By Conference Minister Rev. Dr. Tony Clark

Last October, at the Conference Annual Meeting in Missoula, as we faced the fact that we are drawing down our investments, there was discussion about selling Conference office building in Billings. There was also a recommendation that we look at leasing the back half of the building. At first, we rejected this option thinking it might be more work for us to manage a lease. However, in talking with respected realtors we learned that the management of the leased space would not be more than we are already doing with the entire building: maintenance, paying utilities, cleaning, yard upkeep, snow ploughing. We listed the space just after easter, and last week, after touring the space, an offer was made for a short-term lease (June through December 2026) of the space in the rear of the building. During this time, the realtors will continue to market the space for long-term lease to start in January. Give thanks for God’s provision!

The back half of our office was once busy with employees and was routinely used as a meeting space. Now, with most of our meetings on Zoom and only three of us on staff, that area has been sorely underutilized. It has become a storage zone for quilts and communion ware, archives and artifacts of closed churches, books and baubles, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, used furniture and curricula. Leasing it out will put an unused space into use and give us a source of income as we steward the property which has been entrusted to us by God.

I have long believed that church buildings should pay for the ministry rather than the ministry pay for the building. Churches are often underutilized. Sunday school rooms stand empty during the week, and as the number of young children attending Sunday worship wanes, Sunday school rooms become storerooms filled with banners and bibles, crosses and curricula, donations and dust bunnies. These unused spaces are valuable commodities for community use.

Churches that open their spaces to other use may see it as their ministry to offer free space. I agree with this practice for 12-step groups and some non-profits that fit into the ministries of Christ; however, other groups may have nothing to do with the purpose and mission of the church, and free or low-cost rentals perpetuate the practice of preying on the kindness of Christians. Charging fair market price for the space does not necessarily make the church into a business; it is good stewardship of the resource of space and supplements tithes and other income. Does your church rent out your social hall for events? Do you lease out classrooms for office space? Do you have day care that is not under the church’s umbrella? Have you done comparisons with other churches and commercial spaces so that you are not= undercutting the local commerce with unreasonably low fees?

Jesus preached in his sermon on the mount, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6: 19-21, NRSVUE). Our back space has become a haven, not for moth and rust, but for spiders and dust. As we clean up and move the books (oh so many books) to the front of the building, we are also disposing of once-meaningful treasure that has no purpose today. We are turning the dusty space into a treasure to be stewarded. The revenue, which for the rest of 2026 will come close to covering the expenses of running the building, will supplement the interest from our investments, reducing the draw-down and stewarding both the building and our investments.

Feel free to visit our office in the front half of the building and peruse our library. We look forward to welcoming you!

In peace and prayer,

Pastor Tony