BUILDINGS BUILDINGS

I'm often asked by both believers and non believers alike, "so where is your church located?" They obviously mean where is the church building. When I explain that it's the people who are the church not some chapel or whatever I get the glazed look thing and so move onto explain that we have made a deliberate decision to meet in a Catholic school rather than buy or rent a full time building.

The ECB (European Central Bank) raised the lending interest rate yesterday (July 3rd) which means many churches who are already struggling with mortgage repayments will now have to come up with even more money to fund their debt. That's really hard for those congregations, especially in a time of national & world economic slowdown.

It causes me to question though, why is it such an important thing with so many Evangelical churches to have their own building? I mean, it's not like it was a big thing in Scripture. And I think it's often a hindrance for new people coming in to check out a church, especially in Ireland. The visitor is really coming onto your own personal property, whereas coming into a local community school is way easier for the average guy in the neighborhood. We have had a good number of new people come in saying exactly that. And most of them have stayed on with us.

You do have a number of unique problems when you rent a facility for part of the week. It's vital that a good relationship exists between the church leadership and the principle and staff of the school. Mutual respect and honesty is vital. You also have a lot of work in setting up and clearing up, twice a week in our case. But you are also spared a lot of maintenance & expense issues, so I think one compensates for the other.

We have been blessed with the school we meet in. We have access 52 weeks of the year and a full time storage room on site, our own keys, classrooms, 2 halls, kitchen, and car park, all within 10 minutes walk of the city centre. Our landlords are a pleasure to deal with. It's often very difficult for a new Evangelical church in Ireland to achieve this. It took us a number of years to do so.

But it really is worth it. From a financial, evangelistic, and social point of view. It is true that you don't have the same security of tenure that you would if you owned your own building. And despite our good relationship we have no securities at all. But in our case that has only proved positive too. In our 11 year history we have outgrown our 3 different facilities 3 times. On each occasion we had the flexibility to either move on or try something new, such as currently with our Parallel Services.

Spiritually I also think it keeps both the church leadership and congregation on our toes, and helps keep us from getting too settled. And it avoids the usual money/property/decoration hassles that arise in many churches.

It's a bit of a cliché I know but, maybe it's time for churches like ours to think outside the traditional box on this issue. You never know the blessings God has in store when you do.