I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anything to distract us from our primary mission. That is, to reach this region for Jesus Christ. If a building can help us achieve that – great, let’s go for it. But if a building becomes THE mission (and replaces our true mission), then we are in trouble.
“The Wall Street Journal reported this week that more and more churches are falling behind or defaulting on loans. Lenders say churches were long considered good credit risks—they carried little mortgage debt and were based in buildings that were paid off long ago. But more recently some churches, most non-denominational, adopted massive building campaigns and increased borrowing to expand their facilities. These churches reported collecting large pledges from members for the expansion, but as much as two-thirds of the money was never actually donated. "There have been too many churches with a 'build it and they will come' attitude," says N. Michael Tangen of church lender American Investors Group Inc. "They had glory in their eyes that wasn't backed up with adequate business plans and cash flow." Mark G. Holbrook of Evangelical Christian Credit Union reports, "We are seeing more stress in churches than we have in modern history." One church in Easton, MD was sold at auction after a foreclosure; the auctioneer was himself married in the building and his two children baptized there. The church's rector, Joel Johnson, said after the auction, "It's probably good for my soul to be taken down a notch."
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Thoughts?
2 comments:
I was saw that article in the Wall Street Journal too - front page news no less. I was struck by how it seemed so easy to loose sight of community and focus on grand buildings. We can't loose sight of the community that we are serving.
I haven't hid my thoughts about it - I think a building is usually a distraction. It encourages "holy huddles" or a Christian Country Club and can be a money and time suck. Good can come from them, but I think the idea of let's go out into the community and invite them to our building is less promising than going to meet them where they are. I also think buildings lead to more more ministries. I knew of one family at my last church which found themselves at church almost every night of the week between choir, band, youth, prayer meeting, etc. They were great people and I'll bet other people in their community could have benefitted from knowing them, too.
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