Selling a Church Building, part one - Meet the Realtor

If you are wondering the emotional health of your congregation I suggest bringing in a realtor to walk through your building.

I met with the realtor today. I called the realtor the synod recommends using. He said he sold 40 congregations - so I trust he knows what he's doing. My plan is to have the assessment on the property done and a realistic selling price available for the Nov. 20th meeting. I think this will help with the conversation, especially with the ideas to sell the building and buy a smaller property - but still remain a congregation.

I could tell right when the realtor walked in the door that he has done this a few times - and that most of the times has been with congregations going through a closing process. Before we even walked through the building he sat down and asked for the story of the congregation - how we got to this point. He took some notes during this conversation. Then we talked finances. He looked at the the numbers so black and white and after he went through our finances I really wondered how it is just now that the congregation is starting this conversation.

Then, we started the walk through. You know how there are spots in your home where maybe a stack of books got piled up and you just left them there then a few months go by and you stop noticing them - but when you clean because you have company coming and you move the pile of books you kind of feel like something is missing because you got use to the mess? Well, this walk through made me realize just how use I got to the "mess" in the congregation and that in turn made me realize that if I am use to the "mess" the members of the congregation probably don't remember any other way.

I know of some of the major problems. The roof, mold in one room, missing tile, pealing wall paper... Then walking around with a realtor pointing out some of the smaller things (and some not so small) I started to see a tired and wore out congregation in a completely different way. The building is deteriorating around us, junk is piling up because we don't know what else to do with everything, we have rooms of unused material, pipes leak and they are not looked at, tiles get pulled up because of water damage and they never get replaced...

It's amazing how use you can get to the environment around you and think that it's not that bad or even that it is normal.

I really see that God is in this process. Every time I start to think that this conversation is moving too fast, or that people are just not ready, or I start to wonder if I'm just tired of the process and I'm being a little selfish because I'm tired of trying the turn around process I get confirmation that things are moving along just the way they should be. Last week that sign was a conversation with a retired pastor that heard the name of the conversation I am pastor of and he said, "I'm surprised they are still open. How is the congregation doing?" And, this week the walk through with the realtor is further confirmation for me.

I pray that members of the congregation will somehow see beyond the clutter.