Innovative Church Space
Breakout Session 2024
Innovate and create a vision for repurposing church building use creatively in order to maximize their potential as community hubs, offering new services and support to meet diverse local needs.
What to Expect:
At the Innovative Church Space breakout, you’ll hear from Saranya Sathananthan, a Researcher in Residence at the Emmanuel Gospel Center, who has spent the past year exploring how some churches in Boston utilize their properties, with a focus on understanding successful models of innovative space management for missional impact, community vitality, and long-term sustainability. She will be sharing her findings on the opportunities and challenges of leveraging church spaces in the city. This is also a great opportunity to connect with others who are navigating these opportunities and challenges in their day to day and learn from a panel discussion featuring leaders from First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plain, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, and East Coast International Church—three churches that are creatively utilizing their properties in alignment with their mission in order to meet the unique needs of their communities.
The afternoon session will conclude with two breakouts focused on resourcing you for your specific context. Jarrod Spalding from Vision Partners will lead a workshop on leveraging your property's assets and unique position in the community for greater financial sustainability. The other breakout will focus on sharing resources for creative use and property management.
Check out this video to to catch the vision for church spaces!
Meet the Speakers!
David Urbina
Senior Associate Pastor at East Coast International Church - Lynn
Pastor David is the Senior Associate Pastor at East Coast International Church, where he has served as a pastor for over a decade. He lives in Lynn, MA with his wife and two daughters. His work focuses on adult discipleship, outreach efforts, and property management. In the last six years, his role as a property manager has expanded to include five multi-use properties, and involves tenant management, acting as a city liaison, and collaborative development work.
Saranya Sathananan
Researcher in Residence at Emmanuel Gospel Center
Saranya Sathananan is currently a Researcher in Residence at the Emmanuel Gospel Center, where she is exploring opportunities for how churches can optimize their spaces for missional impact, community vitality, and long-term sustainability. Her hope is to ignite new possibilities for houses of worship in the city and strengthen the ties between faith, service, and urban development through the power of collaboration. She also serves as the organizer for The Meeting House in Codman Square which is owned by Second Church in Dorchester and is working on developing community partnerships to expand the utilization and development of the building to better serve the local community.
Rev. Darrell Hamilton
Executive Pastor at The First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain
Rev. Darrell Hamilton is an ordained Baptist minister and graduate from Wake Forest School of Divinity where he received his Masters in Divinity in 2017, and earned his degree in Political Science from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2012. He is the current Executive Pastor at The First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain where he oversees operations, human resources, and administrative needs of the organization. Rev. Hamilton's roles includes, but are not limited to, evaluating the organization’s performance, implementing strategic recommendations to improve results and efficiency, managing the physical assets of the church across multiple locations, including developing and managing all leases, rentals, and vendor agreements. Lastly, Rev. Hamilton's responsibility is to create and implement strategies to promote and grow a culture of belonging, equity, and inclusion across church programs and culture.
John Lane
Board Member of Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Downtown Boston