Every time I enter a building where a church meets, I am reminded of something one of my seminary professors said: “First we make our buildings; then our buildings make us.” It seems that far too often, a church is formed and influenced more by its buildings than by Scripture or even Jesus Christ. We defend our buildings and what we do in them more than we defend the fatherless, the widows, the poor, the hungry, and the destitute.
A church that might begin in simplicity, with fellowship and service being the focus of their community, radically changes once it constructs a building. It now becomes focused on filling the pews, upgrading the sound system, paving the parking lot, and paying the mortgage. Whereas before the church used to go the community and get involved in their events, now the church invites the community to the church building to attend the church events.
All of this leads me to believe that we are no longer the church of Jesus; we are the church of buildings. We strive for buildings and work for buildings. We live and die for our buildings. We protect them at all cost. We defend them to the death. We are jealous of the buildings of bigger churches and newer churches. We fight for our right to own buildings, keep buildings, and meet in buildings.
Returning to the mission and message of Jesus might require us to give up our buildings. Why? Because we have become the church of buildings, rather than the church of Jesus.
In this time of budget problems at state and city levels, some are calling for taxing the properties of nonprofits. Perhaps this would encourage fewer church buildings.
I’d love to hear all the details when some church actually sells their building and gives a large chunk of the proceeds to the poor. Does anyone know of this ever happening?
Many of these posts are rough drafts from sections of the book I am working on, and I actually propose later that churches do what you have suggested here.