Category Archives: Church

Didn’t we say that the building wasn’t the church?

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cathedralSome final thoughts (for now) about buildings and the future of the church. In churches of Christ, we have traditionally fought about the identification of a building as “the church.” In my experience, we don’t emphasize that in our language as we once did, but we have tried to hold onto the concept.

That being said, it’s hard for a church to separate its identity from a physical location. Some of it has to do with memories and tradition, a bit like a house that’s belonged to your family for years. That house is not your family, but you have a lot of emotions invested in that house, lots of memories of who was born there, who died there, all the things that happened there.

The same happens with a church building, but on a larger scale. More memorable things happen in any given church building. You have multiple families with memories of weddings and funerals, baptisms and special days. It’s hard to separate that physical location from the identity of the church.

Older generations feel it even more. Besides the special memories, there’s the investment of money and effort that has gone into a building. There’s a since of pride and accomplishment in what the building represents, and there’s a deep sense of hurt when younger generations don’t share the feeling.

Of course, it’s not just the building that evokes that feeling. As younger generations reject doctrinal stances, question the structure of the church, and seek to develop their own liturgy, previous generations feel that they themselves are being judged along with everything else.

Randy Mayeux once pointed out that generational struggles come from the fact that one generation has built something, while the next generation wants to build their own projects. It takes great sensitivity on both sides to keep from exacerbating those differences. It takes a real focus on the Kingdom and the good of the Kingdom, getting beyond personal feelings and pride.

 

photo from MorgueFile.com

Why do we worry about buildings?

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cathedralOK, so I’m talking about church buildings becoming less prominent in the future as Christians move to smaller gatherings. Then Ed Stetzer publishes research showing that megachurches continue to grow in number. The annoying thing about Ed is that he doesn’t just make assertions; he has statistics to back it up.

Even so, I think we need to remember something very important: most human organizations lose their original purpose. Some quickly, some not so quickly, but most change their initial goals for one common to such groups: survival. It’s easy for our focus to be on continuing existence of our group. That’s especially true for a congregation.

We need to be careful that we want to reach younger generations so that they will come to a saving relationship with God. It’s not about keeping our lights turned on. It’s not about having a place for us to meet when we get old. We want to reach out (be it to young people, Hispanics, or bank presidents) so that people will hear the good news of salvation.

If we’re not careful, the fact that “this congregation has been here for over 70 years” takes precedence over the question of whether the congregation is serving the Kingdom or not. If the congregation’s focus becomes survival, maybe it’s time to let others take its place.

So why do we have a building? There can be a number of reasons: having a place where a large number of us can worship together, having a place for outreach effort, having space for educational activities for our kids, having a unifying location. But our continuing as a congregation and maintaining a common piece of property have to be secondary to the good of the Kingdom. We need to seek his Kingdom and righteousness. When that’s our goal, the rest will be worked out, be it in a large building or in scattered house churches.

 

photo from MorgueFile.com

No Edifice Complex Here

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cathedralWhy do I think that younger generations won’t continue the tradition of large church buildings? I have several generalizations to offer that lead me to that opinion. (Remember that generalizations are nothing more than that. I have a dog that climbs trees and sometimes purrs when she’s happy. She’s still a dog, just doesn’t always act like one)

  • Younger generations don’t like to give money to abstractions. What I mean is, they are generous, at times (though some studies suggest that each successive generation is less generous). But they want to give their money to specific things. Build a house. Dig a well. Buy some medicine. And they want to choose exactly how their money is used. Dropping it into a collection plate so that the electric bill can be paid doesn’t motivate them.
  • Younger generations don’t tend to be joiners. At least not of traditional organizations. They don’t want to be a member of an association; they want to be part of a posse. A posse forms, does its thing and disbands. No long time obligations. No hierarchy. Join, function, leave.
  • Younger generations don’t trust the recent past. What they see around them is evidence of failure: economic disparities, hunger, sickness, war. They respect the ancient past, but not what modernism has done with it. As the saying goes, they want Jesus, but not the church.
  • Younger generations tend to be pragmatic. A big building is wasteful. It’s much more practical to use the homes that we already own, or to use coffee shops, restaurants and bars, rather than construct a monument to inefficiency.

Those are some of the things that I see. Help me expand the list, or point out to me where I missed the boat. What attitudes do you see among people under 40 that will affect the future of the church building as we know it?

 

photo from MorgueFile.com

Will big church buildings become dinosaurs?

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cathedralThe future of the church, specifically churches of Christ, has been a popular topic recently. I guess it’s always a popular topic, but articles detailing different aspects of our present and future realities seem to come in spurts. A lot is being said these days about what is happening with younger generations and what will become of the church.

I’ve been talking with a number of people about the future of church buildings. I’m optimistic about the future of the church; less so when it comes to buildings.

Back in January, Thom Rainer wrote a piece called The Death of the Mall and the Future of Church Buildings. It echoed a lot of the things that I’m seeing and hearing.

Rainer referred to an article about the decline of shopping malls and forecasts of what is to come for them. Rainer then said:

The Boomer generation has been the generation of bigness and sprawl. Their parents, in the aftermath of World War II, moved numbers of them to the new and massive suburbia. Large malls would soon follow. Most large megachurch buildings were constructed primarily for the favor of the Boomers.
But the children of the Boomers, Generation X and, even more, the Millennials, have been pushing for more intimacy and smallness. They triggered the unprecedented growth of Starbucks. They have been the key movers in social media, which has fostered a new online intimacy.
Among the Christian Millennials there is a desire for greater intimacy in church. They are in many ways triggering a new small group revolution. And though they may not have an explicit aversion to large church facilities, neither are they attracted to them.

There is a generation that sees big buildings as a plus and small buildings as a hindrance. And there is a generation that sees things just the other way around. Rainer notes:

A Boomer church leader looks at a small building and limited acreage and sees challenges. He sees the limitations of size and space. A Millennial leader looks at the same building and acreage and sees opportunity. He immediately thinks multiple venues, multiple services, and multiple days.

And he ends his article with a line that I hadn’t heard before: “After all, only college football stadiums are utilized less than church facilities.”

So what do you think? Are big church buildings destined to become a thing of the past? If so, will that be a bad thing or a good thing?

 

photo from MorgueFile.com

The Silver Bullet

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ammunitionWe are always looking for the silver bullet, that magical solution that will cut through even the most complex situations and solve our problems. Christians can often be guilty of this, especially when talking about how to turn around a declining church.

You’ve heard the candidates:

  • We need to be more progressive. We need to stamp out liberalism.
  • We need to use instruments in our worship. We need to stop emotionalism in our worship.
  • We have to let women do more in our assemblies. We need to get our men more involved in our assemblies.
  • We need to hold on to our traditions. We need to let go of our traditions.
  • The answer is megachurches. Or house churches. Or cell-based churches.
  • The answer is planting new churches across ethnic and racial lines. The answer is making existing churches more diverse.
  • The answer is revitalizing inner city churches. The answer is strengthening urban churches.
  • The answer is none of the above. Or all of the above.

It’s enough to make your head spin. Maybe I’m just not smart enough to figure out which bullet out of this huge box of ammunition is the one made of silver. But I think we’re looking for something that doesn’t exist.

At some point, we have to stop and ask God how we can best serve right where we are. I guess that we need a few people trying to figure out the best solutions for everyone everywhere, but I know that we need more people focused on what is right in front of them.

We need to be serving people. We need to be telling people about Jesus. We need to be desperately pursuing holiness. We need to be more like God. We need to spend less time pontificating and more time practicing what we believe.

We need to decide to know nothing but Christ and him crucified.

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)

Seems like a good place to start.