If you Google "churches for sale" you will find a plethora of once holy places on the block for sale as ministries of every denomination find themselves with churches in prime locations for development. With churchgoing dwindling creating a financial crunch, church hierarchy increasingly puts their once sacrosanct real estate up for sale to solve, or at least mitigate, their financial woes.

God's loss is the developers blessing as many of these once sacred spots are architectural gems that can be repurposed into all sorts of cool developments. Most recently the Archdiocese of New York decommissioned over 50 churches across the five boroughs. Some of the churches have grand spaces in choice locations throughout the city. As an example, it was recently reported that a development company purchased a Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, New York for $8.8 million and plans to build apartments and townhouses on the site, retaining the existing church structure which was built in 1894. One of the lucky buyers will surely be truly "blessed" if they snare a section of the once holy place in their apartment.

This all makes a lot of sense, and I reckon we'll see more decommissioning in the future as financially strapped congregations are willing to make the trade.