Buildings may help
the church accomplish its mission, but at the same time, the church must admit that buildings may hinder the mission as well.
There are two main reasons that church buildings hinder, rather than help,
the church accomplish her mission.
Not exact matches
Church buildings can be used in wonderful ways to
accomplish the
mission and purposes of God on earth.
Maybe you could bring in Christians from another
church tradition or from the other side of the world to come and find fault with how your
church is
accomplishing (or not
accomplishing) your
mission.
And we keep asking ourselves the same question over and over again: «What is necessary to
accomplish God's
mission through our
church?»
By «
missions» I mean anything that is helping you
accomplish the
mission of the
church, which is to make disciples of all nations.
The Gospel story continues with Jesus creating a new people of God in the
church, which continues to
accomplish the
mission of Jesus in bringing God's Kingdom to earth now, and in eternity to all creation.
The following suggestions may perhaps become important for the immediate future of the
Church if Christianity endeavours to do justice to the situation in which it must
accomplish its
mission.
Aside from this allowing us to
accomplish the
church's intended
mission, this may have the added benefit of helping pay the mortgage, and helping us develop friendships with others.
In general,
churches choose to associate with the SBC (or any of the other Baptist bodies) because it allows them to cooperate with other autonomous congregations to
accomplish shared goals:
mission efforts, public witness, theological education, etc..
But a
church might also spend money on programs, buildings, or audio - visual equipment if it will help them
accomplish their
mission better.
And we can better
accomplish the
mission of the
Church if we embrace that diversity.
Church buildings are not always wrong; buildings or a lack of buildings must help us
accomplish our
mission.
If we close our
church so we can better
accomplish the
mission and purposes of Jesus, we have closed our
church for good!
Whereas Jesus has turned down selfish individualism, power, control, riches, fame, recognition, and glory as a means of
accomplishing His
mission, the
church fully embraced such things as a means to spread the Gospel, fulfill the Great Commission, and expand the Kingdom of God on earth.
But suffering does
accomplish a powerfully good thing: It clarifies who is willing to suffer for Christ's
Church and her
mission, and who is not.