Why Churches Need To Lose Their Buildings
Statisticians like to say that Christianity is in decline in America, but it's probably not true. What is true is that church attendance is down. Here's why that's a good thing.
“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” - Matthew 8:20
Just a quick visit to the Hillsong website should tell you everything you need to know about what is wrong with modern day “Christianity.” Just a few of the massive flexes they offer on their “fact sheet” is that their music is sung by an estimated 50 million people in 60 languages every week and they have an average global attendance of 150,000 weekly. The word “Christian” ostensibly means to be “Christ-like.” So, am I the only person that thinks maybe the homeless dude all these people are supposedly following would just not be super impressed by the greatness of Hillsong?
You see, all the way back in Exodus, just after God delivered the Israelites from slavery to the Egyptians and was giving Moses His/Her/Its/Their blueprint for the perfect society, She told Moses:
Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever [I cause] my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. And do not go up to my altar on steps, or your private parts may be exposed. (Ex 20:24-26)
Okay, so a couple things to note here. First off, God didn’t actually command the Israelites to offer sacrifices; rather, She simply gave instruction as to how the things man already did - and still does to this day - should be done. It is buried deep in our DNA to offer sacrifices to the gods - so God didn’t tell us to do it or not do it, He simply told us how to do it when we do.
And what They said was: when you do it, don’t make it fancy. Just build a plain earth altar. If you have to put stones on it, don’t dress them up and don’t raise it up high with a bunch of steps. You see, once again -as you will find throughout Scripture if you really look, God knows the innate nature of man. Just look at all the church buildings man builds. What do every single one of them have at the front? A raised altar. Some even go so far as to call it a stage - literally.
Religion is man’s quest for power.
And this is why I think God forbade fancy steps or ornate stones. God knows that fancy steps and ornate stones are not about Him but about man, and more accurately, man’s obsessive need to prove man’s own greatness.
Look at the Vatican. Theoretically, it’s meant to be a tribute to God, but it’s actually a monument to man’s own greatness. I say this because we know the names of every man who created or contributed something to every one of the building. Every sculptor, every painter, every architect has been immortalized. Also, because women weren’t allowed to contribute. If it was really about God, then it shouldn’t matter who created the tribute, but man has to make sure that MAN’S greatness is immortalized (not women’s).
The Vatican is where you go to worship and stand in awe of the greatness of man, not God. Realistically, standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, peering down into its vastness or standing on the edge of the mighty expanse of the ocean gives you a better sense of Yahweh’s greatness than standing under the soaring ceilings of the Vatican.
It’s important to always remember that the Bible was written and interpreted by man.
One of the things that we’ve learned about coding is that you literally code your own prejudices into programs. I think the same is true of the way the Bible has been interpreted. You see, the Bible was not written in English and it is no secret that every single translation of the Bible that we read in America was translated and interpreted by white men. But even before that, it was written by Jewish men. (Notice anything in common?)
One of the great things about living in the 21st century, however, is that we have this amazing tool called BibleHub. What’s incredible about this tool is not just that you can go and compare different verses in about 20 different translations at the same time, but you can also go and look at the original Hebrew and Greek to see what a specific word means and how it was used in other places in the Bible. I put two specific words in brackets, because I believe this verse was mistranslated based on both the context of this verse and how Jehovah interacts with man in other places.
The verse (as translated) says: “Wherever [I cause] my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you.” But I think a better translation or interpretation would be “wherever my name is honored, I will come to you and bless you.” The Bible says God knows our heart, so She knows the difference between what we are genuinely doing for Her and what is really about our own ego. See, maybe I’m cynical but I don't think that Hillsong lists how many people attend their churches for God’s sake - God would already know. I think it’s there to stroke Brian Houston’s ego.
God knows the nature of man, and so do we. So what happens when Jehosephat builds an altar with three steps going up to it? Then obvs Jerrubabel has to build an altar with five steps leading up to it. And then, of course Jeremiah has to build one with eight steps and on and on it goes - all the way to the Vatican. God. Knows. Man.
