Has the Church Lost its Flippin’ Mind?
First Baptist Dallas announced a 130 Million dollar building campaign. It is one of three very big church building projects currently underway in the Metroplex.I don’t really have a lot to say about this other than the fact that this really makes me a little sick to the stomach. What in the world has the church come to that we can spend this much money on facilities and be okay with it? I know I am in the minority on this one but this is another indication to me that something is not quite right with us.
Gateway Church and Watermark Community Church also have new building projects though not as large as First Dallas. I’m not so troubled by those as I am First because I know a little more about the culture around there.
The following quote by Marva Dawn is telling:
We ignore the real situation in the world. While one small part of the world eases its pain by producing more and consuming more non-edible commodities, the rest of the world suffers an opposite kind of hopelessness-when persons are not able to secure the nourishment necessary to live.
Is the answer always more? Is the answer to a growing church always build a bigger building, consuming more energy, more land, more resources, and more money when there are people just down the street who do not know where their next meal is coming from?
There is so much more that we can do besides sinking enormous amounts of money into building projects and “cool” technology. I don’t have a problem with churches needing to expand as it is necessary at times. But it seems to me that there is a point at which it becomes too much and in these times we live in I think there are better ways such as splitting off the church into smaller gatherings so that the church’s facility budget does not exceed their missions budget.
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Robert
I love theology and the challenge of making deep teachings non-boring. Let's face it, most of the time we hear theological teaching, it really is boring. Does it really have to be that way? Nope.
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November 4, 2009
Wow…that’s absolutely INSANE! You know, there are ministries that are much smaller and have a deep and lasting effect on people’s lives that are suffering huge losses of support and yet 3 churches are spending a combined $240 Million dollars for buildings that I can only imagine will cost in excess of $5 million dollars a year to operate and maintain. Actually, I’m completely guessing on the operating cost…and I would bet just about anything that my estimate is extremely low.
What other period in history was the ‘church’ building the largest buildings and neglecting the greatest spiritual/physical needs of the people? How about the height of the Roman Catholic Church. If you follow what happened shortly thereafter, things aren’t looking too great for us.
November 5, 2009
You bring up a good point. It seems to me that many of these places will be museums if American culture continues to trend in the direction where people do not want anything to do with church.
$5 million a year to support these facilities is not too far off. Just think of how much that could help some needy people. I know a church in Irving (a big one) that spends a huge portion of their yearly budget on facilities and payroll. And people wonder why para church ministries exist? They exist because so much of the money that could be used to actually help people is spent on so much frivolous crap!
November 5, 2009
I would be thrilled if they would send just a half of a percent of their budget for what we are doing in Spain. That is unbelievable.
January 13, 2010
I don’t know how fair it is to include Watermark in this discussion. This is not a church that is expanding or adding to it’s facilities. This is the first facility this church has had. Just 2 years or so ago this church was meeting at a local high school after bouncing around between various hotels and schools. Watermark will celebrate it’s 10th anniversary this weekend in fact.
I can’t speak for FBC or Gateway, but I first found out about Watermark because of their contributions (financially and otherwise) to the community, specifically West Dallas and their work with Sequoyah Elementary. You can go to watermarkconspiracy.com and learn about their work to bring clean drinking water to some of the poorest areas of Africa. I could go on.
$45 million is a lot of money. Unfortunately, that is how much it cost to build from scratch a facility capable of housing some 7,000 members and growing. As it stands right now, the children facilities are literally overflowing and children are sometimes turned away. It’s also worth nothing that the church leadership has not incurred one cent of dept to build the facility. Money that is specifically donated to facilities is put away and when enough has been saved, it is spent on the next phase. The church is currently in it’s final phase of construction.