This church isn't filling its pews. It's filling its building

On a Saturday afternoon in early May, St. Luke’s United in Sarnia, Ont., is bustling with activity. Parents, children and volunteers zoom between cards and the church’s entrance, chatting as they unload supplies. Inside, excited voices from the community meeting in the basement spill from the stairwell into the sanctuary above.

It’s a typical day at the “little church on the corner,” as some of its roughly 60 members affectionately call it. Perched on the edge of an actively changing neighbourhood close to schools and low-income housing, St. Luke’s has, for more than 80 years, shaped its ministry around the needs of the surrounding community.

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“We feel our purpose of being on that corner is to support the community in any way we can,” says Larry McLaren, church trustee chair.

St. Luke’s maintains a host of partnerships with national and local organizations, including the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Sarnia-Lambton Rebound, an organization that works with at-risk youth. Many of these relationships are long term and predicated on the church providing physical space.

Initially, the arrangements were altruistic. The church charges just a dollar a year to the Dow Centre for Youth — a facility that leases church land on the other side of the parking lot to house Rebound and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Sarnia-Lambton. It previously did the same for Community Living, which uses the former manse as supportive residential housing for young adults.

When the congregation recognized it had to generate more revenue to sustain St. Luke’s operations, church trustees raised Community Living’s lease to $500 a month in 2018. In 2024, they negotiated a two percent annual increase on the lease to cover inflation.

In 2017, the church also opened up space in its main building for Rebound to establish a youth drop-in centre. The alteration meant eliminating the fellowship room and moving the Sunday school to the basement. During the initial deliberations, some members were hesitant about sharing the space. But eventually, they came around “because they believed in the mission and ministry that would be possible,” says Rev. Melanie Kirk-Hall, the church’s minister.

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A $75,000 grant from the United Church of Canada Foundation’s Seeds of Hope program financed the renovations. Today, “The Nest” — an L-shaped area with a kitchen, laundry and capacious lounge, located next to the church’s administration office — hosts a drop-in program five days a week, alternating between two age groups: 12 to 15 and 16 to 24. Rebound leases the space and pays by the square foot.

Given the success of these space-sharing arrangements, the church saw potential to generate additional income through rentals for events, meetings and other community gatherings. In 2021, it turned its attention to the sanctuary, redeveloping it into flexible community space. The renovation added amenities like air conditioning and an accessibility lift, along with a portable sound system, projection screen and internet access. Pews gave way to chairs, and the choir loft was removed to make room for a stage. St. Luke’s also updated the church kitchen.

Some congregants resisted the change at first, says McLaren, but retaining key elements of the church — including the cross and pulpit — while adding softer seating quelled those objections. Existing basement tenants, including Alcoholics Anonymous, have used the new space, and St. Luke’s is currently open to collaborations with new renters.

Recognizing that sustainability is not just about money, the congregation is also thinking about what to do if it shrinks to a size where it can no longer operate independently or protect its outreach projects. It is considering making the United Church’s regional council a trustee to keep physical operations going and preserve its main tenants’ occupancy.

Challenges are ongoing, but McLaren touts the church’s evolving use of its facilities as a modest success. Outreach continues, new members — supportive of the church’s mission — have joined, and the church’s finances are in the black.

Kirk-Hall admires her congregation’s spiritual dedication and passion. “St. Luke’s has often worked toward a big vision,” she says. “There’s just this real internal consistency about who they are and who they want to be as followers of Christ in the world.”

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Mary Baxter is an award-winning writer and historian in London, Ont.

This article first appeared in the September/October 2026 issue of Broadview with the title “The Church Next Door.”