So first of all, our church buildings are a problem because they are tributes to man and not God but that’s not the only problem. Here’s another.
You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. Exodus 20:4-5a (NIV)
What does almost every single “Christian” church in American have right up front and center? We put it on bumper stickers, T-shirts, key rings, jewelry, coffee mugs and every other place we can think to put it. The image of a cross. Do you think it’s possible that in America we have come to worship the cross more than what it is ostensibly meant to represent? Do you think maybe God saw this coming?
But here’s the third problem with church buildings.
Buildings turn churches into businesses.
When the church is a building, it sits on land that must be purchased right along with the building. That generally involves getting a loan from a bank, that then needs to be paid back. Once you build the building, however, then you have to hire a staff. And where does all the money come from to buy the building and pay the staff? Well, from tithes and offerings of course.
But tithes and offerings were never meant to buy buildings or pay staff. And they absolutely, positively 100% were never meant to put pastors in $5,000 sneakers or $10,000 hoodies!
Our tithes are meant to care for the poor and the needy.
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matt. 6:1-4 (ESV)
There is literally not a city or town in America that doesn't have poor people in it, yet you also can’t find a single town in America that doesn’t have at least one giant-ass church building. Yet, in one of the wealthiest countries on earth, we still have food insecurity, not to mention a national housing shortage. We have millions of homeless people in America and thousands of buildings that largely sit empty or are highly underutilized about 300 days of the year.
Do you honestly believe that the God who came to earth as a homeless migrant worker would really be pleased by the buildings we ostensibly built in “His” name, while millions of people in those same areas are hungry and homeless?
As compelling as those reasons may be, they are still not the only reasons we need to get rid of church buildings.
Buildings create “factions”
There is a place near me where two giant churches share a parking lot. Both are basically non-denominational “Christian” churches, yet for some reason, they seem to feel they both need their very own building. Why?
Well, of course, its because we don’t all believe the same things and because one has to be right - so they have to have their own building where they get to be right. There is literally no reason why we have to worship on Sunday. In fact, “worship” and Sabbath literally have nothing to do with each other. The Sabbath is supposed to simply be a day of rest.
It says “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.” (Exodus 20:9-10a) It says nothing about getting together and worshipping or “going to church” - it just says “work six days, then rest for one.” In America, however, it has simply become a day you go to church and we certainly don’t honor the practice of taking a full, complete day of rest.
The practice of getting together on Sunday came from the 1st century when “People of the Way” ( as they called themselves) began getting together on the first day of the week (which is what we know as Sunday). What Christians just love to forget (if they ever even knew in the first place) is that Jesus was Jewish. He honored the Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. After his death and resurrection, his followers started organically getting together on the first day of their week (Sunday) to pray and worship. Which means, we can do the same on any day of the week, since it was never a commandment to do so in the first place.
Letting go of church buildings doesn’t have to mean we stop gathering, it just means we would need to do it differently. Since there is literally no reason we have to attend church on Sunday (and many do not), what if we actually went to church on different days in the same building? You will, of course, always have those people that only want to attend church on Sunday and will get angry if “their” congregation doesn’t get to have their services on Sunday, but should The Church really cater to them?
Most towns and cities used to have only a few churches. In many cases, your options were either a Catholic church or some brand of Protestant church. Today, however, with all of the many options available, people seek out a church that caters to their very specific and individual needs. That means, the church that satisfies the most people grows the biggest. Most church staffs complain about “consumer” culture - but who really created that culture? Churchgoers or church planters? If you only have one building, you also only need one staff.
There is, of course, another option, which is that we go all the way back and do things the same way they did in the 1st century. When People of The Way met in homes. They called them house churches. Of course, that would mean we couldn’t get together with hundreds (or even thousands) of other “believers” to have a professional pastor tell us what to think and professional musicians give us a full-on concert “worship experience.” But would that really be so bad? To have a church so small people could actually talk to each other and have genuine relationships with each other?
