A few months ago, the Community Rec Leadership Summit noted findings that many leaders didn’t expect: facilities across the country are starting to look past healthcare systems and school districts for their next big partnership, landing on an unlikely pair — churches and rec centers.
The buzz seems to be groundbreaking, but the problem is many don’t have a next step in how to make the most of this partnership. Well, you’re in luck. As a fitness industry executive, I also sit in the seat of executive pastor of a local church. I’ve spent the last several years living on both sides of these partnerships.
So, when people talk about churches and rec centers partnering, I don’t hear a hypothetical. I hear two organizations that are more alike than most realize. The other problem is they are work forces that don’t know how to communicate with each other.
Let’s fix that.
Why the fit is more natural than it looks.
Strip away the theology and the treadmills, and a YMCA and a church are running the same playbook. Both are mission-driven and survive on membership, giving, and volunteer labor. Each are trying to get a disengaged generation to walk through the front door and return. Both have a facility that sits half-empty on Tuesday afternoons and gets slammed on the one or two days a week when everyone shows up at once.
That overlap is the opportunity. A rec center has expertise in programming, retention and operations that most churches would kill for. A church has trust, volunteer infrastructure and a built-in community that most rec centers spend a marketing budget trying to manufacture. Put those two things in the same room and magic happens.
Where it breaks down.
The problem is this is what the partnerships typically don’t foresee:
1. Territory. Rec center leaders worry a church partnership means giving away members, space or control. Church leaders worry a rec partnership means diluting mission or turning ministry into a transaction.
2. Speed. A rec center can greenlight a pilot program in a staff meeting. A church decision often must move through a board, an elder team or a denominational structure.
3. Mission drift anxiety. Every church leader has watched a partnership slowly turn their building into a rental property with no soul left. Every rec center leader has watched a well-meaning community partner try to hijack programming for their own agenda. If you don’t name that fear early, it sabotages the whole thing.
A framework that works:
Start by deciding what kind of partnership you’re building. In my experience, it’s almost always one of three things:
1. Shared space: You use their building, or they use yours on a defined schedule with defined terms. This is the lowest complexity, lowest commitment and the easiest first step to build the relationship.
2. Shared programming: You co-design something together: a family wellness night, a youth program, a recovery or mental health support group. This will require higher trust, but there are significantly higher payoffs.
3. Shared staffing or resources: This is where you can really mobilize your mission and allow your college programming to really have opportunities to serve, your men’s and women’s ministries ways to connect with the community, and small groups a way to give back or serve practically outside of a Sunday morning.
Almost every successful partnership I’ve seen on either side of my career started at level one and earned its way to level two. The ones that blew up tried to skip straight to level three because it seems great at first, but the unforeseen issues weren’t addressed up front.
Your next step:
You don’t need a strategic plan to start this. You need one phone call.
Pull up a map and circle every church within a mile. Pick one. Call the pastor or the executive pastor not to pitch a partnership, but to ask what they’re wrestling with. You’ll be surprised how often the answer sounds like your own staff meeting.
Remember, every great partnership began with a conversation, not a contract. Don’t treat a church any differently and you’ll reap the long-term benefits.
