House Church Talk - unusual piece from Palm Beach opinion page

[Glenn Frank]

WOW! That is great!

Thanks for letting us know about that article David! I wrote to the author
and thanked him for being outspoken about the obvious lack of need for
church buildings based on scripture and history!

Glenn Frank




On 11/7/04 5:45 AM, "David Anderson" <david at housechurch.org> wrote:

> 
> 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
> 
>    
>   
>

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