Can We Build A No Church Building Church?

As our church begins to raise the capital to remodel, a church member writes:

Danny,

I have heard several in the last few years discuss how we shouldn't have a church building. We should sell the building we have and give that money to mission work. The idea being that people would then just meet in Church homes. I think Barna has been putting this forward to some degree saying that churches as we know them won't exist in 20 years.

In the last year I 've learned that there are groups across the US whose aim is to prevent new churches from being built and also prevent older churches from being renovated. There is apparently such a group doing their work near us. When a new building or remodel happens they vandalize it with the intention of bankrupting Church to its demise. I can't confirm this is true.

I feel like we are called to worship together and build up one another. I also believe that if we didn't come together many of our missional support and community works simply wouldn't happen. From my chair it's a dumb argument (having church takes away from missional work, without the Church much missional work couldn't be achieved.) I think the church is pivotal to mission work and let's not forget support for one another.

I would love to see you tackle this argument on your blog from the biblical perspective.

Brian

In coming posts I will address these thoughts and questions. From house churches to the development of buildings for worship and the challenges of building churches, we'll discuss it all.

We can dismiss the "vandalism to the glory of God" concept out of hand. Is this really true? I suppose I ought to no longer be shocked by the nut fringe. This idea is so absurd I'm not sure what to say, other than anyone who approves ought to find a good church to attend.

The Greatest Investment

We have begun our five weeks of focus and faith building at our church. Our plan is to raise the money necessary to bring our entire church campus up to date.

You know how we preachers are, right? We come up with points we want to make that happen to form an acrostic. Or we make sure all the main points of a lesson start with the same letter. I once published a lesson outline and noticed not that the first letters of the five points spelled “corny.” Several folks did notice and pointed it out to me. They said it made perfect sense to them!

Well, in regard to The Great Investment I’ve been thinking of many words that employ the use of “re” to suggest what we’re doing. Here are three:

REMODEL… As in “Our entire church campus has needed to be remodeled for some time now."

RECOMMIT… Our community will be blessed by our leaders’ decision to serve right where we are, where bold leaders built a church a generation ago. The surrounding community has changed a great deal over the past thirty years and we are recommitting to be God’s people in this community.

RENOVARÉ… It’s from an old Latin word meaning “renew.” Its application is often for the spiritual, as in “Our church is in need of renovare'.” Author Richard Foster has a series of RENOVARÉ Spiritual Formation Guides on this theme. He says, “God is inviting us to go on a journey into his heart and into the good life made available through Jesus: 'I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly' (John 10:10). But entering into this abundant life takes more than wishful thinking; it takes a well-thought-out, feasible plan.”

This is what The Great Investment is: A well-thought-out feasible plan. But it is not just bricks and mortar. It is an invitation to journey with God, a call for us to grow in what matters most. The Great Investment is an opportunity to invest in the only thing that lasts forever. Let’s grow in faith, have more trust in the Word of God, and be in prayer.

For those of you who are a part of our church fellowship in Fort Worth, we have lots of work and prayer ahead of us! It's an exciting time.

For those of you in the greater fellowship of the blogosphere (most of whom I've never personally met but all of whom I appreciate and admire) please join our church and ask for God's blessing.

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