Problem #1 No strong leadership. ( pastor waiting for retirement) Problem #2 Congregation of life time membere unwilling to give up their social club (church) to new comers.(ran of the hispanic group) Is there hope? yes Get a strong leader who has a vision and can cast that vision to the leadership (not neccessaily the board) to the congregation and to the community. Do a church survey to find the churches weekness and strengths and do a community survey to find out what the #1 problem is and what the community thinks the churches role should be in meeting that need. Also use the building as much as possible let the community use it activity will create interest more activity more interest. Some of the needs in this type of community will be daycare,after school programs, addiction recovery, food pantry, and many more. They MUST get back the trust of the community that they destroyed. It will be very difficult but it can be done.

Start a virtual school in the unused building. That way funds will come into the church budget from outside the neighborhood. It only requires one or two staff members on a part time basis because it would be automated. To avoid any upfront costs, charge a registration fee for the coming semester. Cost should be about $660 per school year or $100 per month to get off to a competitive start. Use the registration fees to set up the courses. The curriculum can be any one of several off the shelf brands, or if there are members willing to do the work it can be created for free using an opensource Learning Management System and web links. Once the program is online and funds coming into the church, the community building can become a computer assisted K-12 school by day, and a vocational school by night. The day school can bring in additional funds, but will also serve as outreach. (Free computers are available from many government sources such as the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. New laptops can be ordered for around $300 as an alternative.) Because the entire program is computerized it can be staffed by two people who are only there for safety and discipline purposes. Focus on students from grade 5 through 12. To save money on desks, install countertop against the four walls and hold it up with 2X4's. It looks pretty good and makes the most use of space. However, if there is plenty of space, used office desks can be bought in most large city school systems for $3 to $5 each. At night the initial vocational students should begin by taking assessment tests to see where they are with reading and math. Online courses should be assigned to help any area of weakness. Initially train vocational students on opensource web tools similar to Dreamweaver and Photoshop. Opensource software like this is free and powerful. These students should also train on Ning, Joomla and DimDim. Church staff doesn't need to know these, enlist the help of a couple of young people in the area who are nerds and would like the chance to display their skills. Alternatively allow a professional to use the space to teach his own courses there in trade for teaching these students for free. Once the vocational students have mastered these programs they can put their new skills to work by creating an Online Tutoring site from which they can put other members of the neighborhood to work as mentors and tutors in all kinds of subjects. The mentors and tutors can either pay to list their own services and skills, or be a fee to work from home on the system. This is a good opportunity for them because they can stay at home with their children and still work. As the program grows, begin to create your own vocational courseware using the Learning Management System and public domain courses that can easily be adapted without writing them from scratch. Once a course is completed it can be sold for years, over and over again, bringing in more funds. Reach out to people in the neighborhood to create courses on carpentry, mechanics, drafting, etc. Create a stock photography business online. Have all interested parties take digital photos of elements in the old neighborhood. Remember that stock photos remain your property and can be sold a thousand times. Old buildings, rusted cars, ancient faces, and even a wrench can become a stock photo and be sold. Create a Ning social network for all these projects connected with the church to tie everyone together. It is free, easy, and will help with outreach. The church should take in $300,000 to $400,000 from these projects minimum the first year. They are all easy to do, require little administration or money, and will greatly motivate the members. I have done all the above and it works. Adapt it to fit the situation, but hold to the precepts of using free resources and teaching the neighborhood skills they can use.