Lutheran

Messiah Lutheran Church in Yorba Linda sold 1.9 acres to Olson Urban Housing for $8.1 million for 40 townhomes, eight of them for moderate-income buyers, as specialists described new ways to finance church-land housing.

Grace Lutheran Church in Evanston, Illinois, is exploring affordable housing on its near-vacant parking lot, with the city weighing a purchase through its Affordable Housing Fund, though some residents questioned the deal’s ethics.

A Releven symposium heard that 144 of Edmonton’s 476 faith buildings run at a deficit, while churches such as St Paul’s Lutheran and Westmount Presbyterian have already added homes, and researchers called faith groups Canada’s second-largest landholders.

Stateline reported in 2025 that St John’s Lutheran in Madison is replacing its 1905 building with a 10-storey block of 100-plus affordable homes and worship space, as Florida opened religious land to housing and Colorado’s bill failed.

Ontario Lutheran churches are partnering with the Christian charity Indwell to create affordable homes, including 41 apartments at St Peter’s in Kitchener with more than $14 million in public funding, and a Hamilton church sold at about half its value.

A Regina mutual aid co-op hopes to buy the former Trinity Lutheran Church, listed at $1.19 million, as a hub for homeless people, but needs more than $2 million and faces competing offers.

A Spokane Lutheran church with fewer than 10 regular attendees has sold its building for about $550,000 to the Ethiopian Orthodox congregation that had worshipped in its basement, and is giving away the proceeds.

Brazil’s 2024 floods in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul damaged 16 Lutheran churches and flooded more than 2,200 Lutheran families’ homes, a week after the church had held disaster response training.

The Lutheran Church of Australia sold its under-used North Adelaide college campus, which cost $400,000 a year to maintain, for more than $50 million, with a developer planning at least 50 homes priced from $3.5 million.

Redeemer Lutheran Church in Panama City’s Balboa district, founded in 1948, was rededicated in 2024 after a restoration that included a new roof, mould treatment, new windows and a restored tile floor.

In Nebraska, where dozens of churches have closed, former churches are becoming homes, six-unit apartment buildings, offices and museums, with one buyer saying his building could not be built today for under $4 million.

Namibia’s Lutheran church ELCIN is suing to keep two Ongwediva plots held by Finnish missionaries since 1926 and now used as a guesthouse, after a minister backed a resident’s claim.