New wrinkle for Circle of Hope:

It is disappointing and sad news we received the first of August. In a surprising announcement, we learned that the permitting departments in Salt Lake City required us to have a full fire suppression system installed as part of our remodel request. The requirement included the whole building. Our contractor had met in January with permitting folks and thought we were in good shape to proceed as an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit), putting in egress windows and new fire alarms to address updating the upstairs. Asbestos mitigation was also addressed for the remodel. When the permits were formally requested, we received the disappointing news. Addressing asbestos mitigation and fire suppression a building built in the 1960's, makes any renovation to Tabor very expensive and not something the New Ministry Team (NMT) feels we can continue to pursue.

Now what?

The NMT team met to discuss this and is recommending we expand our group to add more voices. Over the past couple of years leading up to the pursuit of Circle of Hope, the NMT had discussed several other possibilities for Tabor. In September with the expanded group, the NMT plans to review where we are now, take a deeper look into other possibilities and get ready to present summaries to the congregation to inspire new conversations. Please let us know if you wish to join this conversation. 

Circle of Hope is the official name of the new ministry at Mt. Tabor established in 2025.

Lutherans believe that Grace compels believers to actively work for justice in the world by loving their neighbors and advocating for the marginalized. Mount Tabor is committing to help some of the most vulnerable, being homeless children and their families. Feed the hungry. Shelter the homeless.
 

A Ministry of People and Place

Tabor is dedicated to providing spiritual service to the body of Christ which involves the wise stewardship of God's resources for the accomplishment of the work of ministry. Our New Ministry Team tasks recognized that we may not be able to draw a significant number of new volunteers to new ministries, but we could find new ways to use our church building as a more accessible and visible asset in active service to the community.

In 2024, the New Ministry Team began community research to help us refine what Tabor’s future might look like in the current environment. Our congregation numbers have decreased, but our commitment to be engaged in service and community has not. Tabor is well-known as the ‘round church’ on the corner of 7th East and 2nd South. Our location to mass transport, the university and downtown are enviable.

Over the past couple of years, we secured $36,500 in grant money from the ELCA and the Rocky Mountain Synod to support a significant new ministry program. As our research changed and revitalized partnering possibilities came to pass, we announced our commitment to creating a Family Promise temporary family housing program. This includes converting the entire second floor of our church building to get kids and their families off the street for good and working towards a future and where we, as a house of God, offer safe, supportive temporary housing, embedded in a tried-and-true comprehensive re-housing program.

The commitment is that Tabor re-engages with Family Promise (FP) to build a dual church housing ministry for families. The first phase of this will be transitional housing. In this model we will house a single family in a renovated area (about 1⁄2 of the second floor) for six months at a time. They build more confidence and real-world skills to support themselves and increase the expectation of permanent housing success. A second phase envisions shifting to a 3 month emergency housing model providing 2-4 families housing, again working with Family Promise. This model expands to using the entire second floor with 7 bedrooms, a common kitchen/dining/living room and a second bathroom both with showers.

A third phase is envisioned to adding onto the Mt. Tabor building by constructing 4-6 transition apartments. This comprehensive program implementation and site development will take some time to fruition, but as these impressive statistics bear out - it is a significant investment in the long-term health and well-being of our Salt Lake City homeless family neighbors in need. It is hoped that this program development effort will provide a model for other churches/denominations to consider as they re-envision their available building assets to impact the growing family homelessness crisis.