Church buildings: assets or liabilities? Helpful or a hindrance? While some complain about their church buildings, others pray their church had one of its own. So how should we view our church building? In this article, Steve Wright our Head of Property asks if we might see our church building as our family home?
‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce… Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’ (Jeremiah 29:4-7)
Put down roots, start families, build a home: so said the Lord to his exiled people. Is there something here for the church today? We too are exiles, awaiting the return to our promised land.
Of course, church is the people and not the building. But, just like a family home, the church building is where the family of God comes together, offers hospitality, and participates in the civic life of a neighbourhood.
A secure place of gathering
The family home matters! A place of our own, where we feel secure. A place we tailor to our particular needs. So it is for a church family. Our meeting place matters to the quality of our time together: is there a welcoming way in, space for fellowship, sufficient toilets, good acoustics and lighting?
No family wants to be uprooted, but churches meeting in hired spaces face a new wave of vulnerability as biblical truth appears increasingly counter-cultural. At ECS we can help you understand the protections your church might draw upon but, if building owners want you out, there are usually ways and means to achieve that, sooner or later. Churches forced from one hired space to another often find the move unsettles the dynamic of Sunday worship and upsets the family. Even committed members find that adjustment hard.
In contrast, a place of our own provides the security to build sustainable ministries for the long term and a place for the family to mature together.
A welcoming place of hospitality
The spiritual gift of hospitality – welcoming and loving the stranger – is one every church should develop (Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:2). The blessing of God to his people should overflow into the nations (Genesis 12:3) and, as we welcome in the newcomer, we share an experience of God’s undeserved grace to all who come to him.
Just as church members show hospitality in their homes, so the gathered church has opportunity to do that in the family home of the church building. The good news we proclaim, week-by-week, is demonstrated to be good news in the gospel culture (the openness and relational warmth) of our gatherings. Church buildings are places where doctrine and culture go hand in hand, to the glory of God.
A place of community engagement
The writer Wendell Berry argues persuasively for the connection between community and place, the importance of shared history and commitment to our neighbourhoods. He connects with a core theme of Jeremiah 29:4-7. It is through these human connections that the blessings and gospel of God will spread. We know this instinctively in our family homes: a commitment to bricks and mortar represents an investment in the neighbourhood we inhabit, bearing relational fruit.
In the civic realm, the church can too easily sit on the edge of community. Where once churches were central to neighbourhood life, today they seem almost irrelevant to all but the Sunday faithful. Yet, in many places, there survives a strong sense of place – a sense of belonging and shared history. If the church isn’t part of that, and isn’t showing basic commitment to its community, our attempts to share the gospel will simply seem irrelevant. As a church leader told me recently, “without our own building, I think we’re viewed as a cult”.
In our disconnected age, people long for real community. Church buildings provide an opportunity to move church from the periphery of civic life, closer to the centre. A building from which commitment to community is demonstrated in myriad ways.
Church buildings are not straightforward: they’re costly to buy and build, complex to manage and something always needs fixing. Just like home! But these buildings are the places where brothers and sisters live out the blessings of family life together.
At Edward Connor Solicitors our Property Team has years of experience of helping churches with their buildings – whether acquiring a site, leasing, extending or developing. We’re all committed to our local churches and understand what matters to church families. We’re also familiar with the complexities of acting for charities, so we can ensure your gospel mission is strengthened at every step.
