An Empty Space on Tuesday

I never imagined that one day I'd spend so much time thinking about parking, but here we are. Like many of you, our staff has been talking about downtown parking and asking whether Poulsbo First Lutheran Church can play a small part in helping address a growing challenge in our community.

At first, the question seemed fairly simple. Could we make more of our parking available? The longer we've wrestled with it, though, the more I've realized how many good values are pulling in different directions.

As a church, we want to serve our community. We already do that in countless ways. Every week our building hosts civic groups, nonprofit organizations, concerts, meetings, and people looking for a place to gather. I love that about this church.

At the same time, this is still a church. We need parking for worship, funerals, weddings, meetings, quilters, volunteers, and all the ordinary things that make ministry possible. There is wisdom in making sure the resources we've been entrusted with are available when we need them. But I also wonder when careful stewardship becomes holding too tightly to what we've been given. The Israelites learned this with manna in the wilderness… They tried to hoard more than they needed, and it spoiled. Sometimes faithfulness means preserving what we've been given. Sometimes it means trusting enough to put it to use.

And that's where I keep getting stuck. I walk through our parking lot and see empty spaces, and it's difficult for me to see only empty spaces. I see resources. Could some of them generate revenue to feed people? Help address housing insecurity? Support other work in our community? I won't pretend that every empty parking space represents some great untapped ministry opportunity, but I do have a hard time not asking what good might be possible with what we already have.

Of course, wanting to help doesn't automatically make the answer simple. As a church, we operate within legal and tax restrictions designed, in part, to prevent tax-exempt resources from becoming a private benefit for commercial interests. That means there are no easy answers.

One idea I've been dreaming about is designating some spaces for paid use, with the revenue they generate going back into ministry and our community. There is something compelling to me about that possibility: an empty parking space on Tuesday could become dinner on Thursday. The challenge is finding a way to do that responsibly, legally, and fairly.

I don't know all the answers, but I'd love an opportunity to wonder with anyone else who's interested. I don't want First Lutheran to simply be a good neighbor to downtown Poulsbo. I want us to belong to the life of this community. 

So, let me ask you: what becomes possible because we're here?