"This is the largest church building program in modern history"
But there’s great outreach that can take place in those multi-million dollar rec centers! After all, if one person comes to Christ because he played b-ball in our gym or ran around our indoor track, isn’t that worth the investment?
Let’s see, at $5 million each, the church could underwrite the building of 26 smaller churches! Oh, but then God wouldn’t be nearly so glorified. Not impugning anyone’s motives here, but I wonder how much of this kind of “glory be to God” construction is really rooted in a “Hey, look at us!” heart. I guess I’ve seen too much of the button-popping pride over one’s building that it’s left me a bit cynical….sorry ‘bout that.
Let’s see, at $5 million each, the church could underwrite the building of 26 smaller churches! Oh, but then God wouldn’t be nearly so glorified. Not impugning anyone’s motives here, but I wonder how much of this kind of “glory be to God” construction is really rooted in a “Hey, look at us!” heart. I guess I’ve seen too much of the button-popping pride over one’s building that it’s left me a bit cynical….sorry ‘bout that.
I’m a bit ambivalent about grand building programs. Churches facilities are not temples, of course, but there is an overlapping purpose and God led Solomon to construct an astoundingly expensive and grand structure for God’s glory in Jerusalem. The case could be made that the millions of dollars (maybe billions in the economy of that day) could have been spent helping the poor or “evangelizing” the nations, but it simply wasn’t what God directed them to do. And apparently all that beauty was deeply significant to God as a place to worship Him and associate strongly with His name.
So I think we’re on thin ice if we too quickly assert that beautiful doesn’t matter and expensive is inappropriate.
On the other hand, I have a very strong small church bias so I do tend to think starting more churches with smaller facilities would be a better plan.
But let’s face it, the folks who attend giant mega churches like giant megachurches and if 1st Baptist decided to split up into smaller ones, many of the “I want to disappear into something huge” people would find something else huge to disappear into… so the math wouldn’t work out the same.
All in all, if they have truly discerned God’s leading in the matter (which I don’t think I can rule out), I’m happy for them and their opportunity.
So I think we’re on thin ice if we too quickly assert that beautiful doesn’t matter and expensive is inappropriate.
On the other hand, I have a very strong small church bias so I do tend to think starting more churches with smaller facilities would be a better plan.
But let’s face it, the folks who attend giant mega churches like giant megachurches and if 1st Baptist decided to split up into smaller ones, many of the “I want to disappear into something huge” people would find something else huge to disappear into… so the math wouldn’t work out the same.
All in all, if they have truly discerned God’s leading in the matter (which I don’t think I can rule out), I’m happy for them and their opportunity.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
[Dave G] A pole barn with a cast iron stove would be enough …I suspect that the Dallas building codes address this :)
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=28610&ref=BPNews-RSSFeed0805
The above article quotes leaders of Criswell College saying that Jeffress wanted to sell the college’s assets to pay for his church’s building program.
The above article quotes leaders of Criswell College saying that Jeffress wanted to sell the college’s assets to pay for his church’s building program.
http://www.dennyburk.com/?p=5662#comment-53515
The story is famous of the discourse between Pope Innocent IV and Thomas Aquinas. When that great scholar came to Rome, and looked somewhat amazedly upon the mass of plate and treasure which he saw, Lo, said the Pope, you see Thomas, we cannot say as St Peter did of old, silver and gold have we none. No, said Aquinas, neither can you command, as he did, the lame man to arise and walk. — Bishop Hall
I personally am not ready to condemn First Baptist Dallas for this building program. If your only exposure to this church is through this one news story, you have no context in which to judge it.
This church has literally reached millions of people throughout the world with its programs, and it is in a very strategic part of the Dallas metro area, as the story alludes to.
I will admit that my only real exposure to this church is through its television ministry (which is shown on TV-30 in Milwaukee), and I am not an apologist for them.
However, I congratulate them on being able to undertake such a project for the glory of God.
