They Want to Sell the Field Behind Our Church, and I Can’t Stay Quiet

A reader writes:

I have been a member of the same church for fifty-one years. I was baptised in the river below it, married in it, and I have buried my husband and one of my sons from it. So I hope you will forgive me if this letter is not as calm as it should be.

Behind our church there is a field. It is not much to look at. Some years it is cut, some years it grows up in guinea grass until a man from the district comes with his goats. But that field has been part of the life of our church for as long as anyone can remember. The Sunday school held its treats there. The harvest festival spread out tables under the breadfruit trees. When I was a girl we had a sports day every Easter Monday, and my father ran the three-legged race with me when he was well past forty and nearly fell into a ditch. We laughed about that for years.

Three months ago it was announced, at the end of a service and without much warning, that the church board was “exploring options” for the field. It came out afterwards that a developer has made an offer to build a row of townhouses. The money would repair the church roof, which I know is in a bad state, and put something aside for the pastor’s housing. Some members are very much in favour. They say the field has been doing nothing for years and that it is poor stewardship to leave land idle when the roof leaks on the choir every rainy season.

I understand that. I am not a fool, and I have sat under that leak too. But I have questions nobody seems to want to answer. Who actually owns the land? My mother always said it was given to the church by old Mr Campbell, on the understanding that it would be used for the young people. Was that written down? Is it in the title? Has anyone looked? I asked at the members’ meeting and was told the board was “handling it”. That is not an answer.

I have other worries I am almost ashamed to say. One of the board members is related to someone who works for the developer. I am not accusing anybody of anything. I have known that family all my life. But when things are not explained, people start to talk, and I would rather ask openly than whisper in the churchyard like some of the others are doing.

And then there is the thing I cannot put into a proper argument. Once that land is gone, it is gone. The church will have a new roof and a row of townhouses behind it, and the children in the district will have one less place to run. We had a youth group of forty when I was young. Now we have six, and I wonder sometimes whether that is part of the reason. We stopped using the field, and then we stopped expecting young people, and now we are selling the place we used to welcome them.

My granddaughter, who lives in Florida, says I am being sentimental and that the church is people, not land. She is right about that. But she is also twenty-six, and she has not had to watch a whole district change around her. My son says I should just leave it to the board. My pastor, who is a good man and very tired, told me he would “take my concerns on board” and then did not mention it again.

I am not writing to say the land must never be sold. Perhaps it must. Perhaps it is the right thing, and God will use the money well. But I believe that something given to a church for the young people should not be sold off without the whole congregation understanding exactly what is happening, why, and who benefits. Surely that is not too much to ask of a church.

I will keep praying. I will keep sitting in my usual pew, under the leak. And I will keep asking my questions until somebody answers them properly.

— Mrs E.B., Manchester, Jamaica

Editor’s note

Mrs B.’s letter holds two truths that often pull against each other in congregations: land left idle can be poor stewardship, and land given for a purpose carries obligations. Neither side here is acting in bad faith. What she is really asking for is transparency. Before any church sells property, members deserve to know what the title says, whether any conditions were attached to the original gift, how the price was reached, and how conflicts of interest are being managed. Getting proper legal advice and sharing it openly protects everyone, including the board. Paul took care that money he handled was managed honourably “not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men” (2 Corinthians 8:21, NKJV). That is a good standard for any church land decision.

Reader letters may be edited for length and clarity, and names and identifying details are changed.

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