Should Churches Be Allowed to Meet in Public Schools?

New York City Housing Authority officials have notified all of the churches who rent space in their public schools that they are no longer welcome as of Feb. 12. This decision came without warning and some say it threatens to violate an earlier Supreme Court Ruling on religious use of public space. After numerous protests and even 43 arrests, it’s happening. Here's a snarky NYTimes editorial about it. Here's an article on the protests. It begs the questions – should churches be allowed to meet in public schools?

Until we moved into our first building this year, Redemption Church always met in schools. The Olathe School District administrative officials and custodial staff were always great to work with and I will be forever grateful to them – the teachers & building administrators were another story. I used to break into a cold sweat when my assistant told me an administrator from the school was on the phone. Honestly, the most disrespected I’ve ever felt as a representative of the church was in conversation with teachers and assistant principals… just petty disrespectful stuff on the most part, things you just let go. A few times it was out of line, insulting and almost threatening..

I’ve never been able to discern where the rub was in particular. My sense was always that we were just a pain in their butt, and they resented the fact that it was district policy to allow outside groups to use “their school.” They would always call it “their school,” seemingly unaware that the community owns the school and church attendees pay taxes. Not only was the tension unnecessary, but it was short sighted. There are many benefits to having churches meeting in schools and even when we tried to offer to help, we were often rebuffed. Once we offered to install around $10,000 in sound and lighting equipment in the school we were meeting in, and we would donate it all to the school and leave it there when we left. They refused Here are just a few:

1. Churches are an important part of community life. Churches serve a vital role in the community. Healthy communities have healthy churches. In fast growing areas school districts tend to build the first public buildings long before most smaller churches can afford to build. It’s good for the community to have churches meeting in schools because the alternative would be to have no churches in that area at all. In areas like New York City or on the West Coast where property is so incredibly expensive, it makes sense to have churches meeting in schools. Schools which hold churches in contempt are missing the opportunity to share resources and join efforts to help build vital communities.

2. Renting to Churches supports the neighborhood. The MegaChurch, or video campus franchise are often the only ones with the financial means to operate in growing suburbs and places where the price of real estate is very high. Allowing churches to meet in school supports the neighborhood church model.

3. Schools can make money on this: We used to pay around $23,000 a year to the school district for very minimal usage. Other churches pay much more than this.

4. It provides more work for custodial staff: This provides more hours for district employees at no cost to the district. The custodial staff members we worked with were great at every single location. They often became good friends of people in our congregation. We always gave our janitor a pretty good Christmas bonus as well. I miss getting to see him every week.

5. Churches often donate time and resources over and above to the schools. There were a couple of teachers who seemed glad to have us involved. Members of our church volunteered to take tickets at plays and musicals (ONW has incredible arts programs, btw); we would also give gift cards to teachers, and helped with PTA events. The church who used the building before us donated tons of man hours to help the school install the sound system and lighting – all for free. I’ve heard of many churches who donate significant sound/lighting upgrades to schools. If the school would welcome the congregation as a vital part of the community, I think most churches would like to support the teachers. This could be a win win.

I get the other side. Churches can be annoying and Christians often do disrespectful stuff & overreach and offend. But most small churches like this get it - they understand school is not church, nor vice versa - we should be able to make this work for our communities and benefit both the school and the church.