Partners for Sacred Places, Presentation by Suzanne Yowell

Suzanne Yowell, the Director of the Texas Partners for Sacred Places gave a presentation to our class about the work her organization is doing.

The basic idea behind Partners for Sacred Places is that often, churches need to be resourceful to be self sustaining.  Churches have large amounts of space that are not used during the week, and church leaders often aren't aware that that "real estate" is valuable and can help the church be self sufficient.

A great example is the First Christian Church of Fort Worth. They have a large, beautiful building in downtown Fort Worth.  They also have a shrinking and aging congregation, and were having a hard time.  They decided at one point to demolish a portion of their building that was a drain on resources and turned it into a parking lot, keeping only 4 spaces for staff.

First Christian Church, Fort Worth

Partners for Sacred Places worked with the church to convert a second floor into a charitable eye clinic.  The worked with the church trustees on the plan for nearly 6 years to accomplish this, but now the eye clinic (which operates on charitable donations and charges little to nothing for it's services) is a leading teaching institution for Ophthalmologists-in-training.

The second floor

remodeling in progress

The ribbon cutting!

Suzanne works with churches in all areas of Texas, from small, struggling congregations to large, robust ones.

To see more of the good work Partners for Sacred Places is doing visit their website:
http://www.sacredplaces.org/who-we-are/regional-offices/texas-regional-office/