To Build or not to Build?

A few Sundays ago, I went to a new Lutheran church that was looking to build a new church. They are currently renting space from a local elementary school. This can be a very difficult decision. Where is the line between necessary and excessive? Would a new building be a good stewardship of God's financial gifts to the congregation? Is this building to the glory of God or just something that makes us more comfortable? Dying Church has also examined this issue, and I like a lot of what he has to say.

Buildings and money

We've tried to ignore it, but it's getting harder every year. Richview's church building is now over twenty years old. We've never had to put a lot of money into it, so it hasn't been too much of a problem. We don't have any debt. The building has just been there.

Yesterday, we received a report that outlines the amount of money it will take to maintain our building over the next thirty years. The numbers are staggering. It is going to take a third of our current budget to adequately fund this facility - not to add to it, but just to maintain it. That is a lot of money, six figures every year.

I still don't know what we're going to do, but the numbers don't make sense. With 1.3 billion people living on less than a dollar a day and 3 billion people living on less than two dollars a day, we (and many other churches) will have some tough questions. Can we justify that money with for how we currently use our facility? Is this investing in the Kingdom? Lots of questions, not as many answers.