Sermon for Sunday, April 27, 2008

WHY DO WE HAVE CHURCH BUILDINGS?

By

Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture: Psalm 127:1a

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

When you hear the word “church”, what do you think of—a building or a group of people?

In the Bible when the word “church” appears, it only means a group of people. There were no church buildings when the New Testament was written. Christians met in homes for worship and prayer and singing and learning from church leaders and studying. Congregations did not start building church buildings until the fourth or fifth century

The church is the people, the congregation of committed followers of Christ. Churches have buildings and need buildings, but the building itself is a tool and a witness and a way to help draw people to God.

The church is the people—but buildings are important, and it is hard to do without them.

I have had the privilege and challenge of participating in four building expansions so far in my time in ministry. The congregation I was sent to in Colorado Springs voted to relocate, sold a historic building constructed on land bought from city founder William Palmer, met in a school gymnasium for two years and then went through three different building programs. The fourth building program I participated in was four years ago when St Andrew Church had voted to relocate and buy the property (which has significantly increased in value) where we have been so effective since we opened the doors.

There have been some common elements in every church construction program I have been in and I see the same elements in what we are doing right now. People get excited and want to have a building that can reach and disciple other people. People get scared and think we should not do it. People want to give more money than they ever have so that others can be invited and attracted to new life in Jesus Christ.

In every one of the construction programs I have been in, some people get upset at change and decide they have to leave. They may have thought things could just stay the way they were forever. I remember a couple of instances when people felt so strongly about the new building project that they came to me and told me why they were leaving. One was when we built the sanctuary in Colorado Springs. I sat on the patio with one of our closest family friends as she told me that it was just wrong to build that new sanctuary and she had to go find a different church. We wept together and she left that congregation and we built a simple, lovely sanctuary with 600 seats and it allowed us to make the circle of God’s family larger—and two years later that woman came back and told me she was wrong to think what she did and she had not found the warmth and fellowship she had in her former congregation and she rejoined us.

A similar instance was here at St Andrew a few months after we opened this building. A young father of two children came to me. We had coffee together. He told me how much his family just loved this congregation. How pleased they were with programs for children and families. They loved the music and worship and adult education. But they just thought we had gotten too large for them. So he wanted me to give him names of other Methodist churches around us that were smaller but they had to have the same vital worship and music and children’s programs and adult education and outreach and fellowship opportunities—but here was the clincher—they had to not be growing and attracting new people because he did not want to go through this same process again when that new church would be expanding space!! 

Now all of you should be smiling a bit because you see how difficult that idea is—he was looking for a congregation with excitement and vitality—but it could not be growing. That’s an oxymoron. Congregations of people where we are encountering the spirit of Jesus Christ and finding hope and forgiveness and change and belonging and a chance to reach outside our own lives and serve and make a difference and having a chance to sing and pray together and worship God with excitement and passion—those churches cannot help but attract more people and grow in numbers and keep expanding space and expanding ministry!! Incidentally, that fellow went and looked at some of the other churches I suggested to him—and came back here!!

Vital congregations are usually growing congregations. That is how it has always been as the Christian movement has expanded! And as we expand, we build structures to help us do that ministry. That is and should be the only reason we build church buildings—to help us do ministry!! The building is not just for its own sake. We build buildings so we can create and form people into disciples—that is what Christ asks us to do in Matthew’s gospel—to create people who are his followers and disciples.

Brad McNealy and Allen Amis and Mark Rudnicki and others of our building committee who have stood by the model in the foyer tell me of the excitement they feel between services as people come to the information table and the model and ask questions and make suggestions. It is an exciting time. I encourage you to be with them, to read the materials, to offer ideas and suggestions.

We have only completed the study phase of our building process. We are about to enter the design phase depending on the pledges that you and I bring to the altar table on May 11. We have had amazing response already in some advance pledges that are coming in!

You know of the family that has said they are so excited about who we are and what we are doing here in this unique congregation that they are giving a two million dollar matching gift so that for every four dollars you and I give, they will match with a dollar up to the two million. So if we raise eight million, we get that entire two million dollar match. It is already working. Judy and I are pledging more than we ever have to any of our building programs and about fifty other families have had a chance to so far, and, miraculously (we don’t have the exact figures yet), we are already ahead of the final total of any of the previous three building campaigns in our 48 year history!!

