Yes, In God’s Backyard: Sacred Partnering
What could be possible if faith communities were leaders in addressing our housing challenges?
What if…
housers, planners, & theaters approached their work as sacred partnering?
Over six months, we moved through an emergent and iterative planning process for Yes, In God’s Backyard (YIMBY): A Learning Exchange and Future Forum with the Lehigh Conference of Churches. We tried new facilitation and creative engagement methods, built out narrative tools, and learned about the challenges churches are facing.
Their challenges aren’t that different from theaters:
Shrinking audience/congregation size
Increased overhead costs for buildings
Aging demographics
Faith communities are asking fundamental questions that anyone in community development, the arts, and housing would value answering.
Planning Process:
Taking Time: The agenda was designed over months of conversations with the “Rad Nuns” Planning Team. None of us are actually nuns, and the conversations weren’t just planning. Frequently, planning calls were a space to process the vitriol of vocal NIMBYs. As the community conversations heated up, we got more clarity as a planning team. The workshop had to include elements of data, hopefulness, and space to process. Our focus would be on inviting primarily faith leaders for those folks to find community with each other.
For the teach-in, we invited Pastor Jason Vanderburg of Greater Shiloh Church in Allentown and the Sisters of Saint Joseph from Philadelphia. Both Shiloh and the Sisters have been developing affordable housing for a few years now.
But we needed another perspective, one that could speak to the heart and spirit of making hard transitions. “Becky. She’s hopsicing churches,” says Abby. Rev. Dr. Becky Beckwith, Pastor Emerita, St. John's UCC, is retired and now works with churches as they reflect, assess, and sometimes let go of their buildings. She would be a perfect additional speaker to round out the various perspectives.
Buddhists in Zen Hospice have a saying for when you sit with the dying: “Strong back, soft front.” This is true for facilitation and our planning.
Share Tools and Resources
As an antidote to local housing narratives, we focused on four frames from PolicyLink’s Housing Justice Narrative Toolkit.
To Neighbor
Love and Love as a Verb
Care and Caretaking
Abundance and Enoughness
Attendees were asked to begin creating a theological appendix to support these narratives. These concepts emerge repeatedly in New Testament teachings. As faith leaders have difficult conversations with their members, this crowd-sourced appendix offers a biblical grounding.
Root the day in data and possibility.
Jill Sietz from the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission grounded the room in demographic and growth projections. 100,000+ new people in the Lehigh Valley by 2050. Current housing shortages. A rent burdened aging population with care needs. She offered a stark picture of what’s happening and what might happen if the Valley doesn’t strategically address its growth needs.
Mark Tidsworth’s book SHIFT: 3 Big Moves for the 21st Century Church is a framework that guided our stickier conversations about the current state of the church. His framing has direct correlations to arts organizations, theaters, housers, planners, and community development organizations. Below are excerpts from his book.
Member Identity
Our congregation has members with rights and privileges. Think of member as an organizational term.
Disciple Identity
Our congregation has disciples who gather at our church.
Attractional Church
If we build attractive buildings with great programming, engaging worship, and excellent welcome teams, then many people will come to our church campus for events.
Missional Church
The Church is a missional partner with God towards transforming the world, partnering to unveil the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven. God is working for the healing and reconciliation of this world.
Consumer Church
We exist to be an excellent provider of religious goods and services, resulting in contented members. We behave as if the church is a business, and our measures of success are statistics about membership and funding.
Sacred Partnering
We exist to be the kind of faith community that cultivates invigorated disciples of Christ. We behave as a relational community undergoing individual and collective transformation, and our measures are robust faith, increased spirit, loving neighbors, and bringing justice and mercy.
With each frame, participants are asked to move toward the definition that most aligns with their congregation's current state. Are you a Consumer Church, or are you focused on Sacred Partnering? The room divides and many land in the middle of this continuum. Becky steps forward.
“Are you listening to what God is actually calling you to do? How much more of a sign does God need to give you?”
Curious Question: Consumer or Partner
A consumer church provides spiritual goods and services. A theater provides shows to subscribers. A houser provides a roof. A planner provides data and design.
Sacred partnering churches “behave as a relational community undergoing individual and collective transformation, and our measures are robust faith, increased spirit, loving neighbors, and bringing justice and mercy.”
What would become possible if community development organizations, arts institutions, and theater companies approached their work from the place of Sacred Partnering? One could remove the words ‘robust faith, increased spirit’ and easily create a mission for supportive or social housing models. Theaters engaged in Sacred Partnering would be profoundly critical to the civic health of their communities.
Questions to consider:
For Arts Organizations/Theaters:
Is your art making the world a more loving and just place?
Does your work bring the community into an active experience of neighboring?
How would your marketing change if you thought of your audience as neighbors?
How are community partners integral to your productions?
For Housing Developers:
How might future neighbors be a part of your capital stack process?
Are you building shelter or community?
What if your work was framed as neighbor development?
For Planners:
How can data reflect neighbors, partnerships, and possibilities?
How does your planning account for community history and stories?
If change is central to planning and development, how are you designing to foster communities of care?
Becky invited the group to “Take the time to get to know who you are now. What’s the new thing happening in our midst?” It’s not just faith leaders who could benefit from sitting with that question.