Ministry

Greater Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Pascagoula, Mississippi, founded in 1895 as Aimwell Baptist Church, held a mortgage-burning service to celebrate becoming debt-free, a milestone its 91-year-old pastor greeted with thanks.

Four Seventh-day Adventist churches in Arizona paid off their building mortgages within a single year in 2024, through donations, fundraising and careful financial management, freeing money once spent on repayments for ministry and community service.

Summit Mennonite Church in Barberton, Ohio, down to about two dozen active members, chose to keep going rather than close. It sold its building to a local food ministry and now rents a fellowship room at a nearby church.

El Paso’s First Christian Church sold its downtown building to a property company so it could focus on ministry rather than upkeep, leaving a vegan diner, a garden and a breastfeeding group seeking new space.

Highland Oaks Church of Christ in Dallas sold its building for more than its $1.9 million debt, and Rochester Church of Christ in Michigan sold to Rochester University for $2.25 million while keeping use of space.

Illinois Public Media looked at closed churches reborn as apartments and a chamber of commerce office in Springfield, a restaurant and brewery in Peoria, and a youth ministry centre in Jacksonville.

Christ United Methodist Church in San Diego closed as a traditional congregation in 2011, but its 25,000-square-foot building became a ministry centre hosting about a dozen congregations and serving around 1,000 people a week.