I wrote a post back in January 2009 which, amazingly, still gets regular hits: Extreme Makeover: Church Edition.
If you haven’t read it, I recommend you do so. I don’t like most of what I write but I just reread this and am actually quite happy with it… apart from a bit of rambling at the beginning.
Now, although I didn’t expressly say it in the post, Extreme Makeover: Church Edition was not about making over a building but was rather about making over the Church.
It’s not about paint, it’s about people’s attitudes, understanding of God and living out their calling.
Once a month, or so, I get an email asking me if I could bring the Extreme Makeover team to this church or that church because the building is desperately in need of renovations.
I have pondered this many times and have decided that they send those emails for one of three reasons:
- They really don’t understand what I’m saying in the post (although most of the emails come from ‘pastors’)
- They are so desperate for help that they ignore what the post actually says and write in the hope that I will somehow be so moved that I create an Extreme Makeover team just for them.
- They’ve heard somewhere that there is actually such a thing as Extreme Makeover: Church Edition and just assume that I must be associated with it.
Either way, it makes me very sad that the Church is in such a state that we need to go searching the internet for help with our buildings.
Maybe I should put together a team to swoop around the world helping to fix up church buildings… Or then again, if the local church doesn’t place enough priority in having a building that is safe and usable, maybe that church should get out of the building and start meeting in homes or parks or somewhere else.
That probably sounds a little harsh. I do realize that in some neighborhoods there simply aren’t the funds available. People living in poverty, barely able to feed their families simply don’t have the money to renovate church buildings. However, some of the emails I get are not from churches in poor areas, the people in the churches have the money, their priorities just lie in driving Suburbans and having 50 inch LCD TV’s.
So I will continue to ponder… Should the Church be supporting churches in poor areas? When I put it that way, it sounds like a YES to me!
Is this what Rediscovering the Church is all about. Discovering and remembering that the Church isn’t just restricted to middle class white folk in good neighborhoods… Maybe we SHOULD be doing something to give those in need and Extreme Makeover: Church Edition!
Wow Peter…I went back and read the older post as well as this new one. I love what you are saying. The building isn’t what it’s about…it doesn’t matter if you have the best/fanciest sound systems or new carpet and paint if people aren’t being taught how to Be the Church…
Precisely, Bridget!
When I was at my previous church, we had outgrown our building and we were looking for a new place to meet. We bought property in an upper-middle class neighborhood. The church is still growing, but I always felt we left so many folks behind.
They used to get tons of kids in for VBS each summer. Mostly because parents simply couldn’t afford sports camps and all the other things that the kids do in the new neighborhood.
When giving reasons for why we needed to move to the neighborhood where they are currently located, an elder made the comment, “Rich folks need Jesus too.” While that is true, my heart broke a little when I heard that comment. Mostly because his words were an excuse rather than a calling.
I am very fmiliar with stories like that Katdish!
It IS true that rich people need Jesus too, unfortunately I think that sometimes the church’s motivation is more that the church needs rich people though!
Of course, some are called to the rich and I’m not talking about that but I know of a city where something like one in four churches decided they needed to move to the ‘nicer’ areas of town.
It’s sad.
Amen. It’s about Him & His Kingdom- very good.