Chapter 1 in my book, Close Your Church for Good, is called “The Satanic Church.” Please note that due to some of the feedback I received 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 posts that come from this chapter:

• A Church in Your Town
• It May Be Your Church
• Destroy This Church
• Jesus vs. Satan
• Three Strikes
• Falling to Temptation
• Fool’s Gold
• What Now?

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 the United States, churches do not have to pay property taxes. This is a great benefit to churches, especially when church budgets are tight.

But have you ever wondered why churches are given tax-exempt status? It has nothing to do with the separation of church and state. The reason churches are given tax-exempt status is the same reason that any other non-profit organization (whether religious or not) is given the same status: they engage in charitable work that benefits the community. The government wants to encourage people to be charitable, and so gives tax-exempt status to charitable organizations.

Therefore, if a church is not engaging in charitable service in the community, it is reasonable to ask them to surrender their tax-exempt status. Churches, like any charitable organization, should only get tax-excempt status if they can show where and how they are providing a service to the community.

“But,” a church might say, “We cannot afford to do much in the community. We are barely paying our bills as it is.”

[Read more…]

In numerous previous posts, I have proposed that churches sell their building in order to live according to kingdom principles and become more missional.

Maybe you are not convinced.

Or maybe you cannot imagine doing church without owning a building. Maybe you truly do need to own a building to carry out your God-given mission in your community. There are many churches around the world that own buildings and use them for the Kingdom to the glory of God. Maybe yours is one of them, and selling your building might actually interfere with your mission in the world.

Fine.

I am not against buildings per se. I do not believe that owning a church building is necessarily sinful or wrong. Buildings are a tool, and can either help or hinder the mission of the church. There are many cases where buildings can be used effectively.

My primary concern is that for many churches, buildings are chains that hold the people back from truly ministering in an effective way in the community. With buildings come footholds of power, money, and control that hold many congregations back.

[Read more…]

As we look at ways to help churches become more missional and organic, we have been discussing the problems of church buildings and the inherent restrictions they cause.

One solution is simply to sell your church building.

If your church has more than 20 people, you probably feel that selling your building is not an option. It may be fine for a church of a dozen people to meet in someone’s house, but that is unrealistic for a church of 50 or 100, let alone a church of 1000 or more.

But if a church really wants to escape the pitfalls of power and control that come with buildings, there are only two options: you must either sell the building or find another way to break free of the issues and pitfalls of owning a building.

In this post, we will look at how your church could still function if you decide to sell it. In a laster post, we will survey some suggestions for redeeming your building if you retain it.

[Read more…]