Option 1: Shared Building
What is a Shared Building or Shared Campus?
A Shared Campus or Shared Building occurs when
two or more congregations with different denominations jointly own
and use one facility. The concept of ownership is key--"Shared
Campus" as it is used in this site is not the common landlord-tenant
shared building situation. In a Shared Campus each congregation
keeps its own identity and worship services, but janitorial,
maintenance, and office staff are shared. Youth programs, outreach
efforts and other ministries are often joint as well. Sometimes the
congregations worship at different times and occasionally the shared
facility has multiple sanctuaries. The facility is owned by a
non-profit corporation that is controlled by the congregations, and
a joint board coordinates the shared use of the building and
allocates expense. Ecumenical shared buildings have a long and
fascinating history in the United States, as described in the
history section at the bottom of this page.
Inspiring Case Study: Madison Christian Community in
Madison, Wisconsin
Over 50 years ago Community of Hope UCC and Advent Lutheran churches decided to pool their resources and build one facility
that they would share. Money and volunteer time
saved by the Madison shared campus is dedicated to extensive outreach and
mission efforts. Click on the links below for more information about
MCC:
http://www.madisonchristiancommunity.org/
The 40 Year
History of Madison Christian Community
A Shared Campus in Minneapolis
SpringHouse Ministry Center opened in December, 2011 as the home for Salem Lutheran Church, Lyndale United Church of Christ, and First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The completely remodeled building was Salem's former building, which had a huge obsolete sanctuary and very expensive maintenance. The building how has 3 sanctuaries along with shared office, meeting and educational spaces. Salem financed its share of the remodeling by selling its out-of-date education wing to a developer who built a new moderate income apartment building. The other churches sold their former buildings. Below are the three sanctuaries:
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Ecumenical Shared Site
The Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha is one large park-like site with separate buildings for Temple Israel, Countryside Community Church UCC, and the American Muslin Institute. The buildings were all recently constructed and plans are in place for a fourth building, The Tri-Faith Center. The four buildings are connected by Abraham's Circle Bridge.
Track Record for Shared Campus
It is a little surprising that more churches don't share a campus because the track record is remarkably strong. The Mankato MultiChurch Center in Mankato, MN, is the only shared campus situation we know of that dissolved, and it lasted from 1974 to 2004. The experience of all the other examples we have is very positive. It is not uncommon for the shared campus to work so well that the congregations eventually consolidate.
Other examples that works well include the
Trinity Ecumenical Parish
in Moneta, VA. It lives up to its name as an
ELCA-Episcopal-Presbyterian congregation that actually meets in a
rented Roman Catholic church.
Palisades Lutheran in Palisades, California, is a partnership
between separate ELCA and Missouri Synod congregations. These
congregations worship and function jointly, however, and present
themselves to the community as one church. Genesis of Ann Arbor Ann
Arbor, Michigan includes St. Clare of Assisi Episcopal Church and
Temple Beth Emeth.
Benefits and Obstacles
Sharing a building reduces facility
and office expenses. It takes time-consuming facility issues
off the governing body
agendas. It shows the community that churches can work together
ecumenically and it helps local government by taking less property
off the tax rolls and it’s clearly better for the environment.
Shared campus congregations also report stronger youth programs due
to the additional critical mass.
The History of Union Churches and Federated Churches in the United States
The "union church" concept started in Pennsylvania by Christians of Lutheran and Reformed backgrounds who came to the US from Germany. Being frugal people, it was not unnatural for them to construct one building in a community to house two congregations. They often had Lutheran and Reformed services on alternate Sundays because ministers were scarce and often served a circuit of several churches. Union churches tended to either separate as they became wealthy enough to support their own buildings or to consolidate into one congregation, but as late as 1966 there were at least 163 union churches still in existence. Some are going strong today. One example is St. John's United Church of Christ in Laurys Station, PA. St. John's started as a Lutheran-Reformed shared campus in 1872 and consolidated as a UCC church in 1965. This account is from a 1967 book by Horace Sills titled Grassroots Ecumenicity. This fascinating book is apparently out of print but used copies are available at low cost from Amazon and other booksellers.
"Federated" churches were fairly common in the 1940's and 50's in North Dakota and presumably other states. Both federated and union churches involved two congregations of different denominations sharing one building but the way that pastors rotated was quite different. In union churches the pastors rotated on a weekly basis. Federated churches called one pastor from one of the denominations. That pastor led one service each Sunday that incorporated elements from both denominations. When the first pastor left the church would generally call a pastor from the other denomination. Federated Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota is Baptist and United Church of Christ and is still going strong today. The sanctuary has both a baptismal font and a baptismal pool.