Closed church finds second life: West Central neighborhood gets a new community hub

When Westminster Presbyterian Church closed in 2024 after 119 years of serving the people of Spokane’s West Central Neighborhood, it left a big hole in that community. Now, several organizations are teaming up to fill that community hole.

NeighborHub is a collaboration between the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest, Side By Side Ministries, the West Central Development Project and Garden Church to remodel the former church building and use it as a type of community center. While PIN owns the church, the other three organizations have an outreach presence in West Central and plan to use the building as a location for their services.

“It really feels like a big win,” said David Sittser, Side By Side executive director .

For PIN Cyclical Co-Director/Land Stewardship Guide Drew Peterson, repurposing the old church building serves to honor the original congregation’s community mission, not only through organizations collaborating to use the space but also through creating an opportunity for the church to listen to what residents really need.

“It’s a way to do church the way the neighborhood wants,” said the Rev. Woody Garvin, the West Central Development Project co-leader and former First Presbyterian Church of Spokane pastor.

Like many mainline churches, Westminster Presbyterian was facing an aging and shrinking congregation. No longer able to sustain itself, the church closed in April 2024.

But instead of selling the building and land, the presbytery elected to retain ownership. Westminster is centrally located in the West Central neighborhood and served as the starting location for a number of outreach organizations that have since moved to other locations, such as Christ Clinic and Christ Kitchen, along with a neighborhood food pantry.

“There’s no chance we’re going to sell that thing,” Peterson said of the presbytery’s decision when it became evident Westminster was closing.

Most residents in West Central are low-middle to low income. The city of Spokane’s neighborhood Snapshot listed the neighborhood’s median household income in 2020 at $28,249, well below the $44,768 citywide median.

Over 56% of residents in the neighborhood are renters, with 23.5% aged 19 and under and 29.9% with a high school diploma only, compared to citywide stats of 45%, 21.9% and 24.6% respectively. In 2020, the unemployment rate of West Central residents was 12%, compared to 6.5% citywide.

“We’re not going to abrogate our presence in this neighborhood to someone else,” Peterson said.

Instead, Peterson said presbytery leadership began looking at repurposing the building, asking the question “What would stewardship look like in Jesus’ world in using this space?”

Peterson said the presbytery engaged in conversations on what improvements would be needed to make the property viable for a wider use. It was determined these improvements would require an estimated $400,000 in funding, money the presbytery had through sales of several properties and other resources.

When it came to appropriate the money to remodel Westminster, Peterson said the vote was unanimous – something that “impressed me to no end.”

“This is the type of behavior that reflects the discipleship of Jesus,” he said, calling it “radical generosity.”

At about the same time this was taking place, Sittser said the presbytery leadership knew Side By Side was looking for a more permanent home. Started in October 2019 as an organization dedicated to bringing people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and those without such challenges alongside each other in friendships, Side By Side was originally based out of Salem Lutheran Church in West Central on College Avenue, but had since moved to Central Lutheran at Fifth and Bernard.

Side By Side was also involved in discussions with the West Central Development Project, Sittser said, while the Garden Church – which meets Sundays at the West Central Community Center on North Belt – was also looking for a more permanent home.

“These two separate conversations got brought into one in how the building (Westminster) could be used going forward,” Sittser said. “That’s really neat because we can all help each other a lot.”

The former church has the space all three groups can utilize. The overall building footprint is around 9,000 square feet, with a sanctuary capacity of approximately 200, fellowship hall seating of 80-100 with a kitchen, along with a number of classrooms and meeting rooms.

The building is a single story, providing good accessibility, although the bathrooms will get complete overhauls to bring them up to American With Disabilities Act standards, while doorways will be widened to 36 inches throughout.

The pews in the sanctuary have been removed and will be replaced with more comfortable chairs, allowing for flexibility in uses that could range from worship services to concerts and other events. Sittser said more natural illumination and better lighting will be added, along with new paint and flooring.

