Before asking many of the questions typically voiced about whether or not a church should build new facilities and expand or renovate, let’s first ask some key questions:
1) What is the bare minimum we need, for our church, to fulfill our purpose to love God and love people?
2) What is the optimal, for our church, to be fulfilling our purpose to love God and love people?
3) Where do we cross the line in either direction, lose our footing, and stop fulfilling our purpose to love God and love people?
Proverbs 30:8-9 does not speak of church facilities but the principle therein certainly could apply. — “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”
One of the points we can pull from these verses is that we must not allow our facilities, however grand or meager, to distract us from our primary purpose. We must not get so consumed with our surroundings that we forget God or dishonor His name. When we cross this line, we set ourselves up for a fall. We lose our footing.
We don’t need a magnificent building to live out God’s purposes. We can exist with the bare minimum, and even thrive with very little. The extras might enhance what we do but if we aren’t careful, they can also become a miry pit of distractions.
If you have crossed that line, cry out to the Lord for help to regain your footing. May you be able to say, “He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand” (Ps. 40:1-2).
You’ll find a list of specific ways we might lose our footing in the Steering the Church Toward God’s Purposes Leadership Guide along with the content on this page.
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?
Went to a church that built new building and everything changed after that eventually a church split. The church was growing and focused on ministry but in the new building we couldn’t put things on classroom walls, kids all sudden getting yelled at for kid stuff, certain things could only be done certain places. Everything became about keeping the building in top shape. Board meetings focused on building issues not church life and ministry. Soon infighting over stupidest stuff mostly somehow got back to building.
I am sorry to read of this example you provided, Pat, but unfortunately this kind of scenario is not uncommon. We do need to be good stewards of what we have but there is a point where it can turn to obsession. As suggested in this post, we can get distracted if we aren’t careful.
This is so important in an age where we have so many distractions–not only with the building, but with many and all manner of temporal things. We absolutely need to be refocused on the Eternal God and Him alone. Our eyes are more on earthly leaders than on God–they are seated on the throne of many of our hearts–the place that belongs solely to Him and it has been rationalized to death. It is all idolatry of buildings, of people, and mammon, too. Thank you!
I agree, Lisa, that the building is just one of many possible distractions. I think of the account in Luke 10 where Martha was “distracted by all the preparations that had to be made” … serving … and Jesus reminded her that “one thing is needful.” Of course, Jesus wasn’t saying that we ignore everything else, like the building we meet in, but our focus needs to be on Him. The building and other things are mere tools. Earthly leaders and teachers can be instrumental in our growth but there can only be one Head of the Church! Thanks for the reminder that putting anyone or anything else above the Lord is idolatry.