Three families hosted Sunday evening hymn sings in Edina, Minnesota, in 1933. The gathering expanded to 35 people a year later, when they met at an area school for $1 a night. Over the next 85 years, what grew to become Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church held men’s breakfasts, mission trips, and Sunday school classes until October 2023, when members sang their last hymn as a congregation.

A few states over in Sandusky, Ohio, St. Paul Evangelical Church closed its doors in October 2021 after more than 130 years of ministry. Parishioners continue to connect over coffee, through email prayer chains, and for “Wine, Women, and Word,” but they are dispersed among nearby congregations. The storied brick building is now home to charismatic Father’s Heart Family Church.

But in the Christian story, death is not the end. This is a story about life after death as these and other congregations invest their assets in the future of the church. Phil Gardner, a retired pastor who advised St. Paul during its closing, said these congregations are “dying a good death” in their refusal to “spend assets down to the last dollar.” Instead, they are investing in new ways of being church—with hope, trust, and a fresh focus on taking Jesus to the people of their communities.

“We give thanks for the Holy Spirit’s steadfast presence as we walk together to bring the good news to people where they are,” said Gardner, who was married at St. Paul in 1977. “As hard as the grief process may be, congregations have the possibility of putting Christ’s mission first in their deliberations.”

Fresh expressions of faith

Gardner is among a number of St. Paul parishioners who moved to Zion Lutheran Church in Sandusky, where they have shared lessons around faithful innovation from movements like Fresh Expressions, an international, cross-denominational effort among Christians to work alongside congregations to cultivate new forms of church.

“We will see where this takes us,” Gardner said. “We hope that Zion will be a partner, perhaps even a ‘hub,’ to build fuller relationships with other local congregations as we work together to make Jesus known. We need to explore how Jesus makes a difference in our lives and how He can do the same for those who don’t yet know Him. It’s an opportunity for new life and joy in what the Spirit has in store for our community and beyond.”

Throughout the process of closing, St. Paul, Calvary and other congregations have sought guidance and inspiration from Faith+Lead, Luther Seminary’s digital ecosystem of theological resources. Faith+Lead offers training, community, and coaching for today’s church leaders through its new membership, free podcasts and blogs, low-cost on-demand digital courses, one-on-one and group coaching, workshops, and a private social network.

“Clearly, Luther Seminary is helping to set the pace for envisioning and building for the future of our Lord’s church,” Gardner said. “Because of this, St. Paul offered a gesture of thanksgiving and a demonstration of confidence and support with a legacy gift to Luther Seminary to further innovation through its Faith+Lead program.”

St. Paul’s gift was among the first directed toward Faith+Lead from the sale of a building, according to Alicia Granholm, senior director of Faith+Lead. Calvary’s investment soon followed.

“Their gifts mean we can continue to invest in creating more resources so that all God’s people are equipped to love and lead in the way of Jesus today,” Granholm said. “We are primarily funded through grants and donations, so donations allow us to provide on-demand theological education that is accessible, affordable, and transformative in a way that is sustainable for us.

“It’s a scattering of seeds that is a blessing to countless churches and leaders beyond the reach of any one church because of the nature of Faith+Lead’s global impact.”

“But the building is not the church. The church is us, and we wanted our legacy to live out our commitment to faith and community.”

— Shelly Little, Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church member

Longtime Calvary member Shelly Little said one of the blessings during the process was feeling part of the broader church. In fall 2023, Calvary invested a substantial legacy gift in Faith+Lead, with additional gifts to the seminary to support student scholarships, the Musician in Residence program, and emergency funds for students. Through a transfer of the Calvary Endowment Trust, the church also established an emergency endowment fund for students. A letter accompanying the gift noted how much the congregation valued the seminary’s work in meeting changes in the wider church as well as the education it offers to new pastors and church leaders.

“I have been a member of Calvary since my folks moved to the Twin Cities in 1973, with wonderful memories of our worship services, youth retreats to the wilderness, making music, and Lutefisk suppers,” said Little, who led the Calvary Legacy Team. “We tried many, many different things over the years to keep it alive, but we got to a point when we needed to say ‘goodbye’ to the building we loved. But the building is not the church. The church is us, and we wanted our legacy to live out our commitment to faith and community.”

Both congregations worked with Lisa Cohen, a philanthropic adviser for the seminary.

“In each case, when I began talking with these congregations about closing, we started with the idea of an investment for the future of the church. For St. Paul, the goal was to make an investment in growing God’s kingdom. For Calvary, the goal was to extend their legacy of ‘Welcome, Worship, and Witness’ in Jesus’ name,” Cohen said. “It’s an honor to help these congregations live out their legacy in a way that honors their mission and vision.”

New, imaginative good for the world

Working toward his master’s in the history of Christianity, current student Caleb Rollins studies how churches can make just and faithful decisions about the future of their properties.

“Several of my professional work positions have been funded by the sale of church property, so it’s a really big part of my life,” said Rollins, who also serves as an office administrator for Christ Church Lutheran in Minneapolis. “I am beyond grateful that these congregations see the opportunity for new life in their closings.”

