House Church Talk - unusual piece from Palm Beach opinion page

[David Anderson]

Steve Gushee: On Religion

       Palm Beach Post Staff Writer         Friday, November 05, 2004

The hurricanes that wreaked havoc in Florida in September visited their 
wrath on area churches as well. Many are damaged. Some are unusable.

The cost of repairing them is expensive and unfortunate. It might also be 
unnecessary and, arguably, even blasphemous.

Christians are meant to be a pilgrim people with no home in this world. 
Church buildings are essentially a contradiction to the Gospel.

The New Testament identifies Christians as a people on the move, on a 
pilgrimage to the Promised Land. Christian theology urges the faithful to 
be wary of becoming comfortable in this world. Certainly, no such people 
would build houses of worship reflecting a sense of permanence that 
denied the pilgrim's vocation.

Yet, many churches look like fortresses built to stand forever. Expensive 
to build, exorbitant to maintain, they divert extraordinary attention 
from the church's mission.

Some churchmen estimate that as much as 90 percent of all money raised by 
local churches is used to pay staff and maintain buildings. That leaves 
less money and less energy to do the church's work.

To be sure, Christianity and Judaism were the only early religions to 
house the faithful. Most ancient religions built shrines for the deity 
alone. The faithful gathered at the holy place to make sacrifice 
unprotected from the elements.

Christian and Jewish followers were housed so that they could worship, 
study scripture and develop community. Many churches serve the poor and 
others from their buildings. While that is laudable, most of that work 
could be done more economically using other means.

The early church met in the homes of the faithful. The house church was 
the norm until the fourth century when Christianity became the emperor's 
religion. Then the church built structures worthy of a king's attention. 
Some argue that was the time when Christianity lost its way, gave up its 
pilgrim imagery and decided to settle in as privileged residents of the 
world it once renounced.

House churches may be impractical today given the size of many 
congregations, but most churches have fewer than 150 members. They might 
do well to give up their expensive buildings.

That would not satisfy many congregations. Most want their own digs. They 
enjoy taking inordinate and idolatrous pride in their property and 
spending accordingly.

They suffer from a blasphemous condition that some may call an edifice 
complex.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/accent/epaper/2004/11/05/a3e_g
ushee_1105.html