Congregational Redevelopment Services

From journey to pivot: motion and change in congregational life

By Henriette Thompson, October 15, 2020

We Christians are used to “journey” language. Our ancestors in the faith journeyed through the wilderness for 40 years; Jesus journeyed in the desert for 40 days. We are “people of the Way” (the road). 

But these days, adjusting to rapid social change requires the ability for churches to pivot on their faith journey. COVID-19, the climate crisis, increased food insecurity, the urgency for racial justice – all are calling us to pivot from our journeys of the past to a new, outward focus.

We don’t do “pivot” (very well). We belong to churches that are institutions and well, you know what they say about institutions: they can be slow to change! To pivot, however, is to rotate, to swivel, to spin or oscillate – it’s not linear movement, it is a movement that is propelled when the end of a shaft rests and turns in a bearing.

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From the KW Record

KITCHENER — This time next year, people will be unpacking boxes and moving in to a new affordable housing project at Bridgeport Road and Lancaster Street.

“A year from now it’s not going to be bricks and mortar, it’s going to be home,” said Dan Driedger, executive director of MennoHomes, the non-profit that is building the project.

He was speaking Tuesday at a news conference where the federal and provincial governments announced $3.8 million in funding for the project.

Dignitaries huddled under tents at the muddy construction site as a thin drizzle fell, but the mood at the event was sunny.

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In late 2014, Lutheran Homes K-W’s Strategic Initiative Committee, along with the Eastern Synod, worked to design, develop and test a pilot program to help congregations transform their assets into tools that could shape a renewed ministry and better serve the community. So far 13 congregations have engaged in this work. Four of the congregations have already made the decision to sell assets and/or properties with more than $5 million in capital released for new mission opportunities – a considerable sum, much more than anticipated by simply selling their properties on their own. 

The synod made the decision in late 2018, to expand the pilot to serve all congregations in the Eastern Synod. To ensure a continued level of service, the Strategic Initiative Committee, along with their expertise, was transferred to the synod to form the Property Redevelopment Advisory Committee (PRAC) under the continued leadership of Geoff Bellew. 

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