Technical Resources Manual for Denver Historic Sacred Places : Sacred Landmarks Preservation

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Your Sacred Place-Making Spirits Soar

Sacred places are landmarks in communities across America-their soaring steeples punctuate the skyline while their windows and walls remind admirers of the immigrants who built them. Whether in rural areas or suburbs, farm towns or urban neighborhoods, these churches, synagogues, meetinghouses, and temples showcase the best art and architecture in their communities.

But sacred places are not just monuments to craftsmanship, nor are they places solely of prayer and worship-as important as those activities are. They are also locations for ministry and outreach: places where people address the spiritual and physical needs of their neighbors. Congregations that pursue the goal of being good neighbors find that their buildings are their chief assets in ministry. After all, soup kitchens, arts groups, neighborhood associations, day-care centers, and Alcoholics Anonymous need places to meet, and congregations usually possess auditoriums, fellowship halls, and classrooms that can easily fulfill these needs.

Serving Families in Sacred Places
One of the chief areas of outreach for many congregations is ministry to families and children. Recognizing this, Partners for Sacred Places produced Open the Doors, See All the People: A Guide to Serving Families in Sacred Places, a booklet designed to help congregations develop their facilities into vital, active centers that serve families. The guide includes sample case studies and explanations of various kinds of programs, including child care, after-school enrichment, health care, family support, and advocacy. An appendix lists dozens of organizations and publications that can serve as resources for congregations that want to start or expand their own outreach to children and families. Open the Doors is available in PDF format on the Internet, or as a soft-bound booklet from Partners for Sacred Places' Publications Center.

Centers for Urban Life
One model that some congregations have used to reach out to their neighborhoods is the "center for urban life." A center for urban life is a non-profit organization, with an independent board of directors, dedicated to community outreach. The center assumes responsibility for the programming using the congregation's building, scheduling concerts, day care, meetings, conferences, and other activities, but keeping normal worship times free for the congregation's use.

While creating a separate non-profit organization with its own directors takes away some of the congregation's flexibility in the use of its own building, the center for urban life model can significantly enhance programming for community activities and fund-raising opportunities for the building. With a center for urban life, potential funders can be asked to support not a religious mission, but an independent community resource within an architecturally significant building.

Two examples of center for urban life:

Center for Urban Family Life (First Unitarian Church, Oakland, Calif.)
Trinity Center for Urban Life (Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church, Philadelphia)

Partners' Publication Center offers a booklet on how to create a separate non-profit organization:

Stewardship Series No. 1: A Fund-Raising Tool: Creating a Supporting Organization

Welcoming People with Disabilities
Congregations that open their doors to the community are naturally interested in accessibility-providing a warm welcome to everyone, including people with disabilities. In fact, if you plan to share your building with another organization, you may be required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. But even if you are not required to comply with the ADA, consider how making your buildings more accessible to people with disabilities can enhance your ministry and mission. Here are a few articles that make the case for accessibility and show how modifications can be made:

The National Organization on Disability website has many resources to help congregations enhance their vision for welcoming people with disabilities. In addition, the organization has published several guidebooks for congregations that want to improve disability access, including one, Money and Ideas, that offers fund-raising suggestions:

Loving Justice: The ADA and the Religious Community
That All May Worship: An Interfaith Welcome to People with Disabilities
Money and Ideas: Creative Approaches to Congregational Access
All these are available from Partners' Publication Center.

Opening your doors to the disabled, to the community, and to other congregations are some of the ways that you can use your sacred place not just for worship, but for hospitality, outreach, and service. Your neighbors will continue to admire your architecture, but at the same time they'll think of your congregation's ministry. And you'll be making spirits soar.