News and Views

In a gradually unfolding, creative and bold shift in church culture, Silver Spring UMC is working to ensure that its building is used to serve its vision, and not the other way around.

“Our goal is to build, in bricks and mortar, who it is we say we are as the body of Jesus Christ,” said the Rev. Will Ed Green, the church’s pastor.

Over the past several months, the church began a discernment process to discover “how God is calling them to show up and serve the community.” In June, they voted (74-1) to renovate the church building and build a substantial affordable housing complex, with more than 60 units, on the church’s property.

It is a leap of faith – but one people are making with anticipation of what’s possible, said Bill Scanlan, who co-chairs Silver Spring UMC’s Building Beloved Community Committee with Alison Edwards.

In addition to building new structures and facilities, the church is being intentional about creating Beloved Community.

“What are the needs of our neighbors, of vulnerable families, and those in the generations to come? Scanlan asked. “We’re working in partnership with community groups. We want them to know that they are a part of who we are, they are part of the community we are building here.”

“Our congregation has historically benefitted from the centralization of white economic wealth and power because of unjust and racist housing policies, and this decision moves us from repentance to reparation,” Green said. “Not only is this one response to the deep need for affordable family and workforce housing in Montgomery County, it allows us to continue confronting – and dismantling – the historic, systemic racism driving housing the housing crisis in Montgomery County and our nation. 

“It’s not enough to say ‘we’re sorry’ if we’re not willing to take actionable steps toward healing,” Green continued, Part of the discernment about building affordable housing has been conversations about racism, xenophobia and reaching for higher goals.”

During the process, members learned, for example, that while Silver Spring UMC was the first church in the Baltimore Conference, in 1968, to have a cross-racial appointment, half of the congregation left rather than have a Black pastor.

These discernment conversations led the church to examine how their orthodoxy (right thinking) was aligned with their orthopraxis, (right practice) Green said. “When your doctrine and theology aren’t empowering you to do what God is calling you to do, then it’s time to re-evaluate what you believe and why.”

Silver Spring is coming into the building process in a different position than most churches. They recently received $4.24 million from the sale of Marvin Memorial UMC in Silver Spring, which was a part of their two-point charge.

In the sale, they realized that it was essential to be faithful stewards of what the generation that came before had given to benefit the generations that are to come.

Church leaders commissioned a formal study of their current 196,000-square-foot building on Georgia Avenue, which is larger than some area elementary schools. They learned that the aging church infrastructure, the roof, electrical systems, plumbing and HVAC systems would cost between 9 and 19 million dollars to repair and update. “We simply didn’t have the ability to take that on,” Green said. In addition, the study showed that only 12 percent of the building was being regularly used, which surprised some church members.

Church leaders then took advantage of a free affordable housing study being offered through the Baltimore-Washington Conference, by Georgetown University. “We gave it a chance to see what it would tell us,” Green said.

The study revealed the church’s site was desirable for affordable housing, so the congregation began to consider, discern and dream. The Baltimore-Washington Conference’s Affordable Housing Committee will consult with  the church’s Building Beloved Community Committee, the group tasked with identifying joint venture partners and moving development forward.  

Currently, the committee envisions a three-year process that preserves historic sacred spaces for churc while creating  86 to 160 housing units that preserve, in microcosm, the racial, economic, and cultural diversity of Montgomery County. The congregation’s goals include 3 and 4 bedroom units, 1 and 2 bedroom units, and supportive housing units that serve neighbors living at 120% area median income (AMI) to below 30%

 It’s a significant undertaking, but the spirit to bring it about is enlivening the congregation and the community. The key, Scanlan and Green say, is “keeping your eyes open to what God is doing.”

“Our human experience is always being met by the divine presence,” Green said, “through that meeting, transformation happens…if we’ll let it."