Chapter 5 in my book, Close Your Church for Good, is called “Cut All Church Programs.”

Please note that due to some of the feedback I receive on these posts, this chapter might be radically revised for the final edition of the book. These changes will only be available in the print or eBook version when it comes out.

Here are the blog posts that come from this chapter:

• Gauging Church Efficiency
• Always at Training, Never Trained
• Kill Church Programs
• Three Keys to Successful Church Programs

To read the content of any other chapters, check out the post which contains the Table of Contents to Close Your Church for Good.

In his day, Kierkegaard viewed church buildings as one of the primary factors that inhibited the health and mission of the church. In his book, Attack upon Christendom, he wrote this:

Think of a hospital. The patients are dying like flies. The methods are altered in one way and another. It’s no use. What does it come from? It comes from the building, the whole building is full of poison. That the patients are registered as dead, one of this disease, and that one of another, is not true; for they are all dead from the poison that is in the building.

So it is in the religious sphere. That the religious situation is lamentable, that religiously men are in a pitiable state, nothing is more certain. So one man thinks that it would help if we got a new hymnal, another a new altar-book, another a musical service, etc., etc.

In vain—for it comes from…the building…

Let it collapse, this lumber room, get rid of it, shut all these shops and booths… And let us again serve God in simplicity, instead of treating him as a fool in magnificent buildings.

This concludes my series on church buildings, which will eventually find their way into my book, Close Your Church for Good. Next week, we move on to a different subject: Pastors.

If the topic of church buildings is controversial, the subject of professional pastors is even more so. Don’t miss a post: Subscribe to the blog in a reader or by email.

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At a time when many churches around the country are defaulting on their current mortgage, most churches probably do not want to hear that one way to redeem their buildings for missional purposes is to double their church mortgage.

However, this recommendation is not really about past debt, but about future debt and budgeting. Many churches, if they had followed the recommendation in this post, would not find themselves in the debt dilemma they now face.

The recommendation is that whenever a church seeks to spend money, they double the cost. The extra money would then go toward missional work and service in the community and around the world.

In essence, this recommendation asks churches to put 50% of their budget toward missions.

Church buildings are usually the biggest expense, but this principle could be applied to anything the church spends money on, from pastoral salaries to office supplies. The end result of this is not really that the budget doubles, but that the budget stays the same, and how the money is spent undergoes careful examination. Some churches already give away 50% of their annual budgets toward missions. I congratulate them, but even these churches might be helped by doubling the cost of items they wish to purchase to help them determine if the purchase is important or not.

[Read more…]

Chapter 4 in my book, Close Your Church for Good, is called “Cancel Your Church Service.”

Please note that due to some of the feedback I receive on these posts, this chapter might be radically revised for the final edition of the book. These changes will only be available in the print or eBook version when it comes out.

Here are the blog posts that come from this chapter:

• Cancel Your Church Service
• Out of Control Church
• Out of Control Church – Part 2
• Exit Signs
• Sinning in Church
• Attendance Dependence
• Pastor Pushers
• Let My People Go!
• Church Cancelled Today
• Put Service Back in “Church Service”
• Give Presence
• Suggestions for Presence

To read the content of any other chapters, check out the post which contains the Table of Contents to Close Your Church for Good.

Chapter 3 in my book, Close Your Church for Good, is called “The Church Must Die.”

Please note that due to some of the feedback I received on these posts, this chapter was radically revised for the final edition of the book. These changes will only be available in the print or eBook version when it comes out.

Here are the posts that come from this chapter:

• The Body of Christ
• 1 Corinthians 12 – Part A
• 1 Corinthians 12 – Part B
• Public Relations
• Lawn Trash
• Living in the Kingdom
• In Car Nation
• Accusing Jesus
• Vision Casting to Death

To read the content of any other chapters, check out the post which contains the Table of Contents to Close Your Church for Good.