much as they once did. About 3 in 10 say they go to church regularly compared to nearly 4 in 10 a decade ago. As houses of worship consider a future with smaller congregations, many are exploring ways to repurpose their underused buildings and land for the good of the community. Stephanie Daniel with member station KUNC has this story about one church in Colorado.
KAREN HANSEN: Good morning. How are you, greeter?
STEPHANIE DANIEL, BYLINE: On a recent Sunday morning at First Christian Church in Loveland, Colorado, Karen Hansen greets worshippers with a smile and a hug.
HANSEN: Hi. How are you?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Oh, I'm OK.
DANIEL: Four decades ago, the church added a 500-seat sanctuary, anticipating a swell in numbers, but that never happened. Today, the building is too big for its roughly 100 members. Hansen, a church elder, says that over time, she's watched the congregation shrink.
HANSEN: Many people that were here have aged and maybe have passed away.
DANIEL: Two years ago, First Christian took a leap of faith. It listed its 26,000-square foot building and land for lease or sale. The congregation has a long history of using this property to serve the community. They hoped whoever acquired it would do the same.
MICHAEL STEIN: We've prayerfully felt like this is not good stewardship. We're meant to do something more with this.
DANIEL: Michael Stein is the pastor here.
STEIN: We were asking ourselves, what could be done?
DANIEL: The Loveland Homelessness Task Force saw the listing. It thought the church would be a great location for a 24/7 resource center and overnight shelter. First Christian checked all the boxes, except one. The property is split zoned for commercial use and low-density housing.
STEIN: The dividing line goes right through our sanctuary.
DANIEL: The zoning issue stalled the church's plans, something that's not uncommon, says Mark Elsdon, with the nonprofit Rooted Good. He wrote a book about churches trying to repurpose their land.
MARK ELSDON: A church can have a great idea, but if there isn't community buy-in and support, it won't go anywhere.
DANIEL: Elsdon says a lot of churches find out that converting their properties to socially beneficial uses, like affordable housing, is more challenging than they thought.
ELSDON: There's churches that are looking at doing or doing grocery co-ops to address food deserts or are turning empty parking lots into parks.
DANIEL: His nonprofit offers a course to help churches and says, money is often an issue.
ELSDON: Affordable housing is very hard to build anywhere, and it's also hard to build on church land, and that's largely a function of funding and financing.
DANIEL: There's a lot of churches with extra property nationwide. In California alone, the Terner Center for Housing Innovation found faith-based organizations have over 47,000 acres of potentially developable land.
ELSDON: The idea that there's that much land available to go after some of these real important issues in our communities is exciting.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Be thou my vision, O...
DANIEL: At First Christian Church in Loveland, church elder Karen Hansen says the congregation will keep pursuing its mission.
HANSEN: We're still hopeful that our ministry of using this building to help other people in the community will go forward.
DANIEL: The congregation has dropped their plans to convert their building into a homeless shelter, and the city's homelessness task force has disbanded. The church is now exploring other options to help the unhoused. Their property remains on the market. For NPR News, I'm Stephanie Daniel in Loveland, Colorado.
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