I can see a need for buildings in the United States
However, I think that churches far too often use constructing a new building as a first resort rather than a last resort. Smaller churches could tag team in the same building like how Anchor conducted business instead of constructing their own buildings. Medium churches could add another service, operate a video service linked to a classroom or two, or some other method of taking care of the problem. And, large churches could actually—imagine this—peacefully separate, and form several smaller congregations that could potentially be more responsive to the actual day to day needs of the members.
I think the reason churches don’t think more outside the box is often a result of pride, convenience, security, or just genuinely not thinking through other options. I think one more option that many believe is that they are glorifying God. As a child I was told to be quiet inside the building because it was where God lived. God no more lives in a church building than he does in a believer’s home! After Christ died, God parted ways with the Temple Dallas Kingdom of God
4 comments:
I think part of why we start with a building is simply tradition.
Even though most people affirm that the church is the body, in practice it gets reduced to a place and a time to meet. We seem to only think that preaching occurs from a pulpit when everyone is present and that in terms of meeting that bigger is better.
When we make these reductions to our understanding of the body it creates obvious problems with how we impact the world and what we call them to.
BTW, a peaceful separation looks like church planting. You need to read Ray Baake's "Theology as big as the City." As it relates to this discussion, look at what he says about "tithing your people" from his chapter on Nehemiah.
Well said. Churches should not define themselves in buildings. I am convinced that if churches defined themselves Biblically, their buildings would look much different, as would their organizational structure and agendas. To redefine the church Biblically today would be another reformation.
I think Jefress poorly chose his words about the Kingdom needing a nice temple. I have a theology that says the Kingdom is completely "not yet," making an "already" temple an impossible idea. I am not opposed to their building program, but obviously have a different Kingdom theology.
Keep writing!
I just wanted to clarify what you were told as a child concerning the church building. What you were told was that this was God's house. I see that as a child, your understanding of that was that God must live there if it was his house. I suppose that I am a product of the 1950's culture in which I was brought up. What I was trying to instill in you was the concept of respect for "God's house".
I believed and still do that we should be respectful and reverent as we come to worship Almighty God, creator of everything.
If I were invited to the White House, I would be very mindful of my manners and this pales in comparison to the respect that I feel towards the place where I come to worship God.
It is a no brainer that God indwells his people. Yes, I could worship God in the fields or in the mountains and God would be pleased, but wherever I worshiped God, I would want to conduct myself as one in awe of a holy God.
I wanted you children to learn not to run, shout, or bang on the church piano. I wanted to create in each of you a respect for the place where we worshiped a holy God.
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