Worship Space Everywhere (Part 1 of 3)

I’ve heard of a congregation who raised $60,000 in two weeks when the property committee announced it needed funds to fix the leaking roof. Yet, that same congregation could not find $2,500 to purchase health coverage for their full-time Christian education director. I heard of a congregation of over 800 members with over $500,000 in revenue spend a third of its annual budget on mortgage payments. This same congregation’s council members debated totally cutting benevolence giving for the community and the larger church in order to balance the budget. Where are these people’s priorities? Was their building a tool or a shackle upon ministry? It seems once they had been a people with a building to support them, now they had become a building with some people to support it.

As this case suggests, rather than becoming a fountain for the outpouring of God’s Word, a church building may degenerate into a prison, holding God’s Word and God’s people captive inside its walls. Given this danger, is a church building necessary? In this series I will offer biblical, confessional, and practical reasons for growing a congregation without a church building.

God does not require a building. When King David had become settled in his house, he thought he ought to build a house for God as well. God responded to David’s plans through the prophet Nathan, “Are you the one to build me a house to live in?” [2 Samuel 7:5]. No, God did not need David to build him a house, rather, God said, “The LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house,” [2 Samuel 7:11]. It is God who builds a people and their dwelling places, not the opposite. The prophet Isaiah comments:

“Thus says the Lord: Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is my resting place? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look, to the humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word.” [Isaiah 66:1-2]

God’s realm is the entirety of creation. Who are we to presume that we can construct a special place for God to reside? God does not look upon those who make a special place. God looks upon those who revere God’s Word.

Jesus did not require a building. Jesus did a majority of his preaching and teaching outside of the confines of religious edifices. Furthermore, Jesus’ presence does not rest in any particular place. He promised to be amongst those who speak his name [Matthew 28:20], at the Lord’s Supper [Matthew 26:26-28], and in baptism [Matthew 28:19-20; Romans 6:3-4]. The old building of God’s presence, the temple, Jesus destroyed and rebuilt in his body [John 2:19-22]. Indeed whoever has received the Holy Spirit and has joined the Body of Christ has become a temple of the Lord [1 Corinthians 3:6-7]. And it is the Word of God who bestows the Holy Spirit and makes one an heir of Christ, not membership in a church building.