Saving urban churches: Associated Press feature dances around several important issues

When I arrived at The Rocky Mountain News (RIP) in the fall of 1984, one of the first things I did was take a long walk in downtown Denver — taking notes about the religious sanctuaries that were nearby.

Most of the urban churches were, as you would expect in a Western city, linked to Mainline Protestant denominations and there were several Roman Catholic parishes, as well.

All of the mainline churches were in decline, with shrinking and aging congregations housed inside large buildings dating back to the glory days of previous decades. The one exception was a United Methodist congregation led by an evangelical pastor who was reaching out to families, single adults and all kinds of people in nearby neighborhoods — Blacks, Latinos, Asians, etc.

Meanwhile, conservative churches were growing in the suburbs, with a mixture of nondenominational, Baptist, Pentecostal and alternative Presbyterian flocks leading the way.

My point is that there were several stories going on in downtown Denver at the same time. But it was already clear — four decades ago — that lots of those old, big churches would eventually be empty or up for sale. It was also obvious that some of them would seek income from other sources to help keep their doors open, renting space to other flocks or social ministries.

Major news organizations keep bumping into stories linked to these trends, in part because big newsrooms tend to be in central urban zones and, in my experience, quite a few journalists (religion-beat pro included) have liberal Protestant or Catholic backgrounds or remain active in those traditions. Thus, here at GetReligion, it’s common to see posts with headlines such as these: “More news about old churches being sold and flipped: Does it matter why this is happening?”, “Churches for sale: New York Times visits a sexy former Catholic sanctuary in Quebec” and “Wait just a minute: Fading Lutherans (ELCA) in Waco sold their lovely building to Anglicans?” Or how about this one? “Why is a church shrinking or closing? Reporters: Brace for complex and heated debates.”

This brings me to a new Associated Press report about this old topic: “Historic city churches find new life as neighborhood centers.” Once again, there are glimpses of the trends behind this news hook, but very little information examining the larger issues looming in the background.

It was impossible to continue business as usual in a seminary classroom in the spring of 1992, as flames and violence spread through parts of Los Angeles.

This was especially true while team-teaching a seminar blending studies of the Old Testament prophets with moral and spiritual signals drawn from contemporary news and entertainment media. In this particular seminar at Denver Seminary, half of the future pastors were black and half were white.

Old Testament prophets? Hear a few words from Jeremiah 22:

Hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah sitting on the throne of David — you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place. … (If) you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.

Our leader, the late Haddon Robinson — one of the greatest homiletics professors ever — approved the following assignment, as we approached the first Sunday during the riots. We asked each white student to contact a black pastor, seeking insights into the sermon preached that Sunday. We asked black students to contact white pastors with the same goal.

I thought of that assignment while reading waves of news coverage of the protests and riots — note that the distinction — after the death of George Floyd, his neck under a white Minneapolis police officer’s knee. I also remembered that seminar in 2015, standing in my front yard watching smoke and flames in the night sky over Baltimore.

It’s impossible to do justice to the many religious themes and images in the events — peaceful and violent — linked to Floyd’s death, from the many protestors kneeling in prayer (sometimes with police) to rioters painting obscene curses on historic sanctuaries.

But we can see one constant that journalists should remember under these circumstances: The voices of the black church will be there — somewhere — and if you seek them out, you will find words, images and ideas that are crucial to those building coalitions seeking justice and change. And when it’s time to heal and clean up, look for religious folks of all kinds — black, white, whatever. They will be there, day after day.