Reclaiming Sacred Space

Reclaiming Sacred Space

Small Black Churches, Land Justice, and the Fight Against Systemic Barriers

First Edition

Davanta Scruggs, Sr., 2026
ISBN 9798259220218

Softcover, 140 pp.
9.0 X 6.0 X 0.3 inches | 0.4 pounds

Reclaiming Sacred Space explores how small Black churches can convert underused land into sacred infrastructure for affordable housing, community-serving development, and long-term flourishing. Grounded in theology, land justice, Black church leadership, and practical community development, this first edition introduces the Cyclical Congregant-Communal Land Trust, a church-rooted model of land stewardship and predevelopment finance.

Developed from the lived experience of New Mount Zion Baptist Church in Shelbyville, Kentucky, the book argues that church-owned land is more than property. It is sacred trust. Through long-term ground leases, church-controlled governance, capacity building, and community accountability, the CCCLT offers a pathway for small Black churches to preserve ownership, resist speculative displacement, and create affordable housing and community-serving space without selling away their future. This work speaks to pastors, church leaders, seminarians, nonprofit leaders, community organizers, housing advocates, and institutions seeking faithful strategies for land retention, housing justice, and community transformation.

Davanta Rashad Scruggs is a pastor, nonprofit leader, and community strategist working at the intersection of theology, justice, and systems change. His work centers the Black Church as a sacred institution capable of transforming land, policy, an community city life into instruments of liberation and long-term flourishing.