When the Lords House Closes

Functioning churches are an integral part of a community, not only for the active members of a congregation, but in providing myriad other services to the broader population - from food, housing, and other charitable outreach to hosting local events, to serving as election polling locations. So what happens when a church closes? Declining religious affiliation, accelerated modernization, and a number of other demographic, ecological, economic, and political factors mean that church closures are increasingly common in the United States.

When the Lord’s House Closes examines the forces behind these closings and provides community-centric recommendations for repurposing church buildings. With a focus on cities and communities of color, Melvin Delgado’s analysis highlights the rewards and challenges of urban church repurposing. With the aid of case studies, this book considers whether, and how, community needs and interests can be factored into decisions for how a closed church might be used.

Melvin Delgado is a prolific researcher and author who is interested in cities and the community assets within them. Delgado focuses on many of these assets in the nearly 40 books to his credit-the most recent of which include Sanctuary Cities, Communities, and Organizations: A Nation at the Crossroads (Oxford University Press, 2018), Urban Youth Trauma: Using Community Interventions to Overcome Gun Violence (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and Community Health Workers in Action: The Efforts of ＂Promotores de Salud＂ in Bringing Health Care to Marginalized Communities (Oxford University Press, 2020). In addition, he has written more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles. He recently retired from Boston University School of Social Work after over 40 years on the faculty.