Building for Thy Neighbor: How Churches Can Create Spaces for the Whole Neighborhood
This is part of nine-part series where three students ask three questions to architects, planners, and figures at the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU 32).
This past May, student fellows at Southern Urbanism attended the thirty-second national gathering of the Congress of New Urbanism (CNU) in downtown Cincinnati. While there, the fellows caught up with urbanists from all over the United States and beyond to chat about their work. Each interviewee was asked three questions about what they do and the goals that their work advances. The conversations have been edited for length and clarity.
Sara Joy Proppe is a real estate development and placemaking consultant committed to cultivating places that promote human flourishing.Her business, Proximity Project, consults churches in their efforts to be more community-focused through placemaking and creating partnerships with developers. She co-hosts The Embedded Church podcast and has co-authored two placemaking toolkits: Redemptive Placemaking: A Toolkit for Discerning Your Church's Mission in the Built Environment and Placemaking Your Main Street: Connecting Community & Commerce.
AG: First, would you mind giving your name and a bit about what you do?
SJP: Sure. My name is Sara Joy Proppe—I have two names because I’m from the South. I run a business called Proximity Project, which seeks to educate and activate churches to be stewards of their properties for the common good of their neighbirhoods. That takes a lot of shapes, from advising churches on placemaking, to doing full-scale affordable housing redevelopment projects on their properties.
AG: For starters, Durham, North Carolina just passed a faith-based housing amendment in their zoning code. In an environment where the zoning already says, more or less, that such projects are a-go, what are your first steps advising churches to take advantage of such initiatives?
SJP: One of the things that I always start out with with churches [when considering an affordable housing project] is to explain to them the ‘art’ of development—what are the things that are really important to them as a church? What are their negotiables and their non-negotiables? That might be in terms of, you know, are they looking to make a revenue with the property? Are they looking to really meet a mission with the property? What is that mission? Do they want to have an ownership stake in the property or are they going to divest of the property to a developer to do this affordable housing?
There are a lot of questions like that that I help them assess and work through. That way, as they begin those conversations with a potential developer, they understand how they might be able to frame the partnership, and whether or not it will be good for the church and good for the developer. Having those early conversations to really get them solid on who they are and what they're looking to accomplish through this work is really important so that they can be ready to be a good partner for a developer.
AG: I can see how, from a city-building perspective, it makes sense for neighborhoods to want civic institutions or religious institutions to be more involved. Can you talk a bit about what the church’s perspective is, and why they may want to be a part of creating that community?
SJP: Most Protestant churches are coming from the perspective of, you know, being called to love their neighbors, that we see in the Bible. I think for me, that's a lot of what I do when I work with churches—helping them understand that part of loving your neighbor is loving your neighborhood.
We think about how the way that space is built and the way that the environment is designed really has implications for people's quality of life—for example, whether or not they're able to thrive in connection with other people in the neighborhood, whether or not they're able to access affordable housing, or good jobs, or transportation to be able to get to where they need to go. Those are all really important things that make up part of who we are and whether or not we thrive as human beings.
I think that, for churches historically, caring about and loving their neighbors is obviously really important, but they haven't necessarily thought about the actual built environment and how that's a contributor to that. So that's a lot of the work that I do with them, helping them understand that and helping them see their place in the neighborhood and how that has an implication for the livelihood of their actual neighbors.
AG: Many churches today are dealing with dwindling attedance. Have you seen these projects work in churches that are—maybe not trying to increase their numbers—but wishing to attract more people to their church? Or do you have examples of projects that have had that effect?
SJP: I always say that the work that I do isn't necessarily going to translate to new members. But what it will do, hopefully, is build trust with the community and build some of that goodwill. As a church thinks about programming and different ways that they can be involved in their community, the goal is to have the community’s trust, a willingness to come and participate in what they’re doing and who they are as a church.
Sometimes that does actually translate to more church membership, or more willingness to give to the church and participate in their programming. It's hard to say you're going to get, you know, millions of dollars in donations and 500 new members. But at the same time—being faithful with the little that you have—I do think that the Bible says that God blesses us when we bless others. We think about it not as this zero sum game, but as: when we give to the community, we flourish as well.
Adeleine Geitner is a rising senior at Duke University studying public policy and economics. She is the Duke Urban Studies Initiative Fellow on Sprawl Repair and Nodal Development.