For the past two years, Rollins has worked with the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving at Indiana University to research examples of sustainable, faithful use of property and endowments as part of the Faithful Generosity Story Shelf. The searchable database offers stories about selling, donating, and sharing property as well as information about investing for impact and innovative giving.

“Stories on the Story Shelf shine light on congregations and other religious organizations that have sought to use their resources in creative—and sometimes surprising—ways,” he said. “Each story is an expression of faithful and innovative generosity, but these vignettes are not how-to manuals. They won’t tell you exactly what to do in your own time and place, but they can spark conversation and imagination about what might be possible.”

In that work, Rollins learned about the Good Friday Collaborative, which is a group of closed or merged congregations that accompany communities in discernment and faithful action. He learned about Partners for Sacred Spaces, which works to maintain America’s older and historic houses of worship, and Rooted Good, which equips churches and leaders with resources to become something “new, imaginative, and good for the world.”

These groups, Rollins said, help faith-based organizations align money and mission, reclaim their relevance in a changing world, and be the church the world needs today.

“There’s a good number of organizations that now walk alongside congregations as they navigate these tricky waters to realize how the gospel can live on in different iterations, as it has throughout history.”

‘Investing in church is an investment in community’

The idea that “investing in church is an investment in community” is a central theme that spans history, denominations, and worship styles, added Granholm. Calvary and St. Paul are in lockstep with that mindset.

In addition to its generous gift to Faith+Lead, Calvary allocated nearly 60% of its funds to regional efforts, including the Minneapolis Area Synod of ELCA’s New Mission Start Congregations and Ministry Imagination Grants. The church also made gifts to Tapestry Lutheran Church, a new mission church that worships bilingually and teaches English to Spanish speakers, and to the collaborative youth ministry Richfield Area Lutheran Youth.

“The Legacy Team continues to meet to complete our distribution to area churches and organizations, like Meals on Wheels, Bundles of Love, and VEAP, which provides access to healthy foods, social services, and financial assistance to our neighbors,” Little said. “Many of Calvary’s members are deeply involved with these organizations, so we are glad to see our money support these vital efforts that mean so much to our congregation.”

St. Paul’s Legacy Team created a donor-advised fund through the Erie County Community Foundation to allocate money to area organizations and projects that advance outreach in the Lord’s name.

“We will continue to review ways to invest in organizations that want to grow God’s kingdom here and abroad,” said Larry Riedy, a member of St. Paul for 45 years and the former president of its church council. “We are considering help for our county’s health department to convert a Lutheran-related former nursing home into an adult daycare facility. And, we’re looking at support for a partnership between a local church and laundromat to pay for laundry services for those in need.”

Capturing history, honoring legacy

Wade Wacholz ’17 M.Div., who served Calvary as a part-time pastor through its closing, said the church navigated this process well because of open, honest, and regular communication.

“You must continually ask, ’What and who are we here for?’ and if the answer is, ‘We’re just here for ourselves,’ that’s not a very faithful answer. Churches have always existed primarily for our neighbors, but it’s easy to get focused inward. So, you must keep talking about and answering that question because that’s where you get led into faithful places.”

He stressed the importance of resources like Faith+Lead and books like “Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory” by Tod Bolsinger. “Explore all you can do to reinvigorate,” he urged other congregations, “but be honest with yourself, as we were, when we realized that our church’s resurrection was not a resurrection in place, but a resurrection of our ministry. Our final gift as a congregation was an enduring legacy of faithful stewardship.”

Little said it was important to her and many other Calvary members to honor the items and records of the church. Each person in the congregation took home a hymnal, and they donated children’s musical instruments and other items to other churches, schools, and scout troops. They worked with the synod to archive documents and a series of colorful Hmong tapestries, gifted by refugees the church helped to resettle in Minnesota after the Vietnam War.

Paul Daniels is a part-time archivist for the nine synods of ELCA Region 3 (covering the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota) and the part-time archivist for Luther Seminary, where both archival collections are housed. He worked with Calvary to capture its history within the largest collection of the regional archives network throughout the United States.

“The archival process seems to offer many people a sense of healing, knowing that their records and artifacts will be a conveyor of story and memory and what God was up to through their community and work,” said Daniels, who also serves as curator of the seminary’s sizable art collection. “Our materials date back to the 1840s, and so many people—historians and seminarians, in particular—use them to make sense of our world.”

Daniels said churches preparing to close should contact the ELCA regional archivist early to ensure proper and complete care of congregational records. Congregations can also visit the ELCA Archive Resources for a brief guide about the process.

Archives often include constitutions, bylaws, and articles of incorporation as well as pastoral records of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and funerals. Annual meeting materials, a sampling of newsletters and bulletins, and items like Sunday school pins and Calvary’s Hmong tapestries help tell the unique story of each congregation.

Members of St. Paul and Calvary have archived, taken home, or given away the physical remnants of their churches. What lingers, Gardner said, is a spirit of faith-filled hope. He shared an evening prayer from the Lutheran Book of Worship that he and others have turned to throughout this journey.

“God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Contact Seminary Relations at semrel@luthersem.edu to discuss ways to invest in the future of the church. Your gifts equip future leaders and support innovation in a rapidly changing world.