“Church Buildings”- Tools or Temples?

Ronna and I were driving the other day just talking when the thought hit me, are we using our buildings as tools for God, or are they just temples for us. I can remember as a much younger person the debate over remodeling the tiny kitchen in the building of our home congregation. Some people did not think that the churches funds should be used for updating a kitchen that was at best too small and inadequate. Others thought about what a bigger and more functional kitchen could be used for. Now this is a novel concept, God made the world, money and dishwashers and ovens are in the world, so they must be ok with God.

It is not the kitchen that created the issue, everyone on both sides of the debate had a kitchen in their home and that was good for them. The debate was over what was the proper use of the church building, or as my grandmother used to call it, the church house.

We have always been very touchy about the whole concept of speaking were the bible speaks. The teaching was if we use it and approve of it, it must be an aide. If we don’t approve of it and we don’t use it, it must be sin. Since the very first Christians met in homes, this must make the building an aide.

Since we have determined that our building is an aide, then we should really quit treating it like a temple. God sent his spirit to dwell in our hearts. God wants us to treat our bodies as holy temples and God does not dwell in any house made with hands.

What impact could we have in our community if we use our new facility right from the start as a tool for outreach. What if we opened our doors to the boy scouts, or the youth sport clubs for meetings? What if we had AA meetings and yoga classes? Maybe more of the community would know us and we could do a much better job of serving their needs. What if during floods or hurricanes we could open our building up to serve people that needed showers, laundry, a hot meal and a place to sleep? Maybe if we had our focus on how to serve others we could really find a way to use God’s resources in a great way.

I like the saying, “Don’t worry about the ants on the dirt floor, if you have elephants on the straw roof”. Maybe the ants are the little issues that consume so much of our time and attention. Lets focus on the bigger issues and take the focus off ourselves.