Will this be the ministerial experience of most pastors — or even the experience of most believers? No. But some of us who have spent years laboring in humble little “country churches” would like to try and “disappear into something huge” for a while :).
Perhaps we could learn a few things from our big-church brethren, at any rate.
This church has literally reached millions of people throughout the world with its programs, and it is in a very strategic part of the Dallas metro area, as the story alludes to.
I will admit that my only real exposure to this church is through its television ministry (which is shown on TV-30 in Milwaukee), and I am not an apologist for them.
However, I congratulate them on being able to undertake such a project for the glory of God.
Will this be the ministerial experience of most pastors — or even the experience of most believers? No. But some of us who have spent years laboring in humble little “country churches” would like to try and “disappear into something huge” for a while :).
Perhaps we could learn a few things from our big-church brethren, at any rate.
Church Ministries Representative, serving in the Midwest, for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry
My knowledge of FBC Dallas is limited to Criswell’s historic role in the conservative resurgence in the SBC. So I don’t intend to comment on this church’s plans in particular when I note a preference against massive physical expansions.
In the 60s, I believe, my current church had a plan to bulldoze everything on its block and build “Baptist Square” in its place. They were successful in demolishing a historic building or two, raising the ire of preservation-minded neighbors, and (unintentionally) giving the fledgling neighborhood preservation society a rallying cry. Baptist Square? It exists only in a few framed drawings in church offices. Of course, not long after, DC experienced race riots and so called white flight. Had Baptist Square been built, it would have been even more difficult for the saints who stayed to maintain the facilities through some very thin decades.
Now we find ourselves, by God’s grace, bursting at the seams. Our old building can hardly fit another person most Sundays. We’re renovating as much as possible and are able to add fewer than 200 seats. At the same time, we’re trying to plant churches as rapidly as we are able. In some ways it is an inconvenient situation, but I think it is more sustainable in the long run and, I hope, just a little more biblical in some ways.
One other cautionary tale: my in-laws attend a mega church in the midwest that has had declining attendance since the founding pastor retired. They do not yet seem to be truly struggling to maintain the facilities, but over the past decade I’ve seen the church make a lot of compromises to attract new and younger people. They flirt with every new trend. In the process, they’ve alienated many of the members who founded the church and have served faithfully for the last forty, fifty, or sixty years.
In the 60s, I believe, my current church had a plan to bulldoze everything on its block and build “Baptist Square” in its place. They were successful in demolishing a historic building or two, raising the ire of preservation-minded neighbors, and (unintentionally) giving the fledgling neighborhood preservation society a rallying cry. Baptist Square? It exists only in a few framed drawings in church offices. Of course, not long after, DC experienced race riots and so called white flight. Had Baptist Square been built, it would have been even more difficult for the saints who stayed to maintain the facilities through some very thin decades.
Now we find ourselves, by God’s grace, bursting at the seams. Our old building can hardly fit another person most Sundays. We’re renovating as much as possible and are able to add fewer than 200 seats. At the same time, we’re trying to plant churches as rapidly as we are able. In some ways it is an inconvenient situation, but I think it is more sustainable in the long run and, I hope, just a little more biblical in some ways.
One other cautionary tale: my in-laws attend a mega church in the midwest that has had declining attendance since the founding pastor retired. They do not yet seem to be truly struggling to maintain the facilities, but over the past decade I’ve seen the church make a lot of compromises to attract new and younger people. They flirt with every new trend. In the process, they’ve alienated many of the members who founded the church and have served faithfully for the last forty, fifty, or sixty years.
The thing that turns me off is the triumphalistic attitude: “This is the largest church building program in modern history.” If the construction is being done for God’s glory, what room is there for statements like that?
[Jonathan Charles] The thing that turns me off is the triumphalistic attitude: “This is the largest church building program in modern history.” If the construction is being done for God’s glory, what room is there for statements like that?Can’t disagree with you there. Not an ideal way to frame the announcement, for sure.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Discussion