My wife and I were recently at a neighboring church for a Young Life event. As we were leaving that church my wife asked me, "James, why would anyone in our neighborhood choose to come to the Little Church on the Prairie when there is this church right here in the same neighborhood and their facilities are so much more family friendly so much more modern?"
I hate it when my wife asks me questions like that because it's so spot on.
It's not that our facilities are dirty or unkempt. It's just that our facilities were state of the art when it was built fifty years ago. But we haven't done much other than keeping this place clean, putting new carpet, and new paint. The place pretty much looks as it did fifty years ago, except that it is far from being a state of the art complex.
To remodel our facilities, it would cost us at least a million dollars so that we can provide a facility that's on par and even with the other churches in the area.
Even if we were to raise a million dollars and improve our facilities, that would only get us even with what the other churches are offering.
And should we invest a million dollars on our facilities, it would be absolute foolishness to think that unchurched people would start packing out LCOP just because we remodeled.
The question that begs to be asked is if we had a million dollars, how could we maximize the kingdom impact for those dollars?
If we did a capital campaign, what would happen if we invested that million dollars back into this community for charity and for ministry?
What does our community need more?
What would impact the community more for the Kingdom of God?
A million dollar capital campaign to remodel the church? Or a million dollar capital campaign to do mission and ministry in the community?
We have to continue to maintain a clean and safe campus. We wouldn't ever want to compromise on that.
But could you imagine how much fun our meetings would be if we were discussing how best to invest a million dollars back into the community for ministry and mission?
Could you imagine the impact God could make through a church that invested in the kingdom of God like that?
Why, I think I just might want to give my life to a church like that!!!
1 comment:
We need to remeber we are in the people buisness. Our investments need to be in the PEOPLE who are out there who need us. I'm telling you ST. Leo's (stleoparish.org)church has had some face lifts of their phical building and is kind if old BUT the amount of reaching people who need them is AMAZING! I wouldn't say it's packed on a Saturday night or Sunday morning but they are running 1 service Saturday night , and 2 on Sunday morning. My Sister in-Law Cheryl was raised in a Prebyterian Church.Three weeks ago she officially joined the Catholic church (after 20 years of just attending in Chicago)because of what she has experienced at St. Leo's. Trust me that is a testamony to a church doing something really right. Being vibrant in the community is more about how much you can help your neighbors in need, support in love, the fellow members of your church community and less about the building( not that it wouldn't help to be more modern and less colonial cute-sy) I encouage anyone who is interested to go to St. leo's parish website and look at all the amazing things they are doing in the downtown Tacoma area. People are just as in need out here in Lakewood as they are in downtown Tacoma!
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