Small church hits big milestone
First Christian Church, focused on community outreach, celebrating 85th anniversary
First Christian Church of Santa Fe is not your typical place of worship. Here, Buddhists, an Alcoholics Anonymous group, immigrants and reiki healers all gather to share ideas — spiritually related or not.
While the church, like many others, struggles to maintain its membership and draw younger congregants, its leaders say they are more interested in community outreach than increasing the number of pews filled in a Sunday service.
As the church celebrates its 85th anniversary Sunday, members and leaders celebrate the ways in which the sanctuary has evolved beyond its four walls on Webber Street.
“Church is not a building. It’s a gathering of people who are united in spirit and with a common purpose,” said the Rev. Tiffany Curtis, First Christian’s
minister. “That happens, and can happen, anywhere and everywhere — and in many forms.”
Curtis, 32, who moved to Santa Fe from Boston two years ago to spearhead the church’s community outreach — or “parallel church” — said her goal is not to convert people to Christianity.
Instead, she said she wants to spread love and create a safe space in which people of diverse backgrounds can come together. Part of her efforts include:
Kick-starting the monthly Community Table, where religious and nonreligious folk gather for dinner and discuss topics such as biking, yoga and poetry.
Collaborating with local reiki masters to offer a nontraditional form of healing both for physical and emotional trauma.
Working with transgender female asylum seekers who are detained in New Mexico and hosting a Transgender 101 course for locals to better understand the process of gender transition.
Co-founding the Faith Network for Immigrant Justice, where immigrants and refugees can access multilingual education programs.
Performing blessing ceremonies with a local Buddhist group, as well as offering the church’s annex building to Buddhists for meditative and other contemplative practices.
Welcoming an Alcoholics Anonymous group to freely discuss hardships that come with addiction and the joy of recovery.
Brainstorming a permaculture community garden.
Nancy Scheer, a church member, said Curtis’ approach isn’t new. The church’s progressive thinking, she said, is why she was initially drawn to First Christian 30 years ago.
“The church has always been community involved and open to various groups,” Scheer said. “Tiffany has really pushed that, but it’s always been there.”
Scheer said the church had its first female pastor in the 1980s, and around that time voted to be an “open and affirming” congregation, meaning members are especially inclusive of people from the LGBTQ community.
Anita Hett, a member of the church since she was 14, said this inclusion is unfortunately atypical in many modern, faith-based organizations.
“A lot of churches don’t love people for who they are,” Hett said. “I think that’s not a good way to serve people. We are all made in God’s image, so we should love people for who they are — not in spite of who they are.”
Curtis agrees. “Some people have been wounded by churches,” she said, which is why she wants “to offer another way of connecting.”
Since she came on board, Curtis said, the church has grown from six members to about 15, with a handful of young adults joining the 10:30 a.m. Sunday service.
More than half of those who attend the community dinner, she said, are also in their 20s.
Because of the church’s newly established outreach programs, Hett said, it’s hard to know how many people are involved in First Christian. But she knows numbers are increasing.
“We are reaching so many people outside of the walls that you can’t really put a number on it,” she said. “It’s groundbreaking, a new way of helping people to find something meaningful in their lives that brings them to their spirituality.”
Hett said despite membership declining to “very small numbers” in comparison to when she first joined, she remains hopeful.
Curtis, she said, “learns about the community and sees where there’s a spiritual need. We’re just moving with the spirit — whatever the spirit leads us to do.”
To celebrate the 85th anniversary, Curtis said the church planned to host a morning service led by a former minister. Afterward, a communal lunch is planned with members from AA, the Buddhist group and the reiki collective.
“Everybody in the community is welcome,” said Curtis, who expects about 50 guests.
Curtis said she was most excited about what the celebration represents: a shift in the church; a look to its future.
“I think in some ways, the church — capital C — is dying,” she said. “But it’s being reborn in new ways. It’s transforming.”