Building Belonging: The Church's Call to Build Community and House Our Neighbors

Join the church movement reshaping our neighborhoods—embracing love and creating community to house our neighbors and recognize our shared humanity.

Churches, amid declining membership and dwindling engagement, have an opportunity to provide a key role in these changing landscapes. In Building Belonging, John Cleghorn, a pastor from Charlotte, North Carolina—a city where prosperity and poverty uncomfortably coexist—shows how numerous congregations across the United States are leading the charge, embracing innovative approaches to ministry that leverage their resources to become havens of both welcome and shelter.

By examining the theological and sociological dimensions propelling congregations toward a radical transformation of their material and relational landscapes, this book weaves together narratives, insights, and experiences from diverse congregations at the forefront of this movement. Readers will be inspired to look at the unfolding narrative of unaffordable housing in a new way and be inspired to shape their ministry to harness all available resources to foster access and justice by housing neighbors. Written from the heart of a pastor who is deeply engaged in a church’s yearslong housing journey, this book does not stop at simply showing these challenges. Cleghorn also provides a roadmap for communities to initiate transformative processes, leveraging their unique abilities and resources to tackle significant local issues.

Proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Easter’s Home at Caldwell Presbyterian Church.

John Cleghorn is pastor of Caldwell Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. His congregation has been in the process of converting a fourteen-thousand-square-foot education building into twenty-one affordable apartments for those needing supportive housing―a congregational dream almost ten years in the making. His background as a journalist led him to visit, interview, and connect with congregations around the country who have done similar work.