Caring For Our Neighbors Is Our Cathedral
A letter to my congregation about installing showers on our campus
In 2021, a landscape architecture class from the University of Arkansas based a design charrette at our GSLC campus. Student teams, over the course of the semester, examined the relationship between our campus and the neighborhood, then offered proposals for landscaping projects that could in holistic ways integrate our church even more inclusively into the community.
Although we haven’t implemented all their proposals (there is of course the big gap between the development of free architectural designs by the students and the actual building of the projects they propose), participating in the charrette with the students was revelatory for me as a pastor, because it helped me think in new ways about the church building (and grounds) as a ministry.
Ever since that class was here, I’ve continued asking myself: How can our church facility be a ministry, rather than a static and rarely used container for worship (and sometimes bible study or choir practice).
I do get that churches have historically sometimes served the purpose of drawing the faithful into worshipful postures through the very architecture itself. I just spent a couple of weeks in Europe visiting some of the cathedrals built to do exactly that.
But in my own faith, and I believe also in the life of faith that resonates with our congregation, the cathedral aspect of church building is less directed toward vaulting flying buttresses, and more toward built resources that direct us toward our neighbor in need, things like Friendly Fridges, Little Free Pantries, our gender-affirming clothing closet, and spaces offered for minoritized groups to gather and organize.
That is to say, if the Christian faith is about love of God and love of neighbor, increasingly our church has been leaning into building use practices (and design practices) that emphasize love of neighbor as the primary way we love God.
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This Sunday, our congregation will vote on whether to convert the old infant portion of our nursery (no longer in use as parents no longer ever leave infants in the nursery in cribs during worship) into a set of private showers. It’s an idea we’ve been batting around for many years, but until this year had never been finalized because we were unsure which portion of our current facility could best be converted into showers.
We have been talking about showers for the church in the context of a conversation about LGBTQIA+ shelter. We know there are some physical plant steps we would need to take to truly be a campus that is comfortable for people to live in.
Our church provides services that address almost all the other basic needs of humans (with the difficult exception of health care). We feed people, we provide clothing, we have laundry facilities, we advocate for justice, and we offer spiritual resources.
You can come to our church and have almost all of your essential social service needs met.
The one thing our facilities lack are showers (and admittedly, as I’ve been trying to argue unsuccessfully, a sauna).
We shouldn’t think of showers for the church as only for those who may take shelter here. Showers are for everyone. So in the same way you can currently come to the church and get free food, cook for others, pray in the sanctuary, have a meeting, walk the labyrinth, play gaga ball, the best way to think of a shower is to think of it as an available resource in the building just like any other resource.
It may also be helpful to think of the church as shelter in the same way. Providing shelter in our church will not necessarily change anything in terms of the current shape of life at GSLC. Why can I say this? Because we are already providing shelter. As I write this, ten Americorps team members live in the church as does a homeless LGBTQIA+ adult.
The potential population of the LGBTQIA+ young adult shelter (which we are developing as a separate non-profit, The Shelter @ GSLC), will not be more than this current number.
So, if you’ve been to the church recently, or been in the neighborhood of the church recently, you already see what the church might be like if we open it more intentionally to provide shelter for LGBTQIA+ young adults. It will be much like it is.
This does not mean there won’t be hiccups: we’ve learned this spring that sometimes the Marshallese weekend programs hosted in the Alton Center have gone too long into the evening and impacted the Americorps staying here. Americorps team members have been gracious enough to teach us more about what we’ll need to do to make the church comfortable for long-term residents.
Similarly, sometimes because there are so many programs at the church, spaces get double booked, or items in the kitchens get used up or get moved. This happens almost all the time now, and although it can sometimes be frustrating, it’s the normal frustration of managing a “household” of faith.
It’s messy providing this many services for so many communities. It just is.
But I mention all of this to emphasize that this is and will be normal. You can’t get involved in the lives of vulnerable communities without some aspects of that involvement being messy.
Which brings me back to showers: showers help clean up some of our messes, in particular the mess all of us end up in when we work hard, play hard, sweat hard, get our hands and feet in the dirt. Showers are therapeutic, restorative, essential.
A member of our congregation earlier this summer said to me: GSLC is a community center with a chapel. I found this statement compelling. Instead of having a massive building that gets used only infrequently for Sunday worship, we are a campus that has a chapel for Sunday service (and other liturgies). Our faith, our worship, instead of pointing us up into vaulted cathedral spaces instead points us out toward the cathedral that is our neighbor in their need.
So the proposal: we’re asking the congregation to approve conversion of a mostly unused space in the church building into showers. The project isn’t cheap (no construction projects are anymore). It will cost around $125,000 to do the work.
But once it’s done, then whether you’ve just finished a game of pickleball in the Alton Center, or biked to church and gotten sweaty, or are sleeping at the church for shelter, or just came by because your shower wasn’t working, this new facility will be there for you.
I’m super excited about this, glad we’re voting on it on my 51st birthday, and hoping a lot of people will donate to support the project as a birthday gift.
In one of the showers of our home, we have a shower curtain that reads, “Remember that you are baptized.” I love this curtain because it emphasizes the daily nature of faith, and baptism as a core resource for that faith.
Baptized as a community, my friends, this is how the baptized live.
In Christ,
Pastor Clint Schnekloth
I hope the vote is a yes! Something to check is your municipal regs. Our church used to host houseless families -- they slept in conference rooms and unused offices. However, the city inspected after about three years of hosting and said the windows were not a proper egress in case of fire/emergency. We had to shut down. However, we do support other churches who can shelter in their facilities.
A new way of thinking about what a church building should be, multi purpose for serving the needs of many in the community besides worship. I’m sure the birthday ‘gift’ for you Pastor Clint will be a generous one.