Churches choose not to close

If your church died, would anyone in the neighbourhood notice or come to the funeral? That’s the question being asked by Laurence East and Brian McKenzie of Reframe Concepts in Kelowna, B.C.

“If your faith community vanished from the neighbourhood map, would your city feel the loss in its gut, or just notice a fresh piece of real estate on a realtor’s website?” asked McKenzie, who co-founded Reframe with East in 2020. “Many churches aren’t making a difference in their communities.”

The goal of Reframe is to help churches – many of which face closure due to falling attendance, aging memberships and decreasing financial resources – “to go beyond mere survival to talk about what the community needs a church to be and what it needs it to do,” said McKenzie. “We walk with a church from start to finish.”

McKenzie’s concern is echoed by a 2025 report from the Canadian Urban Institute. Titled “Sacred Spaces, Civic Value: Making the Case for the Future of Faith-Built Assets,” the report says that survival is increasingly an issue for Canadian churches.

“Faith spaces across Canada are disappearing at an alarming rate,” the report states, noting that nearly one-third of the country’s 27,000 churches and faith-built spaces could close within the next decade. This risks the community loss of “vital hubs for childcare, food banks, cultural events and essential social services,” the report concludes.

This makes the work of Reframe all the more important. “We don’t dictate what a church should do,” said East, adding that the organization’s goal is to help a congregation make informed and practical decisions about their future. “Our guiding maxim is moving at the speed of trust. Everything rises and falls with that.”

Affordable housing

One of the churches Reframe is working with is Peace Lutheran, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada congregation in Vernon, B.C.

The congregation, which numbers about 40-50 on a Sunday morning – most of them seniors – is active in its neighbourhood by providing space for groups, including four recovery groups. But the congregation wonders what the future will hold.

“We could just sell and move, close the doors and walk away,” said Karen Lee, the church’s treasurer. “But we believe in serving the community. To be the church is not just about preaching on Sunday mornings. It’s about the way we live for others.”

“We had unused space, but no vision of what to do with it,” added Russell Crawford, chair of church council. The church’s building is located on a two-acre site. “We didn’t want to just subdivide our property and sell. We wanted to use it to benefit the community.”

Until they reached out to Reframe, “we kept going in circles,” said Lee. By working with Reframe, the congregation came up with a plan to build 20-25 units of affordable housing to help support the church and meet a growing need in Vernon.

“Reframe helped us with the discussions,” Crawford said, noting the plan included creating green space and adding a daycare. “They were a good fit for us.”

Reframe’s process includes researching ways a church can impact its community to make a difference, and how it can utilize its building to support that mission. Churches can learn if their dreams are viable, what partners might be available to help them, where funding can be found and what outside groups can be involved in developing those dreams.

“Reframe was very respectful and helpful all along the way,” Lee added. “They’ve done their job.”
While there’s no guarantee everything will work out as hoped, the church would rather do something than nothing, Crawford said. “We believe we would be missed if we weren’t here.”

Building plans in Winnipeg

St. Mary’s Road United Church in Winnipeg is another congregation on the road to redevelopment.

“We need to think about what comes next,” said Shaun Loney, a longtime member who is part of the redevelopment team.

Already, the church isn’t using its large sanctuary for the 100 or so active members. “It’s too big, so we meet in the Christian education wing,” he said.

Faced with declining membership and resources, the church knew it needed to do something. So it contacted Relèven.

Relèven, based in Montreal, is another organization trying to help Canadian churches adapt to a new future.

“Churches have served their communities for decades, but now they face challenges,” said Dave Harder, who relates to congregations on behalf of Relèven. “We want them to know they don’t have to do it alone.”

But many congregations do feel alone as they see declining attendance, falling revenues and costly upkeep of their buildings.

“All they can see is failure and loss,” Harder said. “They can’t see the possibilities.”

That’s where Relèven comes in, utilizing a three-step listening exercise to uncover a congregation’s hopes and dreams, along with discovering what the building and property can do to make the congregation sustainable as it serves the community.

Through consultation and evaluation, Relèven works with a church to understand its challenges and goals and how its property can support its mission and meet a community’s needs. The goal is to avoid selling the property; rather, the organization wants to help a congregation find buyers or developers whose vision aligns with the church’s mission. This might involve creating a community hub where various nonprofits share space, developing affordable housing units, or a mixed-use commercial and residential property.

Throughout the process, Relèven provides access to experts to help determine the feasibility of projects, conduct site analyses, and navigate complex decision-making processes.

“By listening to the congregation and community, we can help a church see what they can do to meet needs in new ways,” Harder said. “What cracks need filling? We come alongside to help them align their vision to the needs around them.”

Relèven doesn’t make the decision about what a church should do – that’s up to the congregation, Harder said. “We exist to provide information and advice. We are with them through the whole process.”

Relèven provides advice about legal issues, as well as relating to different levels of government for permits and zoning issues and securing grants for development purposes.

Social impact

“Our goal is to preserve the social impact of churches,” Harder said, noting that if churches are sold and demolished and turned into condos, there won’t be space for AA meetings, food banks and refugee programs.

A big goal for Relèven is seeing as much as 20 percent of Canadian church properties turned into affordable housing. “We see our work as a way to move the needle on that issue,” Harder said.

“They’ve been a big help,” Loney said, noting that St. Mary’s Road United Church is working on plans to build two residential towers and commercial space for social enterprise businesses on the church’s property. “They knew how to talk to us as a congregation, providing us with a thorough report about what is possible.”

Relèven also conducted discussions with the city, and found a developer who is a good fit for the church.

Nothing is approved yet, and it will be years before the project is completed. But, Loney said, “it feels good as a church to be working towards something significant. The timing is good – affordable housing is a top issue in the country. We are excited to be part of the solution.”

More than that, Loney said, Relèven “helped us understand what God is calling us to do, how we can become more relevant, reconnect with the community [and] redefine what it means to be a church in Canada today.”

John Longhurst

John Longhurst is the freelance religion reporter and columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press and a monthly religion commentator for CBC radio nationally.