Field of Dreams
One of the things that bothers me most about the church of today is our insatiable appetite for buildings. We have the idea that a building will take the place of going into all the world. We erect our structures with the "Field of Dreams" mentality . . . "if we build it they will come." It just isn't so. Our congregation is getting ready to waste $2.5 million dollars on a new auditorium. Our claim is that it will help us reach out better. The truth is it will help us SHUT out better. Rather than erecting a building that attracts we seem to be building citadels, which cause people to shun us, as we shut them out. If our claim is that we will reach out better why are we not reaching out now? The truth is, we do not reach out to our community now, and we have a nice building. What would make us more apt to reach out if we had a new building?
For some reason we are trying to build mega-churches to take the place of our commission. The mega-church will, we hope, erase most of our guilt feelings for not going into all the world, because it will appear that we are doing something, after all we have a big congregation. Of course the members will not be there because we have reached into the community and served them so that they saw our light and glorified our Father in heaven, but rather they will be, as they are now, transplants from other congregations in the area. We are reaching desperately few from our community, and we are failing miserably in serving our fellow men, and we have lost our way in following the footsteps of Jesus Christ, but we have a nice building, and we will soon have a better one.
I'm sure God is proud of that!
For some reason we are trying to build mega-churches to take the place of our commission. The mega-church will, we hope, erase most of our guilt feelings for not going into all the world, because it will appear that we are doing something, after all we have a big congregation. Of course the members will not be there because we have reached into the community and served them so that they saw our light and glorified our Father in heaven, but rather they will be, as they are now, transplants from other congregations in the area. We are reaching desperately few from our community, and we are failing miserably in serving our fellow men, and we have lost our way in following the footsteps of Jesus Christ, but we have a nice building, and we will soon have a better one.
I'm sure God is proud of that!
posted by Josiah Tilton at 9:53 AM
4 Comments:
One of the churches here in the Nashville area is preparing to build a 6 million plus building, also in the name of outreach. My own home congregation is trying to put every available dollar toward our 3 million dollar debt. What is really sad is that these are only a few of the thousands of mega building being constructed across the country.
What may even be more sad is the millions of dollar necessary to run the multi-million dollar plants.
There is alot of talk about outreach, but the bottom line, for the most part, it is just that - talk.
May God wake us from our brick and mortar mentality to the reality of the hopeless and lost of the world for whom He died.
The church here in Lancaster, PA is about to do the same. It just seems you can't convince anyone to do something different. A new building is the only answer in their mind and we stand looking like malcontents not getting with the program. I think part of the building craze today comes from books the like of the one put out by Billy Graham's group and the surveys they have taken on the "formerly unchurched". Their surveys show people like to see nice buildings. But I wonder if our way of life in USA has caused people to be accustomed to and expect "temples" or "houses of worship"??!! Exasperating!!!
Ouch! Hey, you haven't been reading my blog, have you? :O)
I think you may have hit a nerve Si!
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