We know that Scripture is useful (2 Tim. 3:16-17) and powerful (Heb. 4:12). But, we won’t experience it’s power and benefit unless we align with it. When it comes to church facilities, that means the building must reflect the keeping of God’s Word, but how?
Put Emphasis where the Bible Does in How We Manage Church Facilities
Jesus spoke of the Jewish temple, a place He specifically established for His people to worship, when He quoted Old Testament Scripture saying, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers'” (Matt. 21:13). Certainly, though, since believers are commanded to be devoted to prayer (Col. 4:2), still today, the spiritual supersedes the physical.
Ask: Are we setting up our facilities so God’s purposes and design for the Church can best be facilitated wherever we might meet?
For More:
- A House of Prayer?
- When a Church is Truly a House of Prayer
- Spiritual versus Physical House of Worship
For the New Testament Church, we find more emphasis on people than the place of worship. The Greek word for Church, ekklesia, means a calling out or gathering of people who are called out. God, in His Word, labels believers themselves as “a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:5).
Ask: Do we have the right perspective, priority, and attitude toward the building and all related to it as opposed to the people gathering in it?
For More:
Follow Biblical Principles so the Building Reflects the Keeping of God’s Word
Scripture doesn’t provide much about where the Church meets and how to design or structure that place. In the absence of specific commands, we must then turn to broad commands for principles to guide us. To experience the power and benefit of God’s Word, we must align not only with targeted commandments but also biblical principles. We should seek to reflect the keeping of God’s Word in all areas of church life, including the building in which we meet and our facilities management.
For an example we’ll look at two passages with similar content that do not specifically reference church facilities in the verse or context but provide principles for us to follow.
“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” (Col. 4:5)
Principle: Be wise in the management of our facilities so they can best be used in reaching our community.
Sometimes that may mean hosting community outreach events in our facilities. Sometimes it may be opening the doors for them to use it in emergency or disaster situations, for parking in our lot for nearby community hosted events, etc. And, if something goes wrong in the process, go to the next verse in how to deal with it. — “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone….” (Col. 4:6)
Ask: Are there ways we can use our facilities for ministry to the community to better steward what we have?
“Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:15-16)
Principle: Be a good steward in how you use facilities, strategically planning ways to most effectively to use them for ministry as well as a testimony to the world around us.
Ask: Are there ways we can better use our facilities, not only for reaching the community, but also for ministry within?
We can do the same with other precepts in God’s Word, turning them into principles that relate to church facilities and their management and then asking strategic questions about how we align with God’s Word. When we do, we’ll find the power and benefit of God’s Word as “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
For More, Go To: Resources about God’s Word
All Posts about Facilities Management:
- CHURCH FACILITIES: Keep Footing
- CHURCH FACILITIES: Keep Focus
- CHURCH FACILITIES: Keep Flexible
- CHURCH FACILITIES: Keep Functional
- CHURCH FACILITIES: Keep Free from Consumerism
- CHURCH FACILITIES: Keep Free from Comparisons
- CHURCH FACILITIES: Keep Free from Coercion
- Building Equals Increased Possibilities?
- Building Equals Increased Testimony?
- Building Equals Making an Eternal Difference?
- Building Reflect the Glory of His Name?
- Management of Facilities Requires Grace
- Grace Affects Giving
- Grace Needed for Attitudes about Church Facilities
- The Building Isn’t Enough
- Spiritual versus Physical House of Worship
- Transforming Work of the Spirit, Not the Building
- A House of Prayer?
- When a Church is Truly a House of Prayer
- Building Projects Benefit from More than One Type of Leader
- Facilities Management & Building Maintenance a Ministry?
- Building Reflect the Newness of the Resurrection?
- Building Reflect the Keeping of God’s Word?
- Weirdness Surrounding Church Buildings
- Leader’s Role as a Shepherd and Facilities Management
- Leader Qualities Matter Even in Facilities Management
James 1:25 – But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.