Colorado church sells longtime home, makes significant donation to Minnesota Together Fund

In a world where congregations seek innovative ways to stay afloat, one United Church of Christ church has found a way to do just that — while also supporting a cause important to them, some 842 miles east of its Colorado location.

Wash Park United Church of Christ (WPUCC), which describes itself as a “lively community of hope, healing and love” recently sold their longtime church home in Denver’s Washington Park neighborhood, to the tune of nearly $6 million. Of that hefty amount, the congregation’s Work in the World Fund decided, through the help of a member, to donate $84,000 to the Minnesota Together Fund, which was established as a community-driven initiative focused on solidarity, mutual aid and aid in rental assistance for those impacted by Operation Metro Surge, or the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Minneapolis.

Heartbreak leads to action

Diane Peterson, current member of Wash Park UCC, spent a number of years in Minneapolis, worshipping and doing social justice work at Lyndale UCC, where the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel serves as pastor. Although she now lives in Denver, when the occupation of her former Minnesota community began, Peterson knew she needed to do something. 

“As I watched the traumatic events unfold in Minneapolis with the deployment of 3,000 ICE agents, I was heartbroken, angry and felt helpless as I watched from afar,” Peterson said. “I’m grateful for WPUCC’s decision to dedicate a significant portion of the sale of our building to support critical work on behalf of social justice and mutual aid.”

In order for money to be distributed, a member of WPUCC must submit a proposal to the Work in the World committee for review of the organization or initiative they want supported. That organization must also submit a proposal to the committee. Once the committee has received proposals from both parties, a determination is made about if and how to distribute funds.

After careful vetting, the committee intentionally extends “radical trust” to the parties receiving monies, which minimizes reporting requirements, says the Rev. Nicole Kelly Vickey, senior minister. Vickey adds that the fund isn’t a replacement for operational costs, but rather to serve an immediate need to a community. 

What faithful stewardship might look like

WPUCC began having discussions about selling their aging building under the former pastor, the Rev. Lee Berg. In many congregations with aging buildings, maintenance and repair pressures increasingly shape institutional priorities, or what Vickey describes as “the tail wagging the dog.”

“The question that the congregation asked was ‘what does faithful stewardship look like?,’” Vickey said. “Instead of holding on to a building, or selling the building and holding all the resources for themselves, this church community really wanted a significant amount of the proceeds to move back out into the world.” 

The church engaged in conversations from every level of the church, to hear from congregants their wants and ideas for what WPUCC’s future could be. For WPUCC, the selling of their building was, for them, honoring the social justice saints of their church that originally helped to provide and maintain their former building. 

After selling the building, WPUCC found a new home within the Mosaic Community Campus in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood, where they worship in a space, originally home to the Colorado Women’s College. 

Meeting the need 

For Voelkel, receiving this gift from WPUCC allows for the Minnesota Together fund to continue meeting the needs of a community that is still dealing with the effects of the ICE occupation. 

“We were collectively anticipating $15 million in asks for the month of March alone,” Voelkel said. “Everybody that’s doing mutual aid has more people asking than they can respond to, and to get a text from Diane with this offer — that kind of money allows us to meet the need. This large grant, combined with smaller donations, makes it feels like we’re spiritually connected, and the idea of loving our neighbor allows us to do that in concrete ways.” 

Although news coverage has shifted away from Minneapolis, the battle for peace and calm is far from over. ICE agents still have an active presence in the city, and media indicate that agents are using more covert tactics to arrest those they suspect of being illegal immigrants.

Minnesota officials are now pursuing legal action against the Trump administration, to obtain evidence in shootings by federal officers during the ICE occupations, including the killings of Renee Nicole Good, and Alex Pretti. 

A blueprint for churches

The work of both Lyndale UCC and WPUCC serve as blueprints for other churches that are looking to expand their ministries beyond the four walls of a building — even beyond their local neighborhood. For WPUCC, there was a strong sense of wanting to do more than just “getting ourselves into a more affordable building.”

“Watching Lyndale respond and become a very efficient and significant source of mutual aid is something we hope we never will have to be in a position to do here, but wanted to both support and learn from,” Vickey said. 

The campus that now hosts church services for WPUCC is an affordable housing development, funded in part by Archway Communities, an UCC affiliated nonprofit that builds affordable housing developments in Colorado. In addition to WPUCC, the campus is also home to the Denver School of the Arts High School, St. Elizabeth’s School, an amphitheater, and Kitchen Network, a nonprofit food business incubator. 

According to Vickey, WPUCC didn’t wait until they were faced with having to make difficult decisions, but instead took time over a two-year period to discern, and ultimately make the decision to sell the property. 

“Many churches avoid talking about the possibility of having to sell their building until they’re at that point of choosing between replacing key systems and paying their staff,” Vickey said. “I think because everyone had a chance to examine the options, when the decision was made to sell the building, the approval rate [from the congregation] was around 92 percent.” 

WPUCC hopes their experience can be an encouragement to other churches faced with the same dilemmas of deciding how to best use their resources. According to Cushman & Wakefield, a large commercial real estate firm, over 6,800 church buildings were sold over the last five years, and it’s estimated that 100,000 more church buildings will be sold or repurposed by 2030, due to shrinking congregations and a shift in the religious landscape. 

It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it

While acknowledging that it was a hard process, Vickey credits WPUCC’s relative success to their taking the time to really discern and let everyone’s voice be valued and heard. 

“It is a hard process to consider letting go of or transitioning out of a sacred space,” Vickey said. “WPUCC did not, as a congregation, try to come to immediate solutions, but really opened up a space of imagining different options  besides staying in a place that was requiring more and more resources.” 

The pastor added that she believes there are wonderful ways the church can move out into the world and encourages congregations to reach out to others who are doing innovative things.

“This community embraced a spirit of holy imagination, creating space to explore what might be possible and to listen for where the Spirit was leading,” Vickey said. “That it has also enabled us to support Lyndale UCC and their community in a time of intense need feels like a deeply meaningful outcome of that journey.”

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