The Fireside Room across the hallway from the sanctuary will be remodeled into a coffee-shop style meeting space with a small kitchen and comfortable chairs. Some office spaces will be removed while other spaces will be combined, such as the former food pantry, which will be enlarged as a meeting space for Side By Side’s weekly gathering called “Huddle.”

The fellowship hall’s two accordion-style temporary walls have been removed, and the entry way is being expanded to a double-door setup. The hall’s kitchen will be fully renovated, with two cooktops, one a 36-inch standard size and the other a 34-inch ADA-usable configuration.

The same holds for the two new sinks to be installed, along with more counter space and other features. Sittser said the new installation will benefit Huddle dinners along with Side By Side’s new Cooking Club.

A door from the fellowship hall to a new outside patio will be installed with the existing office spaces brought up to date with new paint, potentially carpeting and other needs. “Really, just a clean up and maximizing the space,” Sittser said.

While the presbytery is putting up the money for the project, Peterson said the three organizations will help out by repaying 30% of that funding over a three-year period. To that extent, Side By Side engaged in a campaign this past summer to raise $75,000 or more to help pay for their portion and needs ranging from cups to cabinetry.

According to Garden Church’s website, total contributions from all three organizations will be $120,000, a figure that includes volunteer labor. Windemere Real Estate helped with exterior painting and provided volunteers that installed the new paver patio and planter boxes outside for community gardens.

While Side By Side and Garden Church will be the organizations using a good portion of the building, the West Central Development Project will have a small space in the building to assist with its work in the neighborhood. That work involves building relationships and working with West Central groups to help them identify their own issues and ways they wish to solve them, a method called “asset-based community development,” a tool Garvin said he also proposed to the presbytery about four years ago to help reinvigorate declining churches.

“It’s helping to give people ways to improve their lives, their neighborhood,” Garvin said. “It’s listening to people not as counselors, but as people who care about the community. They decide, West Central Development Project helps coordinate.”

Garvin said he and his Development Project partner and Hamblin Park Presbyterian Church pastor, the Rev. Katie Haney, have been working in West Central for about 10 years. They have been successful in helping the neighborhood engage in a number of projects ranging from creating a neighborhood elementary school art exhibition to working with the West Central Neighborhood Council to get Spokane Transit Authority to install bus pullouts and improve stops along West Boone Avenue.

Haney said they also worked with the city of Spokane to get four large five-bedroom houses moved from a proposed construction site to lots in West Central where they are now used as single-unit affordable housing. The houses offer one room per tenant with a common area. “That’s been pretty effective,” she added.

Peterson said the presbytery will also have an individual working out of the NeighborHub location as well, a new position called a “community connector.” The individual, who Peterson said has already been hired and started working, will be part pastor and part community coordinator.

The community coordinator will live in the West Central neighborhood and work with neighbors to clarify assets and needs, a different model than what the presbytery has used before. Peterson said she will be asking questions such as “Does West Central have the desire for gathered worship? Is there some other worship community that felt is needed (in the neighborhood)?”

“She’s not even asking about church,” he added. “She’s just listening (for neighbor answers to the questions) is there something deeper here, if these neighbors want to start something here, (if it) is different, what is it.”

Peterson added success in this will not be based on the starting of a new church in West Central.

“The success of that connection is going to be based not only on relationships made, but on relationships made between neighbors themselves,” he said.

While the presbytery’s community connector and the three NeighborHub organizations are all engaged in the West Central community, they’re doing it somewhat from afar as the remodeling of the Westminster Presbyterian Church is still proceeding, albeit slowly.

Sittser said the project contractor, McCloskey Construction, had been working through framing and electrical portions in mid-August and was working toward other aspects of the project. “I don’t expect us to be in until the end of the year,” he added.

Even with the slow remodeling work, the West Central neighborhood is already aware of the new center. Sittser said an open house this past summer was well-attended, with many stopping in as they walked or drove by.

“They saw the balloons and stopped in,” he said. “They were happy the building was being used for a good purpose.”

FāVS News is a nonprofit newsroom covering faith and values in the Inland Northwest.