Should your church build?
Tony Morgan has an intersting post today on the topic Should Churches Build? Thomas Ranier in Outreach Magazine reports on a study he did that found the most churches grow following a building program. Ranier's conclusion:
"While a building program cannot make an unhealthy church healthy, it can equip and inspire healthy churches to become healthier. Our research concluded that church building programs tend to help, not hurt churches."
To me this is the same logic that says carrots cause car wrecks. (8 out of ten people who were in car wrecks had eaten carrots within the last month. Therefore eating carrots causes car wrecks.) Churches who build tend to be growing churches. (A church that is shrinking seldom says, "Gosh, let's go build a bigger building.) Would a growing church grow more if they didn't build? What if the started another campus instead? (You knew I was going there.) What if they pumped the resources into staff and outreach rather than bricks and mortar? For the cost of a small church addition (a new education space or gymnasium) Seacoast could start 10-15 new campuses. If each new campus reached 300 new people we could grow 3000-4500 in the time it takes to build the building. For the cost of an auditorium to seat those 3000-4500 new people we could start 1,357 new campuses. (Ok, now I'm exagerating.)
So before you decide to build another building have some carrots and ask if a brick and mortar is really the best use of your resources. And keep your eyes on the road.
Comments