Something I can't get my head around...
With NCBC spending rather a large sum of money on their building at the moment - this is something that is in the forefront of my mind.
This morning at church (oo I've been going to the same one at uni for a month now!) a little old lady 'preached' about their miracle gift day next week - raising money for one of the church buildings. (the church is part of a fellowship of 3). I am kicking myself that I missed the Bible verse she gave which she said backed up that it's God ordained to raise money and spend it on our buildings...
Anyway, as I got increasingly annoyed with what she was saying I decided to write down my thoughts in response to what she was saying. Don't get me wrong - I think it's very important that we tithe and give to God's work, and she was saying some good things about that, but it chills me when all people talk about is this money going into a building.
Why do people dwell on buildings?
We don't need pretty buildings for people to come to - we need to go out to people.
God is not just present in pretty (expensive) buildlings.
Why does she keep saying pretty?
Sacrifice of life for buildings?!!! People died in building the minister - sacrificing their lives for the building? And so we should sacrifice our money for the building?
I'm sure God rejoices more over someone becoming a Christian
Why aren't we planning how to use the money for the community?
Lord, do you really have a vision of pretty churches all over the world?
We can't sit in the church and wait for people to come no matter how pretty it is!
I understand that buildings need repairing - but do we really need to dwell on it at the expense of the lost souls of the world?
Interestingly - I still feel draw to this church even when I disagree with it...
11 comments:
Surely to truely honour God by serving in the community you sometimes need the facilities to draw the community to the church. Worshipping in a barn is fine and is perfectly adequate but will it draw community groups towards the church? No, they will instead useother facilities, owned by other faiths and therefore will have more contact with them. Upgrading the facilities of one building to ensure it's usefulness to an entire community is far more effective than using £750,000 to have a little effect on a proportion of the community.
yeah I see what you mean.
I think there should be church buildings, I just don't like it when so much emphasis is put on them, when it's made to seem as though outreach can't be done without them. Almost as an excuse not to do outreach because you haven't got the building sorted yet.
Uhuh. I agree with you sparky.
A (old ish) friend of mine goes to a church with 4 people, and has decreased to this size over many years (in other words a nearly dead church) Its in the middle of nowhere, they have one service a month, in which there are only 2 people in the congregateion, as one is preaching and one playing the piano, and it costs an insane amount to upkeep. Thye dont want to shut it down because it's a 'pretty little church' but is alos using a ridiculous amount of the circuits money.
My thought was they should just meet in a living room, but that didnt go down too well.....
It makes me uncomfortable too Sparky. Have a read of "Liquid Church" by Pete Ward - it talks about the difference between a solid church defined by buildings and walls and a liquid church defined by networks...
"D" - what you say is true but it needs a focus on the buildings as a means to an end rather than an end in themselves. Too often they are seen as an end in themselves.
Reminds me of churches using huge sums to buy up to date technology whch will draw hteir target group... I'm not sure what I think of it all, but just having a building is good and the use the church makes of it should maybe be the focus.
I think that you need to consider what buildings represent. They sybolise our protection when the elements make us vulnerable. They symbolise home (you wouldn't suggest that people make themselves homeless would you?) In my head worshipping God starts where we feel comfortable and that means a building because it reminds us of home in the fact that it's the place we go to at the end of the day. It's where we feel safe. Do away with a church building, do away with that feeling of safe. There are of course other buildings that could be and are used as a church but they often have been designed with alternative uses in mind which may slow things down, hamper the process of getting ready the worship environment, etc. Once there is a base for people to go FROM then I would argue that work is more purposeful and less bitty. As mainstream society views religious people as outsiders it may well be a lack of buildings that will confirm this as the case. You may view this as a good thing but I would cite monks and holy orders as a lasting tradition of people who deny themselves much in the pursuit of a relationship with God but didn't deny themsleves a building.
Just some random thoughts...
yeah they're good points. I haven't liked going to churches that don't have their own buildings. Partly because I'm used to having a building, but partly because I don't like not having a base.
I'm all for their being church buildings, I just don't like it when there seems to be so much focus on them at the expense of outreach. When people say we need to work on raising money for the church at the moment, and neglect the community. If you're working in the community, you're growing as a church etc - then hey - yeah do the repairs to the church and do what needs to be done to make it accessible.
But if you're using the fact that you have an inadequate building as an excuse not to do all that, then somethings wrong...
I would cite monks and holy orders as a lasting tradition of people who deny themselves much in the pursuit of a relationship with God but didn't deny themsleves a building.
They denied themselves the comfort of a safe cosy buliding, and the monastics just wandered in the desert denying themselves everything.
It's where we feel safe.
Why do we need a building to feel safe? It sounds like the building is part of our identity in God... I think that's wrong.
No I'm not saying church people are unique in feeling safe in a building, I'm saying it's the human condition. If that's the case then you need to struggle against instinct in order to be NOT based in a building. As you can probably tell, I'm not against buildings for this reason.
As for monks, I'm talking about church lived as a community and not individuals who did the whole wandering thing.
The point has to be not "should there be a building?" but what balance do you give to inwardly looking at building and outward looking work as a church community?
Maybe it would be interesting to discuss the whole "meeting God in a building" thing! I quite like to feel the presence of God when I go into a building. It reminds me he's an awesome God and not just a buddy God.
yeah. We discussed this talk at cell last night. We agreed that God can be found in any building - not just churches, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't feel good to have a consistant and stable base somewhere
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