Like many churches, over the past several decades, Willow Meadows Baptist in Houston has seen an ongoing decrease in attendance at its services, Bible studies and other church events. According to the church’s senior minister, Craig Taylor, the congregation averages 80 people in person and another 40 online on a typical Sunday. What makes this even more challenging is that the church worships in a sanctuary that seats well over 1,000 people. Beyond the sanctuary, the sprawling Willow Meadows campus includes a fellowship hall, library, full gym and separate education building.

Because of its significant real estate, Willow Meadows has long been a believer in sharing its facilities with the community while also generating extra revenue through these relationships when possible. This stewardship of space has led Willow Meadows to welcome other area congregations into its building. The church has also become the physical home of Braes Interfaith Ministries which offers financial support, food, clothing and other services to persons from select ZIP codes in Southwest Houston.

The church’s education building houses two of the organizations that share space on the Willow Meadows campus. Houston Graduate School of Theology and Avondale Autism School both occupy entire floors that were once used for church Sunday school and discipleship activities.

The overall creative space usage by Willow Meadows Baptist is remarkable. Between the congregations, the three nonprofits, special event rentals and gym rentals, the revenue generated makes up roughly a third of the church’s operating budget.

Amidst the amazing work done by Willow Meadows in the approach to its campus, what might be one of the most intriguing elements of the story is how the Avondale Autism School became one of the groups housed at Willow Meadows.

A STRATEGIC DECISION
In 2021, as the pandemic continued to hold much of the world in its grip, the Houston Graduate School of Theology began to shift how it delivered its suite of educational services. In essence, like so many other graduate level academic institutions, the school began to move to more of an online format, which greatly reduced the amount of square footage needed on the Willow Meadows campus.

As much as the church wanted to be supportive and understanding, there were significant challenges for the church with the pivot the school wanted to make. First, the school was early into a five-year contract to use two floors of the church education building, and the new plan required only one floor of the building. Second, as previously mentioned, the church had more and more of its revenue coming from their various space usage agreements such as the one with the theology school. The desire of the theology school to cut its space needs in half was a significant blow to the church’s anticipated revenue based on the five-year contract the two had signed.

This all led the church to make a very aggressive yet unusual decision. Rather than passively wait for other rental opportunities to come their way or even to quietly self-market the space by word of mouth or via social media, the church chose to be proactive. Willow Meadows Baptist leadership made the unique decision to hire a commercial real estate agent to market the space in hopes of finding a new, nonprofit renter for the floor of the education building soon to be vacated by the theology school. This was new territory for both the church and for the realtor. Yet, the church was banking on the idea that the realtor could dramatically expand their pool of potential clients. They also felt that even though the church would have to pay a commission on any deal, the benefits would far outweigh the costs.

A WIN FOR EVERYONE
The decision was a remarkable move for everyone involved. For the church, it was able to expand its reach and to offer the property at a competitive rate. For the agent, the decision offered the opportunity to market a nice piece of property that far exceeded the realtor’s expectations when first contacted by the church as a potential client. For the Avondale Autism School, the strategy brought the Willow Meadows property to its attention and afforded the school the chance to rent the space at a fee that was on the lower end of the area’s average market rate.

The entire process from first contact with the realtor until Avondale moved into its new facility at Willow Meadows was certainly not an overnight endeavor. According to Rev. Taylor, the first meetings with the realtor happened in May 2021. In December 2021, Avondale gave verbal commitment of their desire to rent the space. During January and February 2022, further details were worked out and some remodeling was done. In March 2022, the church had a signed contract in hand from Avondale. In April of that year, the autism school finally moved into the building as a long-term renter.

Not only did the process require patience, but Willow Meadows also had to be willing to play the long game as it related to the revenue to be generated from Avondale. This was true for two reasons. First, there were upgrades required for the space to fit Avondale’s needs. Through negotiations, Willow Meadows agreed to split those costs with the autism school. Second, the realtor’s fees would need to come out of the initial months of rent that was generated. Fortunately, since the church was able to broker a five-year contract with Avondale there was a strong sense that the initial costs to the church would be far outpaced by the income that would come to the church over time.

Beyond the expertise of its commercial realtor, Willow Meadows was also led in the process by several key lay leaders including the church facilities chair, the church finance chair, a church member who is an attorney and a member of the congregation who works in commercial real estate. This team helped take a lot of the load of decision making off the shoulders of Taylor while representing the church wisely in conversations with both Avondale and with the hired realtor.

LESSONS LEARNED
In talking with Taylor about both the strategic decision that brought Avondale Autism School to the Willow Meadows Baptist property and the other creative decisions the church has made in how it has chosen to share space, he points out four lessons learned that are helpful for any congregation doing this type of work.

First, he emphasizes the importance of clarity. Any time a church decides to share space with an outside group, both sides need to have a clearly defined understanding of who is responsible for all elements of the planned space usage.

Second, Taylor points out that from their experience at Willow Meadows, the best opportunities for space usage come when you can share sections of the building that don’t need to be used by the church too. If the church has segments of the property that can be made available exclusively to an outside group, this is the best-case scenario for the consideration of monetizing.

Third, the key to any of these arrangements is having a desire to build a good relationship. Outside groups that use space in congregations are not tenants. They are colleagues, friends and often fellow laborers in Kingdom work.

Fourth, having a good facilities team and lay leadership that can oversee these outside relationships is a best practice for all churches wanting to do this type of work. After all, the ministerial staff often has no expertise in property management. The church’s ministers also have full-time jobs on which the congregation has called them to focus. So, having a team in place who can guide and oversee the creative use of the churches facilities alleviates this burden from the ministry staff. It also gives laity that have expertise in these areas the chance to use their gifts for the good of the church. This isn’t to say that the ministry staff will be completely disconnected from this work, but there should be a clear understanding of what this looks like and where the ministers can be most useful in this element of church life.

To these four lessons, we would add a fifth lesson that is drawn directly from the story of Willow Meadows. So often, churches do minimal work when marketing their space. They either wait for an opportunity to come their way, work through a word-of-mouth system or advertise lightly through church publications or social media. Yet, a more robust, proactive strategy to market space such as the one employed by Willow Meadows is certainly worth considering. After all, as is illustrated through this story, it can be the path to long-term, substantial opportunities that benefit both the church and the outside group in ways neither could have imagined.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2023 issue of fellowship! magazine. Check out the issue and subscribe for free at www.cbf.net/fellowship.

How congregations creatively use space will become a critical element of church life in the years ahead. In CBF’s resource Sacred Spaces you will find the stories of several churches and how they’re strategically using their property. Learn more about Sacred Spaces here.