There are always questions and even ferment in any building program I have been in and there is always excitement and sacrifice and generous commitment to help us expand ministry. I am seeing that here more fully than I ever have before!!

What kind of building should we have as we continue to invite people to new life in Christ? What kind of structure will help us fulfill our purpose? I have heard a couple of comments saying we do not want an opulent building and I agree. I have heard one comment that calls our current building “an opulent building” and I don’t see that. We built something simple and useful and lovely and economical for about $140 a square foot! That is not an opulent building compared to some of the sanctuaries close by that were built four years ago for $500 a square foot!! We are yet to determine the design details and the committee wants to receive your ideas.

What kind of building do we need? Need is an important concept. How much space does each of us “need” in our homes? I saw a news article last week about a man who was trying to live in the space of 100 square feet! How much do we NEED? Are the homes we are in more about need or about something else? Do you have any pictures in your home, any art? We do. Why? Why don’t we take that money and give to charity? Why have we balanced our spending habits, most of us, by having something of beauty in our homes as well as by giving generously to others?

Some churches operate out of store fronts. Some out of simple, flat roofed almost commercial buildings. I visited a flat ceilinged auditorium style church building recently with 1400 plastic chairs and no cross visible in the room at all. There was a stage in the front of the room and the center of their worship life was—a large drum set!! No cross—just a drum set!

We don’t know the design details yet, but I can pretty well assure you that the cross will be a central feature!! The other features the architects are proposing are height, lots of light, openness, a magnificent view of the mountains, and stained glass. Have you entered a worship space and immediately the space itself puts you in an attitude of worship and of openness to God? That is my goal.

Helping to build more space for our church is very exciting. Most folks don’t get the privilege to do this—or perhaps once in a life time. It is a privilege because the building is not only a tool for ministry, it is a sign, a visible witness that there is more to life than just ourselves, that there is purpose and joy and belonging and this building points to that.

People’s minds are changing—people who have had natural questions about how we know when the right time is for the next phase—next phases have always been in the master plan, or the Master’s Plan! And folks have seen the need and minds have been changed and newly persuaded:

One family came to the middle service. They had not been to that service recently and said, now I see! We need more room. We need to make the circle wider. One family who had been skeptical signed up to usher on Easter Sunday and were ushering in one of our overflow spaces as we tried to make room for the largest Easter attendance ever. They said, Oh, now we understand!! One family who saw that we are doing most everything we can with our current building and even about to start a fifth service here that Jerry Herships will lead, said, It looks like we are doing all we can—let’s build more space!

Many others of you have said, I had some trouble focusing on why we are doing all this till I heard St Andrew member Scott Finger tell his story of transformation and change from being way down in the depths of loss and alcohol dependency and then beginning his journey of change because he had seen our building and came here the first time for an AA group and then met some of the pastors and began attending worship and two years later is on a different journey. Some of you said that Scott’s story reminded you of why we need to expand our ministry and expand our space—so we can continue to participate in life stories of transformation and new birth and new life.

Let me close with one more story about the importance of church buildings and the witness, the signal they can be in a community, a sign of hope. The proposal for our new building has a very noticeable feature of height. The proposal is that the highest feature of the building is a cross-perhaps 90 or 100 feet high. This is proposed and not approved yet but the prominent feature will be a tall cross.

Rev. Dale Galloway was the pastor of a congregation in Portland, Oregon a few years back. They went through a building program and the cross they constructed was even taller than the one you see on our building. They planned for it to be lighted at night and visible from the two intersecting freeways near their church.

Rev. Galloway said in a workshop that Melanie and I went to that one day a fellow came to his office and said, “Your cross saved my life a few weeks ago. I had been very depressed. I was in counseling but my life seemed hopeless. Three weeks ago I got in my car and was headed for a park with my gun to end my life but as I was driving I saw your lighted cross and something happened to me. It seemed like a sign of hope from God. It was a witness that said my life can be better. I turned around and went home and called my therapist. I got into the hospital for a few days. I am feeling better. I am not there yet, but I am getting better and it was that lighted cross that showed me when I was in the midst of despair that God still had a purpose for me and that life can still be good.” 

The fellow said, “I just came by to thank you because the lighted cross on your building save my life.”

Perhaps we will hear a story like that someday as well.

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