The Abridged version:
- Facing dwindling attendance, Pioneer Church in Midtown recently put its historic church building up for sale.
- The church’s leadership is hoping for an investor that will allow them to stay, but they’re also considering options to move the congregation to another church.
- Churches across the region have shuttered due to declining membership in recent years.
Thirty people sat in the dark wooden pews of Pioneer Church last Sunday.
Eighteen others looked on from a video stream on the church’s YouTube channel.
As the Rev. David Bocock — better known as Pastor Bo to the congregation — closed his sermon, he offered prayers for church members recovering from surgery, for those experiencing homelessness and for LGBTQ community members experiencing fear. Lastly, he said, “Bless Pioneer as we discern our future together.”
Uncertain times are upon Pioneer Church. The church, which is the oldest congregation in Sacramento, is marking 177 years in service this year.
It’s also placing its century-old church building at 2700 L St. up for sale.
“We’re running out of money,” Bocock told Abridged.
With declining membership numbers in recent years, tithes and contributions aren’t going as far as they used to, Bocock explained. At the same time, expenses for upkeep on the historic building weigh heavily on the church.
The group is hoping a potential investor will allow them to remain, or they may have to find another church building to share with another congregation, Bocock said.
Dwindling attendance hits church coffers
It’s a familiar tale for many houses of worship. In 2023, the National Council of Churches warned that a wave of church closures was coming that could see 100,000 churches close their doors across the country.
For the United Church of Christ, the Protestant organization that Pioneer Church is part of, membership has been in steady decline for decades.
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The UCC saw 49 of its churches close their doors in the western United States between 2019 and 2024, dropping from a total of 634 churches to 585, according to an annual report by the UCC. The western region includes 13 states from Colorado to Hawaii.
During that same span of time, membership also dropped from 76,221 to 64,578 in the western region, according to the UCC’s data. The UCC notes that membership peaked in the 1960s at 2.2 million members across the country, and it now has a total membership of about 684,000, as of its most recent data from 2024.
The UCC Conference of Northern California and Nevada is anticipating that 15 churches will disappear from its ranks in the next year, Bocock said. Representatives from the conference did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Very few people go to church every week’
In the pre-pandemic days, the Pioneer Church congregation had about 100 church-attending regulars, plus a few dozen more attendees on major holidays.
The church’s previous pastor retired in 2019, and the turbulent days of the pandemic followed shortly after. When the church emerged from the COVID-19 shutdowns, not everyone came back, Bocock said. The church also lacked a lead pastor at the helm until September 2022, when Bocock began his tenure.
Today, the church has a congregation of about 50 active members, Bocock estimated.
“Very few people go to church every week anymore,” Bocock said. “It’s once a month, or sometimes it’s twice a month.”
Building could be event space
With the sale of the church, potential investors could see the building converted into an event space, a mixed-use development that would use the kitchen space, or use by another religious organization, said Jack Scurfield, a broker with Turton Commercial Real Estate who is working on the sale. The building is currently listed at $3.2 million.
The building has historic preservation protections and won’t see major changes to its exterior regardless of its future, Scurfield said.
“The building itself is incredible,” Scurfield said. “You could never rebuild this building for what it costs to purchase.”
The church is currently considering offers from investors that may allow them to stay in the building, according to Bocock.
Close ties to local LGBTQ community
In the weeks immediately following the 2016 presidential election, Randy Triezenberg and his husband found themselves looking for a new place to find belonging.
“It was knowing that there was this growing movement among the Evangelical Christian congregations that were not accepting of people like us,” Triezenberg said. “We were just looking for a sense of community.”
They learned that Pioneer Church had a substantial number of LGBTQ members and straight allies and found themselves at home in the church’s choir. Triezenberg eventually became the church’s treasurer.
“It’s a comforting place,” Triezenberg said.
Rainbow flags are a common sight in the church halls, pinned to bulletin boards alongside flyers for survivors of religious trauma, pet blessings and a banners urging peace in Ukraine.
The church also hosts the 32-singer Capital Chorale, which includes non-church members, and has a crossover in membership with the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus. Both Bocock and the church’s musical director are openly gay.
Music Director Elliot Jones points out stained-glass windows inside the sanctuary at Pioneer Congregational Church. (Martin Christian)
Church demographics changing
At the same time, other parts of the church’s membership have been waning.
Pioneer Church’s congregation is predominantly an older one, with some in their 30s and even fewer in their 20s, Triezenberg said.
“Things are changing around churches and demographics in the country as a whole,” Triezenberg said. “Younger people tend to have spiritual experiences that are not part of an organized religion.”
The recent news around the church sale has left some feeling “unsettled,” he added, and has caused some to look for other places to worship.
Pioneer Church promises to continue long history
Four different religious groups have claims to being the “first” to bring their services to Sacramento, and Pioneer Church is one of them.
The church’s founding pastor, Rev. Joseph Benton, had his first sermon in a park in Old Sacramento in May 1849.
That same year also saw the founding of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, First United Methodist Church and Congregation B’nail Israel of the Jewish faith.
The church has moved twice, in 1854 and 1926, and will continue whether it’s in its current church building or elsewhere, Bocock said.
“We don’t believe Pioneer Church is going away,” Bocock said. “Lord willing, the creek don’t rise, someone buys and the building and allows us to stay here.”
Felicia Alvarez is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability. She’s called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, health care and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.