This is not my work, but noteworthy enough to repost. The link to the original post is at the bottom. - Lonnie
Are Church Buildings Necessary?
by Loren Seibold
I have a congregation that is reduced to just a handful of active members, none of them young. They’re housed in a broken-down, maintenance-long-deferred church over a hundred years old. Bricks are falling off, a whole section of the building is separating so that squirrels and raccoons squeeze in, the stained-glass windows are falling out, we have damage from termites and black mold, and leaking roofs have left rusty spots on the old tin ceilings. It stinks - literally.
They know they can’t continue on there, although thus far, we’ve not been successful in finding a buyer. But if we do sell it, what then?
There is almost a desperation in the congregation not to be without a building of their own. I’ve suggested house church, and renting a room from another church or organization. But even with such a weak congregation, having their own building seems to be their absolute minimum requirement. They’d rather continue in that horrible building, with two short pews occupied on the best Sabbath, than not have a building of their own. One of our church members discovered a little church building far, far out in the country - something that’s been for sale for a long time, for the good reason that a congregation can’t survive there - and they’ve decided to spend their capital there (provided they’re able to sell) rather than be without a church home for even a short period of time.
I’ve pastored in every sort of church building, from the embarrassingly horrible to the brand-new multi-million-dollar envy-of-the-community building. In most of them I believe we’ve spent more board meeting time talking about church buildings and the money to buy and keep them up than we have talking about ministry. Large or small, buildings dominate church life. Planning, constructing and paying for a 6 million dollar church took countless hours of planning and work. On the other hand, we recently had a lengthy discussion in one church board about fixing the flush handle on the men's urinal, to which an elder responded with a lecture on how it uses too much water anyway, and that he had placed a styrofoam cup next to the sink for men to pour a bit of water into the urinal after each use. And, he scolded, whoever's doing it, quit throwing away the cup!
That’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back.
It’s in those moments that I realize how easily we forget about the world “out there”. We exist for our building, not for our ministry. We say we'd like other people to join us in to our building. Yet the church isn’t designed to be especially hospitable for new people - like, what if they don’t know the correct usage of the urinal cup?
I confess, after all these years of being a pastor, I have become heartily sick of spending so much time and money on church buildings, building new ones or maintaining old ones. These are structures we use only a few hours in a week. Congregations seem to define themselves by their building, not by their people. Take away the building, and who are we? Even start-up congregations that begin in rented spaces dream of having their own building. Yet I think it could be argued that buildings encourage our tendency to be a private club. They create a territory that’s hard for strangers to enter. They gather us together rather than pushing us out in the world where we should be.
How important are church buildings to the work of Jesus? Vital, or a necessary evil? I don't know the answer, but I'd welcome some discussion.
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