Cities: Missions' New Frontier by Roger S. Greenway & Timothy M. Monsma

Author:Roger S. Greenway & Timothy M. Monsma [Greenway, Roger S.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: REL045000
ISBN: 9781441206305
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2000-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

13

The Pros and Cons of Church Buildings

Roger S. Greenway

Church buildings are common sights in most cities, reminding us of the presence and sometimes the prestige of organized Christianity. In Western cities we take church buildings for granted. But today the cost of buying property and erecting traditional types of church buildings is staggering. In every discussion of urban mission strategy, the question inevitably arises as to whether we can afford to plant churches in major cities. Compared with the funds needed to start rural congregations, church-planting work in the city appears to be more costly than most mission budgets will allow.

This chapter will examine the pros and cons of church buildings in the city and suggest certain guidelines for deciding whether, and what kind, to build. In a personal letter dated May 24, 1985, Donald McGavran raised the question as to whether urban realities require us to reassess the value of traditional church buildings:

As I look at the amazing growth of house churches in China and remember that the New Testament nowhere records the building of a single building and remember the amazing growth of Yonggi Cho’s denomination in Seoul, South Korea, where he has more than 20,000 house churches, I am led increasingly to believe that effective urban evangelization today must mean founding living churches in rented quarters. Perhaps every hundred such churches will erect a central building. But the building must always be regarded as a secondary matter. House churches are led by men and women who receive no salary and who speak about Christ and the Bible in terms understandable to their intimates.

Added to the issues raised by McGavran are questions concerning stewardship and the message conveyed to the poor by the kind of church buildings we typically erect. The lament of the great Japanese urban evangelist Toyohiko Kagawa is highly relevant to today’s mission strategists:

The religion of imposing edifices is a heartbreaking affair. It is the soul’s cast-off shell. A religion which builds men rather than temples is much to be preferred. For this reason I reject everything connected with the religion of imposing architecture.

Under the eaves of the cathedral nestle the slums. Before the Vatican Palace mercenary troops stand guard. Nothing is so pitiful as the religion of cathedrals, temples, and stately edifices.

Well would it be if the world’s churches and temples were razed to the ground. Then possibly we would understand genuine religion.[1]

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