The More-with-Less Church: Maximize Your Money, Space, Time, and People to Multiply Ministry Impact by Eddy Hall & Ray Bowman & J. Skipp Machmer

Author:Eddy Hall & Ray Bowman & J. Skipp Machmer [Hall, Eddy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL108030, Church management, Church growth
ISBN: 9781441221117
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2014-10-28T04:00:00+00:00

16

Three Things Church Buildings Can Never Do

Ray: If you had eavesdropped on a phone conversation in my office some years ago, you might have heard something like this:

“I’d like you to come talk to my board about a new building,” the pastor said.

“That sounds good,” I answered. “What do you need?”

“The people need a challenge. They haven’t done anything for years, and a building program will wake them up and unite them behind a cause.”

“You’re right,” I said. “Nothing is more exciting than building.”

“There’s a lot of money in our church,” the pastor went on, “but giving has been going downhill lately. A new building will increase stewardship. If we plan a project for a million dollars, I think that will be enough to really challenge the people. I’ve decided to hire a professional fund-raiser to raise about a third of that amount through a three-year giving drive. We can borrow the rest.”

“Will your regular income cover the payments?” I wanted to know.

“Not yet, but the new building should bring in new people, and the increased giving will cover the payments.”

“That’s exciting! With that kind of money we can design an award-winning structure that will put your church on the map, one the people of your community will want to attend. What kind of building do you need?”

“Well, we haven’t grown for years, so our sanctuary is old and should make a good family life center. That should attract families. So I guess it’s logical to build a new sanctuary.”

“How many should we plan for?”

“We have around three hundred regular attenders, so we should plan for real growth—say eight hundred to one thousand.”

“That should really give your people a vision of the possibilities and motivate them to reach out. When can we start?”

Though I’m not proud of it, I’ve had many conversations much like this one and passed along the same conventional wisdom I’d heard about building programs from countless pastors and church leaders. I now realize that this “conventional wisdom” includes many fallacies. When a church buys into these fallacies, disappointment and sometimes disaster result. Here are three of the most common and costly false expectations I am guilty of having promoted.

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