What do you think is the capacity of all the churches in the United States put together? My guess is about a gazzillion more than actually attend. Yet church building is big business. Maybe we should start swapping churches instead of building new ones. You know, if your a church on the down turn find a church that is busting at the seams and offer to trade buildings. Yeah, I know, you are thinking things will turn around and you'll need the space.
Actually I'm more troubled by the trillions of dollars we spend on facilities that are way under used. They are kind of like combines for farmers. They sit in a barn most of the time and then they get used like mad for a very short period of time. It seems like we could do better.
I'm proposing one facility for multiple churches. The one facility doesn't have to be a church either. Any space will do. We would have to be flexible with our usage times and what not but that shouldn't be too difficult for loving Christians who know how to share should it?
One of the draw backs will be that one church will want to control all the others. In most cases this will be the one who actually owns the building. I can just hear the conversation now.
"Our church is different than your's so we want our own church."
"We'll start a service for people just like you."
"But our history doesn't line up with your history and that is hard to overcome."
"Tough cookies."
"We have a different philosophy about what a church should look like."
"Ours is biblical."
What we really need to focus on is planting Jesus in communities that have limited access to church now. We usually think about limited access in geographical terms but cultural factors play an even bigger role. If that is true, planting a church in the same neighborhood as another church is legitimate.
So let's stop building new facilities and start sharing what we've got. Let's also start making better use of public buildings that we have an opportunity to use. Don't build a gym, go to the local YMCA or school. If your community doesn't have a Y build a gym away from your church and donate it to the community. It'll help you learn to share.
Now, if I had the energy, I'd rant about Christian colleges and facilities.
Church Facility Capacity
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12:02 AM
10:29 AM
Two recent events have raised this issue in my mind. We have played with the idea of relocating because our building is old, land locked and not very accessible. I am sure we would grow if we did that but I don't think it would make much Kingdom difference and it would waste a lot of resources.
I also have a friend who wanted to use another church for a wedding because his isn't big enough. At first he was turned down flat because they said their building was for their own people. They eventually said yes but with a bunch of stipulations which may have been ok but by that point there were too many hurt feelings. That's really bothered me.
There have been a few churches that have been very helpful. ECC let me use their sanctuary for a funeral once and they were very helpful. But overall I think we have enough buildings in this country for now.
3:35 PM
4:30 PM
1:16 PM
How to figure out if it worth the resources - that's a tough one from a human stand point. We also see the waste of resources from staying in the current building as well - poor energy efficiency, limitations to being of use to the community in general (too small for a lot of functions, poorly laid out), limitations to our ministry (spread out in three buildings, extra costs and manpower for staffing, etc.).
Maybe what we should do if find another church and share a building . . . . but I have a feeling that is that something I'd be able to quickly or easily convince many people of. :)
11:07 PM
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