Looking at our buildings differently.

BY DERMOT COTTULI

From as far back as I can remember in Bible college, we were taught that owning your own church building was a strategic Kingdom investment. We were told that owning land was like driving a stake into the ground for the Kingdom of God and carried great spiritual weight in claiming ground from the kingdom of darkness. But is any of that really true, and if there’s truth contained in those thoughts, should they be the priority of our treasure?

There’s no doubt that a church building in a town is a tangible representation of religion, but does it really do all that we’ve been led to believe, or is it a distraction from the main game? There could be an argument for older style cathedrals being a showcase of the magnificence of God, but how does that stack up against the humble carpenter from Nazareth who claimed no home of his own?

Nowadays we can’t use the cathedral argument as most of our churches look more like modern-day convention centres than a temple to our God. “But it’s not a temple” you would say. “We are the temple of God”, and you would be right, but ask yourself this question: “If it’s not needed by God to extend his kingdom across the earth, why do we devote so much time, treasure and talent to it?”

For most churches, outside of salaries, property management is our biggest expense. The question then is, who is our property for?

The problem with church buildings is the message they send to our community every day of the week. They tell our community that we value ourselves more than we value them. If we spend the majority of our treasure on ourselves, what good have we achieved?

If it’s only the things that we give away during our lives that we take with us into eternity, why do we tie up so much of our treasure in buildings for ourselves when those buildings could be so much more?

What if we were to make our buildings our gift to our local community and not just our Sunday home?

10 years ago, our church bought an old run-down pub in Rokeby, a social housing estate on the outskirts of Hobart in Tasmania. We decided right from the start that we wouldn’t hold services at the pub but would instead develop it into a meeting hub for our local community and offer it to our community for their benefit. We coined the phrase “The Grace Centre – Our gift to our community,” to keep our vision front and centre. We took our treasure and we spent it on our community. What has happened there over the the past 10 years has been extraordinary, but this article isn’t about our journey. This article is to challenge you to rethink your thoughts around your church building.

If people in your community were to look at what you’ve spent your treasure on, what would they say is the focus of your church? If you have a building, then there’s Exhibit A for everyone to see. Why not change the focus of your building from being your home to being your gift to your community? It would make all the difference.

And one last thing, you don’t tell people how to use the gift you’ve given them. 🙂

It’s okay if you disagree with what has been written above but if it helps you think more clearly about your practice then that’s a good thing. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if you feel you’re disrespecting a sacred cow. We all see dimly as through a dark glass but we have this confidence that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. So let’s not stumble over the stones in the road but instead press on to take hold of all that Jesus has for us.