There’s a lot of people who have walked away from large church buildings and organized religion and are struggling to find something to fill the void. No matter how abusive a church might be, it still offers something that we miss when it’s not there. What if we skipped the big churches and just gathered with a couple friends or even our actual neighbors to have coffee and/or brunch on Sunday? What if we just let conversations on life and faith happen organically while we broke bread together?
You see, I think there are any number of “church rituals” we have developed that completely miss the point of what *I* think Jesus actually intended. In churches we do this thing called “communion” where we eat a little piece of bread (or a special wafer) and drink a little thimble full of wine or grape juice. This ritual comes from Luke 22:19, where at the Last Supper, Jesus “…took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
But what people seem to miss is that this “ritual” took place at Passover, which means it followed a full meal that they ate together. So what if what Jesus really intended was for us to get together and literally “break bread” - or eat a meal together?
Anyone who knows anything about Jewish culture knows that “breaking bread together” or who you chose to eat with was a Really Big Deal. In fact, Jesus was always getting in trouble because he was constantly eating with the “wrong” people. So, do you think maybe it’s possible that when Jesus said “do ‘this’ in remembrance of me” he was talking about something a little more literal than the little ritual we do in church?
As it stands right now, numerous denominations are experiencing a clergy shortage, which is only expected to get even worse. At Easter 2021, social media was filled with Tweets and posts about canceled services due to so many clergy being out sick, in addition to an already growing shortage. What does it say about The Church when we literally can’t even get together to worship on arguably the holiest day of the year, because we have a shortage of professionals to lead those services? Professionals who, by the way, consume the lion’s share of tithes & offerings meant for missions and programs for the poor.
We now also have so many churches, with mega-churches drawing the lion’s share of local believers, that many churches can’t afford to pay clergy in line with their expectations. Instead of closing their doors and/ or merging with another church, they instead expect a clergy member to work for a less-than-adequate salary in the name of “ministry.” The consumer culture that demands a separate building for every group of people that have different doctrinal beliefs or prefer a different style of worship is possibly harder on clergy than anyone else. Those that do enter into ministry these days often also see themselves as doing little other than preaching.
Do you think that maybe, just maybe, if we get rid of the buildings, the expensive A/V equipment, and the“Professional Christians” we hire to conduct all the rituals or deliver seeker-friendly but fiery messages, then The Church might actually start looking a little more like the Bride of Christ and less like a business?
I was really happy to see a church in Texas, Austin I believe, that refuses to ever own property. It's called Bread Fellowship. That's the first I've ever heard of a church holding that position but I'm sure others are doing it, also.
This is really interesting. I have heard other people talk about moving away from the sermon-centric weekly gathering, and also people talk about why churches should have bi-vocational volunteer pastors instead of paid staff. But I’ve never heard it phrased in terms of getting rid of the building itself. Super interesting and lots of food for thought.
Something I’ve thought a lot about is how the Sunday gathering can be inaccessible for a certain group of people - those who work on Sundays. My husband hasn’t had a weekend off yet this year. So he is unable to attend Sunday church. But he has found a men’s Bible study (at a different church than the one we usually attend) that he goes to on Tuesday nights, since he’s usually off on Tuesdays, and that’s become his “church”.
I haven’t gone to our church since COVID started (for reasons). Even before COVID, since I was usually alone with my 4 kids on Sundays, I’d usually just take them to Sunday school and not the main service. They enjoyed it far more than sitting in a sermon, and I found the adult Sunday school much more of a community than going to the service (where often no one would even talk to me).
I’ve thought about going back to Bible Study Fellowship, which I’ve enjoyed in the past, but despite its name it is 100% Bible study and not any “fellowship” (just the way the format is set up). What would be so nourishing to my soul is a regular get-together with a couple other friends where we can just chat and grow closer in friendship.