Thoughts on Church buildings and waste

A couple of weeks ago I received a letter from one of my friends in India asking if we would sponsor their building a church building. If we did, they would call it the "Ruth & John Grant Memorial Church." A little bit of my heart broke off as I read the letter.

As Dad and I travelled with this very pastor across Maharashtra a little under three years ago we spoke of the way that American Missions had taken the worst of our culture as well as the best with us as we tried to proclaim Jesus and that the idea that material opulence in church buildings was part of that sin.

In India more than 600 million people live on less than $2.00 a day. Somehow they survive. Here a pastor wants several thousand dollars to erect an additional church building when they already have a compound built as an orphanage. Something is out of kilter.

Unpacking some of my library I came across two books that speak to this issue. The first is by John Alexander. It was never published so it sits on my shelf in two notebooks. Its title says it all, Stop Going to Church and Be the Church. “How can we go to something we are?” he asks. Yet, that is the nature of how we think: “Do you want to go to church today?” Or, “Come on kids, we’re late for church!” we yell angrily because we are going to look bad, arriving late for the church gathering.

The second book, The Torch of the Testimony, makes the statement that if the evangelical church in North America was to divest of all it’s property the church would have over two billion dollars to spend on feeding the poor, clothing the destitute, and generally fulfilling the great commission of our Lord, Jesus.

One of my favourite churches is called the Evergreen Community. Because it meets in pubs throughout Portland, my wife and I were married in a Pub. I think it is one of the best possible partnerships. The pub isn’t going to open on Sunday morning (because it is not a sports pub). And so their space goes unused. Some of the church stick around to have lunch also helping the pub’s bottom line. The elder who preaches encourages people to tip well and most do. Jesus smiles.

Now, if you talk to the church planter that started it all he will tell you that not having a building sucks sometimes. Evergreen is truly missional and wants to be involved in feeding the poor and clothing the homeless. But because they have no building, they forgo the opportunity for a food pantry or a clothing bin for the homeless. In today’s day and age, there is little need for an office, though at times it would be nice and having a print center could be a great cost savings. There is a cost to not having a building.

Matt Hannan is a pastor at another of my favourite churches, New Heights, in Vancouver. A few years ago the church truly was out of space. They were meeting five times a weekend because there weren’t enough seats in the building for everyone to sit. Matt, who is probably Portland’s preeminent preacher was running out of voice by Sunday night, and the energy outlay of the weekend had to take it’s toll on his effectiveness during the week. However, when the church planned expansion they didn’t plan a seat for everyone. Instead they planned to still have three services and so they planned their expansion accordingly to save dollars so they would have more to throw into church planting and community engagement.

Another church here in Portland partnered with local businesses to build their building as part of a retail, and office space complex. By partnering with business the cost to each party was less than it otherwise would have been.

There is no right answer to these questions. And so even I have a suggestion to add to the mix. It might help someone somewhere. Let’s see. What if several church’s here in Portland that do not own their own building got together to lease space together… not to meet mind you, but for mission purposes. An old warehouse could be turned into a copy center, food pantry, clothes closet, or who knows what else, people could share the space. Church communities could work together to make it functional and fir their needs. Costs could be shared and kept low, and so congregations that could not afford their own space might be able to share space.

I fear that this would only work if the commitment of the leadership was to not see this as a stepping stone, “until we can afford more” but as a commitment to Kingdom values, and doing it in order to be missional. Anything less would lead to outward selfishness, conflict, and eventual collapse of the venture.   

Comments

[Barefootmeg]

When/where did you meet the Sojos/Servant King folks? Which sojos did you meet?

(And how do I get your blog to tell me when there's a new reply on here?)

[Stephen Grant]

I didn't get to meet John... only those who lived with him in church of the Sojourner and then their friends at Church of the Servant King... Maybe you and I should edit the book and get it to John Stock for publication...

[barefootmeg]

>The first is by John Alexander. It was never published so it sits on my shelf in two notebooks.

oh my goodness!!! how do you know john? i have a copy of this book also, but i still haven't finished reading through it even though it's from ages ago. i thought that debbie was going to edit it for publication. (all of john's writing could really have used a serious editing. he's a darling guy to listen to. i even posted a bunch of quotes from him a few months back to several sojourners who would appreciate the john-ness of them, but reading his written stuff was much harder to do. he really was more the kind of guy who's feet you'd want to sit at rather than who's book you'd want to read. his teaching always seemed more to me to be something that would soak into you over time rather than something you could really grok from his writing.)

the church we're in here in fort collins owns its building. (woot! we just paid it off a year and a half ago. very cool.) for a long time (since before we moved here) they had rented out a part of the manse to a pregnancy counseling center. and for the past 5 or so years we've been sharing meeting space with another congregation as well. they have their service while we do sunday school. then we flip spots. we have a calendar to keep track of weekly events so that we don't try to double occupy the space during the week, but it's a huge boon for us because it helps to pay the bills. it's a boon for them because the rent is uber cheap and they have use of the building all week, not just on sunday. and it's a cross-boon because we sometimes hold joint holiday services, swap kids in sunday school, and generally just hang out and chat between services. when we were searching for a new pastor, their pastor filled the pulpit several times and was such a shepherding, caring voice to us that we really felt pastored even though we were pastorless. though i think we could still use our building even more and in other ways (there are only two other groups that use the building right now. a 4-H group and an apartment complex managers group), i feel like we've at least got some good uses going on so far.

[Malana Ganz]

Stephen, I agree with your idea. We tried to do this a few years ago and couldn't make the contacts or share the vision for what we wanted, which included meeting space for 4 churches - Friday, Saturday and 2 on Sunday. So we ended up at your house!!! And now are renting space from another church. Second best solution at this time.