How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! Psalm 84:1
Flourishing Congregations is a Canadian organization based out of Ambrose University in Calgary that supports pastors, denominational leaders, and lay leaders with Canadian data on Canadian congregations. They are an interdisciplinary and ecumenical research centre. If you have never heard of them, they are worth checking out!
I recently watched one of their free webinars called The Halo Effect, presented by Mike Wood Daly, Director of Research for Relèven, President of Sphaera Research, and Research Director for the Halo Canada Project.
What is the Halo Effect?
It is a way of measuring how congregations influence their local communities from a socio-economic point of view. It helps us answer the question – who would miss us if our congregation closed?
Halo Canada did an economic impact survey of 120 congregations in Toronto. Each congregation was evaluated based on 50 different categories, including:
- Open space (outdoor space for public use)
- Direct spending
- Education (childcare, adult education, music education for the wider community)
- Magnet Effect (attractive force of the congregation. When people travel more than 10 km to get to church, they spend on average $20 per visit on gas, food, etc.)
- Social Safety Net (measure of senior programs, families, addiction, refugee and immigration programs, out of the cold programs, etc.)
- Social Capital and Care (measures how we share our buildings with the community. Also factors in volunteer hours.)
Their research also acknowledges decline of religious organizations across the country, especially in the post-pandemic world. Some studies predict that 1/3 of congregations will close in the next decade. The impact of these closures will also have a profound socio-economic effect on communities, with municipalities having to pick up the slack.
Revelen is an organization that works with churches in Canada and the US to help them preserve, restore, and repurpose under-utilized faith properties into community hubs and affordable housing.
Here are some helpful links if you are interested in learning more about repurposing a church building:
- Halo Project – https://haloproject.ca/
- Ministry Forum (Knox College) – https://ministryforum.ca/resource-hub
- Partners for Sacred Spaces (US based but good free content) – https://sacredplaces.org/
- Presbyterian Church Building Corporation (PCBC) – https://presbyterian.ca/pcbc/
- St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Hamilton
https://www.stpaulshamilton.ca/copy-of-home
https://ministryforum.ca/posts/asking-better-questions-highlighting-st-pauls-in-hamilton?rq=lewis
Blessings, Emma