How big does it get?

[Help-me-learn]

Why do churches keep getting bigger and bigger? If a church has that much money to expand why not use it to help thoes in need located in that area? Even if they don't deserve it, didn't Jesus give us something we didn't deserve? Go ahead and build a gym but take the rest and feed the hungry. Does it not mean more to feed Gods people then to make mans buildings bigger? I need some understanding. Is the church using Gods money appropriately? I could go on and on, but I feel a little better now.

Incase you are wondering I do look for people to help all the time.

 

[Katya]

How do you know that the church (which ever one) doesn't help out? Some may help anonymously. They aren't in it for the glory.

 

[shout2thelord]

You need places for people to worship too. we have out grown our building and are looking for a place to get a new one. They do help the community but at the same time we need a place to meet together.

 

[GraftMeIn]

I think that if the congregation is growing then the Church will need to expand. There is more than one way to feed the hungry. There are those who suffer a physical hunger. And also those who suffer a spiritual hunger, those who hunger for the word of God. They both need to be fed.

I would only consider this a problem in a Church if it's having trouble filling the seats that already exist.

 

[ZiSunka]

Why should there be a limit on how many people can worship together at one time? Do you think God would place limits on the size of a church?

No! Churches should be as big as they need to be!

 

[TwinCrier]

Amen!  My church just added on a new auditorium.  We had to have people sitting off in other rooms watching the service on closed circuit television because there was just no room.... and that was on regular Sundays.  We still don't know what to do with everybody this Christmas.  Who wants to complain about a growing church? 

 

[Havoc]

My faith doesn't build churches. We are in our Church the moment we step outside.

 

[ZiSunka]

Originally posted by Havoc
My faith doesn't build churches. We are in our Church the moment we step outside.

Wow! How limiting! You have to be outside to have church? We can be in church inside as well as outside. We aren't limited by the presence or absence of walls at all.

We do build meeting houses that we call "church" though because in the winter we don't like to be out in the weather for two or three hours at a time. Makes our children and elderly people sick.

 

[TwinCrier]

My faith doesn't build churches either.  I wish it did so we wouldn't have to pay union wages.  Jesus may be a carpenter, but He is busy building mansions in heaven so I don't think he minds if we hire someone else.

 

[waterwizard]

This is an area that can be debated all day long. 

The question is why is the church growing?  Is the church doing the will of God in such a manner that God has seen fit to bless it with growth?  Or do the people in charge (pastors, deacons, etc.) tell the people what they want to hear so they will come to their church?  Is the goal of the church to serve God, or to build their numbers?

Do the doctrines of these mega churches line up with the Word of God?  Or are they satisfying the "itching ears" of the congregation?  Do the people come to worship and hear the Word, or do they come to be seen?  A lot of questions.

Our little church has maybe 50 on the roll, and maybe 20 come on any given Sunday?  Is our church a failure?  No.  We come to worship, we come to seek God's face.  You can feel the Spirit the second you walk in.  Our pastor has said he would rather preach to 20 people who really want to be close to God, than to 1000 who couldn't care less.

Quality, not quantity.

 

[TwinCrier]

Oh yeah?  Well my pastor has said he would rather preach to 1000 lost people than to 1000 who are already saved. 

Every church is different and it's not fair to say all big churches this or all little churches that.  I once heard a pastor say that small churches are for small minds.  I don't agree as he was very small minded man, but I digress.  If christians were to faithfully witness and pay tithes, it stands to reason that the church would grow, and by church I mean the body of believers.  We are simply talking about buildings here nothing more. 

 

[SavedByGrace3]

How about back to basics: the house church?

When the body outgrows the house... start another one down the street. No multi-million dollar buildings, no mega ministries...

Sounds good to me! 

 

 

[Angel75]

Originally posted by lambslove
Why should there be a limit on how many people can worship together at one time? Do you think God would place limits on the size of a church?

No! Churches should be as big as they need to be!

but do they need marble entrance ways and big screen tvs in waiting area, leather couches. A customer of mine is calvary chapel and they are building nonstop, which is fine, but the extravagances are points I always consider extreme whenever i visited with them.

 

[ScottEmerson]

The thing that gets me is when churches spend allt his money making their churches look prettier. I don't have a problem with expansion, but I do have a problem with churches spending millions of dollars adding ornate wood, top of the line carpet, and other eccentricities. Consider what $10 million can do to upgrade a church that has 2,000 members. It can do a lot, and make the place look wonderful.

Consider what $10 million can do for an orphanage (or ten) in Eastern Europe. Amazing, huh?

Of course, people will give willingly to church renovation. Sadly, they will not as much for something that they will see no direct benefit from. It's become all about "me" in the Church today.

...and I work at a church...

 

[seebs]

I think it is instructive to consider the story of the woman who annointed Christ with scented oils.

It is good to save the money and use it for noble causes. It is also good to give glory to God. I think each of us is inclined to different kinds of good action; this variety is fine by me.

 

[ScottEmerson]

I think $10 million spent for aesthetic improvement of a church is much different than the woman who anointed Christ with oils. It's one thing to bring glory to God. It's another thing to bring glory to a church building.

 

[seebs]

True; there's a point at which it's obviously not being well-spent, but on the other hand, if you think about the proportionate cost (in "man-years of work") of a medieval cathedral... I wouldn't be surprised if many of them were on the order of 400 man-years of work or more, and in the U.S., 400 man-years of work can get you $10M.

 

[Blackhawk]

I think one has to look at a question like this on a church by church basis. There is a balance to things. One has to spend some on the poor, some on the upkeep of the church, etc.. It is hard to make judgements on churches if one does not see the actual budgets and is not aquainted enough with the goings on in the curch ot see how they spend their money.

However with all this siad I have seen churches that do nto spend their money wisely. Some do it out of ignorance or slopiness. They just do not know how to spend their money correctly or are too lazy to take the time to be frugal with it. I think of a small church I went to once and this was there problem. They were good people but bad at adminstration. Not a good thing but forgivable.

I have also seen something far worse. I know of churches where one has to pay for parking. Where the pastor/priest is out to get wealthy and not about serving Christ and caring for the poor in the world. I have seen televangelists who take old people's money for prayer cloths they supposedly prayed over. And the list could go on and on. These guys should be put away somewhere and I think they will be very shocked when they see an righteously angry God on judgment day.

I guess the lesson here is not to stereotype any church though. There are some good and some bad. Do not be too quick to judge them but be wise as serpents.

 

[Help-me-learn]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this way. I started the thread. I feel if a church has enough money to expand because they have so many people then build another church down the road. It wasn't just about the hungry or needy, it was about being greedy. Churches are becoming inclusive. Look what we have. With all the churches on TV, why does ours need to be. Couldn't we use that money somewhere else? What would happen if we started giveing for the same reasons the church gave in the begining?

Well this is just something I wanted to vent about.

 

[ZiSunka]

Quality, not quantity.

Huh? You mean, we shouldn't worry about getting people saved, we should worry more about the quality of their salvation?