HELPING CONGREGATIONS RETHINK REAL ESTATE:
The Groundbreaking Work of
Wesley Community Development
By Rachel Hildebrandt
P
artners’ Senior Program Manager Rachel Hildebrandt re-
cently spoke with Joel Gilland, President of Wesley Com-
munity Development. Based in Huntersville, North Caro-
lina, Wesley Community Development is a nonprofit that works
with United Methodist churches throughout North Carolina to
thoughtfully develop and repurpose real estate.
Rachel Hildebrandt (RH): Please tell me more about what
Wesley CDC does.
Joel Gilland (JG): Wesley
CDC is a ministry grounded in
the use of buildings and land.
We believe that our churches
are called to use their physical
assets to serve and connect
community—and that may
include strategic renovation to
address functionality, leasing
buildings and grounds, devel-
oping unused property for
income or community en-
gagement, or complete reloca-
tion.
Joel Gilland, President of Wesley
Community Development
RH: What does real estate
have to do with faith?
JG: If a church campus is used
only two or three times a week, we are not being good stewards of the
sacrificial investment made by those before us. Real estate, if used
with vision and purpose, is a tool that can advance the mission of the
church. Unused, it is a drain on resources…
RH: What areas of real estate is Wesley CDC most focused on?
JG: The first is usage—understanding usage. The average usage of
our campuses (based on the churches we’ve worked with) is 14%.
Most laity don’t realize that it’s that low because they’re there on
Sunday and Wednesday nights… We help congregations to under-
stand usage and availability more comprehensively and where new
opportunities exist.
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SACRED PLACES • AUTUMN/WINTER 2018-19
The second is real estate itself. If you want to build a building
and you do so every twenty years, you aren’t going to be in touch
with the market place… Because we
are a church-affiliated nonprofit, we
can assist congregations as they evalu-
ate development options in a way that
places the needs of the church at the
forefront.
“ Preserving
Lastly, we are working on affect-
ing the trajectory of church campuses.
Real estate, by its nature, comes with
costs and churches in this changing
environment are seeing declining
levels of giving. How do these two
pathways align? The best time to have
that discussion is when there is still
time to adapt…
RH: So of all the projects you’ve seen
Wesley CDC do in the time you’ve
been there, do you have a favorite?
JG: That’s difficult, if not impossible,
to answer. We built a fantastic facility
that includes a multi-use sanctuary,
classrooms, and youth space that is
highly flexible; we reconfigured an
existing building that allowed for the
birth of a multicultural preschool; and
we developed a conference center that’s
LEED certified…
My favorites are whatever I’m
working on now and the one that is
coming tomorrow. The greatest joy in
this is both to see change from our real
estate perspective but more impor-
tantly to navigate the work with truly
amazing people.
RH: Do you ever work with congrega-
tions that own historic properties?
the history
of our
church
homes...is
a way of
honoring
our faith. ”
—Joel Gilland