$28,000 of Real Estate per Worshipper: A Consultant Warns a Denomination About Its Property Crisis

• One annual conference held $1.4 billion in real estate for 50,000 weekly worshippers
• That works out at about $28,000 of property per attendee
• The denomination’s property may be worth around $50 billion
• Options include downsizing, merging, leasing, redeveloping and selling

A church real estate consultant has warned that the United Methodist Church’s buildings threaten its future, in a commentary published by UM News in June 2021.

Rick Reinhard, of the Lakelands Institute and Niagara Consulting Group, wrote that “its congregations’ real estate is eating away at the denomination and threatening its viability.” He gave the example of one annual conference with more than 500 churches, over 100 of them in critical condition and more than 200 in serious condition. It held $1.4 billion in real estate for about 50,000 weekly worshippers, around $28,000 per attendee. He estimated the denomination’s total property at about $50 billion.

“Congregations are finding themselves spending half and more of their annual budgets on real estate, leaving few resources for much else,” he wrote. “The high costs of too-large, too-burdensome real estate can smother congregations.”

Reinhard proposed a four-part approach: gather data on each property’s size, use, condition and value; analyse market demand, local politics, finances, demographics, church rules and potential partners; consider options including downsizing, merging, leasing, developing with partners, selling or keeping the status quo; and treat real estate strategically. “They need to strategize about their real estate as seriously as they treat their Sunday services, missions and Christian education,” he wrote. He cited SouthPark Church in Charlotte’s mixed-use joint venture and a redevelopment corporation formed by the Western North Carolina Conference.

The argument applies to any denomination with an ageing property portfolio: buildings are assets, but also liabilities, and ignoring them can drain money from ministry.

Jamaican denominations could begin with Reinhard’s first step: a simple register of every property, its condition, use, value and running cost. With that information, church leaders can decide which buildings to invest in, share, lease or sell, rather than reacting to each crisis as it arrives.

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