building

Another Look at Church Buildings

~ brandon ~ Leave a comment

We are in the midst of constructing a new building.  The walls are up and the interior is in process.  So, I found this article from LeadershipJournal.net quite interesting.  I’d encourage you to read the whole thing, but this quote kind of sums up my view of our new building:

Ideally, we are a church without walls. Were trying to create “living temples,” people who live for Christ and make a difference in the city wherever they go. Buildings arent bad—we need creative, adaptive spaces. But we want our facilities to reinforce the message that the church is not primarily a monument but a people, living temples.

via Space Frontiers | LeadershipJournal.net.

Providence

~ brandon ~ 1 Comment

Our congregation has been trying to build a new building for 10 years.  Through various fits and starts we came to possess 10 acres of land (which moved 3 times), we designed a functional building, found a builder who could build it, raised almost 50% of the cash necessary, grew a budget to pay the mortgage and started construction.  The beginning of construction meant we had to decide what to do with our present building.  We decided to sell.

Selling it, of course, seemed much harder than it sounds.  The building is 105 years old, brick and about 3600 square feet.  It has only four rooms, a sanctuary (about ½ of the overall space), a small office, a large kitchen and a fellowship area.  And the building is landlocked—streets on two sides, homes on two sides—with no room for adding on.  Our bank would not venture a guess as to what it was worth, realtors told us they had no idea what to list it for, who would buy it or how long it would take.  Oh, an all of this while the local housing market is in the tank.  So, we put up a couple of signs and agreed on an asking price.

Within a week we received a call.  Another congregation in our area had been looking for a building for years.  They tried to build, but couldn’t afford it.  They tried to buy and ran into roadblocks.  Now they wanted to come and look at our building.  So, we welcomed them to have a look around.  Then I went on vacation.

While I was away this other congregation made an offer, below our asking price but still above what most of us thought the building was worth.  A meeting was met, and in the end we received exactly what we wanted for the building and they received exactly what they wanted—a building.  This whole event is what we call ‘Providence.’

God provided for us more cash as we complete our building.  This comes during a time when most churches are seeing declining offerings.  God provided this congregation with a new home.  After years of searching they’ve finally found a place to call their own.

What amazes me most is how big the providence of God is.  It is not merely big enough to guide our building process.  It is so big that our building process is God’s way of providing for the needs of two churches:  larger space for us and new space for them.  In one stroke God met the needs of two separate congregations.

God is good, all the time.