Parable of Mustard bush and church organizations.....
I have started wondering about the wisdom of putting a lot of money into facilities and formal organizational structures...
I am starting to think seriously about the value of "investing" any more than is absolutely necessary for the immediate need. Why? The mustard bush is supposed to root, grows like mad, matures, sends out it's seed, and dies.
Being tied to the expensive facilities and gigantic organizational structure feels like being tied to a dead mustard bush.... Or worse - a gigantic, oversized, mutant mustard tree that is full of evil...
Our mistake is not learning that God prefers many of these institutions and organizations to be temporary things rather than big permanent edifices...
As a result - we find ourselves in a death spiral... The maintenance of this expensive organization takes all the resources away from the actual work of the church. No money/time/resources are available to do outreach, missions, and giving to the poor because it's all sucked up by maintaining the building, debt payments, and various other expenses....
My church could drop $70k into the facilities making *necessary* repairs - and that doesn't accomplish one bit of outreach, teaching, missions, visitation, etc.. All it does is make the roof stop leaking and fix some lights and the projector...
Do I want poor facilities? No... But I think we might be forgetting something....
I have started wondering about the wisdom of putting a lot of money into facilities and formal organizational structures...
I am starting to think seriously about the value of "investing" any more than is absolutely necessary for the immediate need. Why? The mustard bush is supposed to root, grows like mad, matures, sends out it's seed, and dies.
Being tied to the expensive facilities and gigantic organizational structure feels like being tied to a dead mustard bush.... Or worse - a gigantic, oversized, mutant mustard tree that is full of evil...
Our mistake is not learning that God prefers many of these institutions and organizations to be temporary things rather than big permanent edifices...
As a result - we find ourselves in a death spiral... The maintenance of this expensive organization takes all the resources away from the actual work of the church. No money/time/resources are available to do outreach, missions, and giving to the poor because it's all sucked up by maintaining the building, debt payments, and various other expenses....
My church could drop $70k into the facilities making *necessary* repairs - and that doesn't accomplish one bit of outreach, teaching, missions, visitation, etc.. All it does is make the roof stop leaking and fix some lights and the projector...
Do I want poor facilities? No... But I think we might be forgetting something....