If you build it …

The following is a post from a blog I read HARVESTBOSTON
Had to share it because MAN IT FIRED ME UP. Not as if this is the first time this has happen and not as if it doesn't cross denominational lines, and not as if a 1 million dollar building project isn't as offensive. My mind is spinning.

from HarvestBoston; (click on name it is a link)


Thanks to Agent B for ruining our Saturday by passing along this tidbit of news out of Abilene.

Chrissy and I both know this church well from our time in the Friendly Frontier, our best friends attended there for 6 years, and we even attended there for a short time. This is a loving community that has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 10 years. But the news that this church is taking out a loan for $9+ million to more than double the size of their already 75,000 square foot building … well, to steal a phrase from my good buddy Miller, “fires up my Tourette’s.” I’m angry at this

And I just couldn’t keep it to myself … not on this. Here’s what I wrote in the comments section of the Reporter-News article:

Until every person in Abilene has a place to sleep tonight…

…and a warm meal

…and a set of warm clothes

…and a few friends to love them

…and an opportunity to work with their hands

I don’t want to hear one more story of another congregation “building bigger barns” — saying nothing of $9 million ones. In fact, my stomach turns at the Beltway news when I think about the number of hurting people right under their noses and around the world, especially in today’s economic climate.

As I recall, Jesus will not judge his people based on the number of bodies “ministered to” or the square footage of our church campuses or how many “Lord, Lords” we utter, but on how we treat the hungry, the imprisoned, the naked. In James, the writer describes “true religion” as how God’s people care for widows and orphans. Amos told Israel that God’s judgment was coming against it because they built stone buildings and vineyards and gave abundant grain and burnt offerings … but disregarded the poor and oppressed.

I think about the number of non-profits and faith-based groups in Abilene who are working out on the margins of society, in the gutters, and in unglamorous ways — and who scrape by for funds. I know of directors of ministries who take no salary so that those funds might be redirected to the people and projects who need it the most.

How far could $9.5 million go toward ending homelessness in Abilene?
The Beltway news is certainly not surprising, but it is shocking all the same. I love and have loved many people at Beltway, but this expansion is unacceptable. There, I said it. When 80% of a church’s funds are put toward facilities and salaries, Jesus cries. He must be sobbing at this news.

If my comment sounds angry and judgmental, that’s because it is. =) Few things fire me up like stories of churches and church leaders a) abusing their influence over the flock by using “God’s will” as a rationale to do just about anything; and b) totally missing the point (in this case, assuming that God cannot work through the congregation unless they build this building). The thing that gets me is that in a member vote (after an impassioned plea from the pastor basically saying that the leadership believe this expansion is the way God is leading the church), a whopping 99% of the voters approved the project. How, out of 3,000+ members/lurkers, could virtually no one oppose this? Are Beltway members so blindly trusting of their leadership that they’ll go along with anything? Could it really be God’s will that $9.5 million be spent to expand a church’s worship space and parking lot? Digital children’s Sunday School check-in kiosks? Really?