Six Apartments in a Baptist Church, a Home in a Lutheran One: Nebraska’s Empty Churches Find New Lives

• First Baptist Church in Wayne, Nebraska, was converted into six apartments renting for $1,000 to $2,000 a month in 2021.
• Southminster Methodist Church in Lincoln is being converted into offices and apartments for $350,000.
• The United Methodist Great Plains Conference has closed 81 churches since 2014; the Omaha Archdiocese has closed 15 since 2000.
• Church buildings cost $7 to $10 per square foot a year to operate.

Across Nebraska, closed churches are becoming homes, apartments and museums. The Flatwater Free Press reported on how the state’s empty churches are finding new uses.

Examples include Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Benedict, bought in January 2020 and turned into a home; Southminster Methodist Church in Lincoln, being converted into offices and apartments for $350,000; and First Baptist Church in Wayne, converted in 2021 into six apartments renting for $1,000 to $2,000 a month. Matt Ley, who bought the Wayne church, said: “You cannot build that building the way it is now for less than $4 million.” Other churches have become an arts centre, museums and a theatre.

The report set out the scale of decline. The United Methodist Great Plains Conference has closed 81 churches since 2014, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod has closed 35 in most of Nebraska since 2000, and the Omaha Archdiocese has closed 15 churches since 2000. Operating a church building costs $7 to $10 per square foot a year.

Homeowner Kathy Johnson said: “If you don’t want to be in debt, go buy a church in a small town.” Beth Baldwin, board chair of New Visions, said: “We were focused on selling the buildings to other churches, but it doesn’t have to be that way.” Nebraska Synod bishop the Rev Scott Alan Johnson said: “There has not been any pushback, but is there grief? Yes.”

Small-town churches can offer solid buildings at low prices, and Nebraska shows the range of what they can become. Jamaica has many rural churches too, some of them no longer in regular use. Converting them to homes, apartments or community spaces can keep them standing and bring them back into use. Buyers should budget for conversion costs, check zoning and heritage rules, and remember that running costs for large open buildings can be high.

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