Neighborhood Church by Krin Van Tatenhove & Rob Mueller

Author:Krin Van Tatenhove & Rob Mueller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611649161
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

AN ANTIQUATED SENSE OF OWNERSHIP

Every brick, beam, shingle, stained-glass window, and pew of our buildings came into being through the generous, often sacrificial giving of faithful members. Many of them were pioneers in our communities. They participated in the campaigns for these structures with a vision of prosperous ministry for the future. If still alive, they have spent countless hours in the classrooms, fellowship halls, and sanctuaries of these places that are sacred to them. The church is their second home, familiar down to the details of how they have arranged the library or parlor furniture. They have faithfully paid the bills for utilities, repairs, and insurance. In short, the brick and mortar have survived due to their dedication.

We’ve all heard the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt.” When it comes to our church facilities, it is more apt to say “familiarity breeds an antiquated sense of ownership.” It is far too easy for longtime members to forget an essential theological premise that informs incarnational mission. Ultimately, the church building belongs to God. Not to the entity whose name is on the deed. Not to a mortgage company. Not to the judicatory body. Not to the members themselves, no matter how hard they have worked to erect and maintain it.

This structure belongs to our Creator, and we as stewards must maximize the use of every square foot in advancing the kingdom of God.

Once again, this requires communal conversion, because second only to the gifts of our members, our physical buildings are the greatest assets at our disposal. The critical question to answer is, “How can we integrate our buildings not only to serve God’s purposes now, but as a way of positioning our church for generations to come?”

Raising this question, as many leaders will testify, often results in powerful resistance. Change is hard! This is why we need champions of a different paradigm.

Krin: I met a champion like this during my time as pastor of First Presbyterian (FPC), Pomona, California, a city in east Los Angeles County. Once a quaint Victorian hamlet surrounded by orange groves, Pomona became engulfed by L.A.’s urban sprawl, a change that included drug trafficking and violence. The church sat on a volatile fault line between two warring gangs rooted in the Mexican Mafia. Most of FPC’s white members fled to the suburbs, reducing the rolls from thirteen hundred to under two hundred.

On February 1, 1985, faulty electrical lines ignited the church’s beautiful structures built in 1907. Though the education wing escaped by a benign (some said miraculous) shift in the wind, the entire sanctuary burned, its Tiffany-designed dome exploding in a small mushroom cloud seen for miles in Los Angeles County.

As I studied FPC’s recent history prior to an interview, I learned that a debate had raged within the leadership of the congregation. Should they flee Pomona and relocate to a suburb, or should they rebuild on their original site? Eventually, the faction intent on remaining in Pomona won the argument. However, when they built their modern

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