"Should we stay, or sell?" It's a tough—even touchy—question, and one many church congregations are asking as they search for ways to best meet their communities' changing needs. For Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, the decision to hold on to their often difficult-to-maintain building proved to be the most effective way of serving their neighborhood. (See "Today's Church," February 2004.) But when First Church of Christ, Scientist, Phoenix, Arizona, faced a similar question—what to do with an increasingly problematic edifice—the answer they came to was strikingly different.
IT WASN'T A CHOICE between staying and leaving. It was a question of how they could do either.
Since 1898, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Phoenix, had been "the downtown church." Though they'd long been committed to the city and its needs, in recent years their purpose had become even clearer. "One by one, churches of all denominations have moved out of the downtown area to the outer reaches of Phoenix," explains Ted Waller, a member of First Church. "Someone has to be here to support the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the homeless—the people who come into our services asking for help."
