A Parish Story from Ballard | Seattle, WA

When a church is asset-rich, there is an opportunity to leverage the land and property to collaborate for renewal for the common good of the church and the neighborhood.

Regina Conlon and Brian Wardlaw are part of the leadership of the Church of the Nazarene in Seattle, which owns 7 properties spread throughout the city limits of Seattle. Brian has been thinking creatively in terms of using church space for years. In Ballard he spearheaded the reclaiming of a building that was given to them. They rehabbed it as a gift of space to their neighborhood, built around the common shared values of faith, family, justice, environmental care, and the arts, naming it the Ballard Homestead.

Brian, Regina and their other co-leaders have a hope for the Seattle City Church of the Nazarene to be embedded in neighborhoods. Part of their ability to do that sustainably is to leverage some of the properties that they have. They’re trying to find creative ways to be able to buy housing for people to live in the neighborhoods.

“Sometimes when we don’t have a neighborhood, we bring the neighborhood to the space.”

– Pastor Regina Conlon

One of their churches in West Seattle sold a portion of their property a decade ago to a developer to build town homes. They reinvested the money into the church building so that they could better serve the community, not just the worshiping body. The church became connected with a couple who bought one of the town homes. Those neighbors had a dream of a community space for kids and neighbors to gather and play, and the church helped bring that dream closer to fruition.

Across town in North Seattle, there is an aging congregation that sees themselves as having a 5-7 year lifespan. This church would like to leave a legacy, so Seattle City Church pastors have been dreaming with this congregation about what it could look like. The church sits on land right across the street from where the Sound Transit is putting in a new light rail station. They will be building about 200 low income affordable housing units along with childcare space, common meeting spaces, and coffee houses.