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The Church as Community Hub: Sharing Spaces to Help Neighborhoods Thrive
A practical and hopeful guide to encourage churches to rediscover their purpose as neighborhood anchors through community partnerships. Thousands of congregations across the country occupy underused property while their communities are struggling with urgent needs, including affordable housing, food insecurity, and childcare costs. Loren Richmond, Jr. proposes a transforming church buildings into centers of community and partnership. Rather than being open only on Sundays, churches can and should open their doors seven days a week in order to welcome their neighbors and provide support for communal needs. By reframing church buildings as tools for connection beyond church attendance, leaders can take practical steps toward creating a shared and sustainable space. The goal is not merely to “do good,” but to empower and equip congregations to serve and reach their communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ―to transform lives through the power of grace, not through programs alone.
224 pages, Paperback
Published September 8, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
September 22, 2026
Loren Richmond Jr.’s The Church as Community Hub offers a hopeful and deeply practical vision for congregations wondering what faithfulness looks like in a changing world.
What I appreciate most about this book is that Richmond’s vision for revitalization is not another attempt to make the church seem relevant. Too many conversations about church decline begin from anxiety: How do we get people back? How do we preserve what we have? How do we make our buildings useful again? Richmond offers a much more compelling starting point. He invites churches to rediscover their buildings, relationships, and presence in the neighborhood as resources to be shared for the sake of the community.
That feels deeply faithful to the gospel. The church does not need to grasp at the straws of relevance. It can instead ask a much more generative question: What have we been given, and how might we give it away for the flourishing of our neighbors?
For congregations sitting on underused space (and let's be honest, which congregations aren't...), wondering about their future, or simply trying to imagine a more outward-facing expression of ministry, The Church as Community Hub offers a vision that is both realistic and genuinely hopeful. It is less about saving the institutional church than remembering what the church is for.
A book that a pastor can read between Zoom calls and sips of coffee, Loren Richmond Jr has written something that is at-once accessible, thoughtful, and inspiring.
What I appreciate most about this book is that Richmond’s vision for revitalization is not another attempt to make the church seem relevant. Too many conversations about church decline begin from anxiety: How do we get people back? How do we preserve what we have? How do we make our buildings useful again? Richmond offers a much more compelling starting point. He invites churches to rediscover their buildings, relationships, and presence in the neighborhood as resources to be shared for the sake of the community.
That feels deeply faithful to the gospel. The church does not need to grasp at the straws of relevance. It can instead ask a much more generative question: What have we been given, and how might we give it away for the flourishing of our neighbors?
For congregations sitting on underused space (and let's be honest, which congregations aren't...), wondering about their future, or simply trying to imagine a more outward-facing expression of ministry, The Church as Community Hub offers a vision that is both realistic and genuinely hopeful. It is less about saving the institutional church than remembering what the church is for.
A book that a pastor can read between Zoom calls and sips of coffee, Loren Richmond Jr has written something that is at-once accessible, thoughtful, and inspiring.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review