Why Are We Here?
FBHI Fellow and Dartmouth student Eli Smith explains why he's excited about faith-based housing.
When I first got to college, I had little interest in religion. Growing up, I went to church with my mom now and then, mostly for the music, but it was never a serious part of my life. That changed freshman year when I couldn’t get into the intro government class I wanted and, on a whim, signed up for a course about the Old Testament. I had no idea that it would lead me to the niche world of faith-based housing, but I’m so glad it has. Faith-based housing presents a unique opportunity to change the way religious institutions interact with the built environment, creating a deeper sense of place and belonging.
With thousands of churches across the country, the potential is endless. That makes me very excited for the future.
Initially, my religion classes had everything I wanted: history, archaeology, deep textual analysis, philosophy, even politics. Every class reshaped stories I’d heard as a kid, giving them more depth and meaning. I found myself eagerly cracking open my Harper-Collins Study Bible, highlighter in hand, ready to dive into thousands of years of wisdom. My Old Testament class led me to another about the religious role in the Civil Rights Movement. Suddenly, the stories and laws of the Old Testament were no longer just fascinating historical artifacts—they were tools that had been used to organize massive, society-changing movements. I saw how religion could be a driving force for improving people’s lives, not in some distant past but here and now.
By then, I was all in. I declared my major in religion and took a job at the campus religious center, where I helped organize events and supported student groups representing every major faith.
As my interest in religion grew, I noticed that many of my peers didn’t see any real connection between religion and their daily lives. My friends asked why I wanted to study a topic with little relevance to modern life, and our well-resourced campus religious center events rarely drew more than a half dozen regulars. My generation seemed to be completely disinterested in faith, and who could blame them? The church’s social pull has waned, leaving behind congregations largely made up an ever-diminishing number of older folks.
As fewer young people and families attend, it becomes harder to draw new members in and a negative feedback loop forms. Furthermore, many denominations seem to be directionless and without a tangible purpose, at least it feels that way to someone my age. The potential reasons behind this decline are endless (and endlessly debated), but one thing is certain: religion has lost its place in most people's lives.
RE-ESTABLISHING FAITH via THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Around this time, I started to develop an interest in urbanism. A friend sent me some videos from Strong Towns, and they completely changed the way I saw the world. Suddenly, I couldn’t stop noticing the abundance of parking lots and the dull design of so many American towns. I noticed how the places I moved through either encouraged or, more frequently, discouraged community cohesion. I began to see how the built environment we live in complicates the micro-interactions that make life interesting, isolating us in our cars and behind our screens.
Unfortunately, churches haven’t escaped this trap of placelessness. As urban renewal thinned out cities and deindustrialization hollowed out small towns, churches seemed to retreat into the spiritual world, ignoring the increasingly milquetoast physical one around them. Pastor and author Eric Jacobsen writes in his book The Space Between that American churches have long distinguished between the “kingdom of God” and the “kingdom of the world,” largely treating worldly concerns like business, politics, and even their real estate as outside of their mission.
As a result, many churches have abandoned the civic value of physical presence, remaining single-use buildings with uninspiring architecture. They sit empty most of the week, removed from the daily lives of their communities.
Yet few structures in America are better positioned to evolve into active centers of daily community life.
WHY I AM HERE
I believe that churches are uniquely positioned to be part of the antidote to our placelessness. The sheer amount of land that religious institutions occupy, often at prime locations in their communities, means it is imperative they are active placemakers. Churches have the anchoring presence and long-term outlook that most businesses don’t, giving them the potential to create lasting places worth loving. At a time when many have dwindling congregations and budgets, land is their greatest asset. They must learn to use it to make the community around them better and make themselves stronger.
Faith-based housing is one of the best ways for a church to add value to its community. Across the country, congregations are using their land to build housing that meets specific needs, whether it’s cottage courts for elderly parishioners who can no longer drive, affordable housing for struggling families, or apartments for disabled veterans. All are valid.
I’ve even heard about a pastor in Durham, North Carolina, who, when asked why he is building faith-based housing on his church’s property, answered with, “To be honest, I am just tired of mowing the lawn.”
All motivations are valid.
The motivations and opportunities are endless, but the underlying idea is the same: by addressing their community’s physical needs, churches can transform their role and become a vital part of people’s lives again.
I don’t know if building housing will bring my generation back to the church if it will alleviate the housing crisis, or if it will stem the decline of religion in general. Maybe it won’t, and achieving those lofty goals is probably an unrealistic reason to build housing. But I do know that churches are incredibly well-positioned to create amazing places across the country, and they often don’t recognize how well of a hand they’ve been dealt. Of course, this doesn’t mean it will be easy or that churches can do it alone, but I’m confident that as the trend of faith-based housing grows, churches will recognize how much their simple physical presence can contribute to their communities.
The Faith-Based Housing Initiative is giving churches the tools they need to build great places, and that’s why I am here. My research, essays, and case studies on this blog will help accelerate this vision. I hope you’ll follow along on the exciting journey ahead.
Is your organization interested in faith-based housing? Do you have experiences or thoughts to share? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at faithbased.housing.initiative@gmail.com to contribute your story.
Eli Smith is a senior at Dartmouth College studying Religion and Public Policy. He is the Faith-Based Housing Initiative’s Research Fellow.