Their Thoughts and Yours on Building Programs

Yesterday my oldest son posted a link on Facebook to an article about the ethics of spending money for construction of church buildings.  My nephew commented, saying he thought I should post the link on my blog "in regards to the school/community gym."  He specifically identified with the "Judas" section of the article.  While I have heard others express themselves on this matter, I have not specifically done so.  I note also that these articles were written directly only about church buildings.

My son posted three additional links today on the same or similar subjects, and I read through them all without having a clear sense for what to make of the matter.  Normally I don't elaborate on such matters until I've done enough processing to have reached some conclusions.  This time I'd like to try something different.  I'd love to hear what others have to say before I weigh in--or maybe I'll let others have the last word.  I'll number the links and perhaps say just a little bit about the content of the article.  When you comment, please tell us, by number, which articles you have read in their entirety (that is, which articles at the numbered links), so that we can understand more of what you may have invested in learning about the topic.

If you have a comment on the topic in general, without having read the articles linked here, those are welcome too, of course.

Before you read the articles, I will point out that none of them, to my knowledge comes from a writer from the Anabaptist tradition.  I think our own tradition does speak to these matters helpfully in ways that not all of these writers do.  Maybe you can help identify those ways.

1.  Here's the original link.  At the very beginning of the article is a link to a previous email conversation between the author and a missionary in Kenya.  The content seems a bit scattered to me, so I'll simply quote the takeaways my son gleaned:

* It's potentially good to (wisely) spend money in "gospel goals": expansion of the Kingdom and service to others. 
* Extravagant offerings to God's glory can be good [the next link references this premise].
* The quotes "But the question does need to be asked, 'are we building a monument to ourselves at the detriment of loving the outcast and the poor?'" and "Again, when we start building monuments to ourselves in the name of Jesus, we have a problem."* "Building *with inappropriate goals* [such as excessive preoccupation with personal comfort] is one among many ways to use money inappropriately."

2.  This link leads to information about a Presbyterian church in Nashville with Gothic-cathedral style architecture.  I'll quote from the article to give you a sense of the thrust of this piece:

"I think some churches- and CPC Nashville seems to be one of them- should build beautiful gothic cathedrals if they can.

You see, God gifts us creatively and artistically. He gives some people the means and the gifts to express art to the glory of God in ways few others can.

In music. In stained glass. In architecture. In construction. In design and in the resulting worship and liturgy.

Some churches need to release those gifts into the culture, so that a city can see a gothic cathedral and experience worship sacramentally (aha!) in the glory of a physical worship center and all that can happen there. Some churches. Not all."

I'll point out that the writer is actually making the above statement as a caveat to his basic belief--that most churches should not use their money this way.  The sentiment expressed in the quote is not a historical Anabaptist sentiment.

3.  This article is the most extensive of all, and contains some very good advice.  The title is "Before You Build"  and was written by a man who has "more than 20 years of involvement in the design and construction of church buildings."  I'll list the subtitles here to give you an idea of what is addressed:  The People, The Program, The Process and Project, Do's and Don'ts of Church Facility Planning, and Do the Math.  Here's a good section from the introduction:

"Here are a few sample questions a church should ask to determine if it is ready to move forward into a building program. Test yourself: If you answer yes to any of these, it is a possible reason not to build or at least a reason to delay building for a while.

1. Do you expect a new facility to grow the membership of your church?
2. Do you expect a new building to cause your congregation to give more generously?
3. Do you expect a new building to cause your congregation to be involved more in ministry?
4. Do you expect a new building to make a "statement" in your community?
5. Do you need a building to allow your whole church to meet at one time?
6. Do you have a large debt on your current facility?
7. Do you need to increase membership to pay for the increased debt of a new facility?"

 4.  Here is the final link.  Here also I will rely on a short quote to give the sense of the author's concern.  "It seems to me that leaders can go in two different wrong directions with their church building in a society like ours—they can think too trendy or they can think too permanent."  My son identified the "thinking permanent" section as being highly relevant to our situation because of how it limits future flexibility.

Some Anabaptist values I see with possible applications to building efforts are these (although they are not exhaustive and are not limited to Anabaptists):

1.  A strong sense of the need for good stewardship of financial resources.

2.  Compassion for the poor.

3.  Avoidance of ostentation.

4.  Utilitarian values (rather than overtly artistic, for example).

5.  Awareness that life on earth is temporary, and our real home is in heaven.  "The Pilgrim Concept" is shorthand for this value.

6.  A burden for the lost.

Note that I am not necessarily making claims in relation to the validity of all of these values--only identifying them here.

Your thoughts?