Buildings that ARE full for an hour or two on Sunday need to ask the same questions. I have been a member of a church that had as its policy this: “We are a public facility; our building is to serve the general public for meetings, discussion groups, 4-H speech competitions, emergency relief work.” (There are more uses.) Many of these would not have been attractive or useful if the building were larger, by the way.

The Crystal Cathedral found a use for its building when it folded: it sold it to the Roman Catholic diocese.

Whatever uses are proposed, they will not necessarily “bring people in”. Maybe a course on Lesslie Newbiggin’s thought (sometimes identified with the missional church movement) would help declining congregations and especially clergy to see that an active laity–active in ordinary life callings–may mean new life for congregations with small numbers which are sometimes considered untenable because of the inability to afford a priest or even to share one.