Church Buildings - A Monumental Waste of Money
The Greek word ekklesia or ecclesia, as it is sometimes spelled, means “church”. However, this word refers to a called out people, not an architectural structure such as a church building. In context with how the word ekklesia is used in the Bible, it refers to a called out people of God. Very few Christians seem to realize or understand this and the average person on the street also incorrectly thinks of a church as a building not as a people. Many also think of a church as a legal corporate entity, namely a non-profit corporation. The church of Jesus Christ is neither a building or a corporate entity. It is a people of God, built living stone upon living stone. It is not an edifice of dead brick and mortar. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that "The Spirit of the Lord no longer dwells in temples made by the hands of men." So not only is each individual Christians an individual temple of the Holy Spirit, together all Christians make up the larger unseen temple of God that has nothing at all to do with real estate.
It is sad to see so much time, money, effort, energy and focus being spent on church buildings, their upkeep and expansion, buildings that not only don't even need to exist, but shouldn't exist. Millions of dollars are often wasted on just one of the countless thousands upon thousands of church buildings that litter the landscape, money that could have been used to help transform a local community by showing the love of God in real action to people who are in need. But no, we can't have that! We need to build endless meeting places for our comfort and convenience. Strange, but not one time, not in one single place in all of the Bible do we ever see Christians building a church building, let alone for their comfort and convenience.
Nevertheless, probably the number one man made tradition that we see preached from the pulpit today is the "need" for a church building or for a larger church buildiung and pastors are endless trying to collect money to make it happen, pressuring and even manipulating their congregations into giving to this nonsensical practice. So it's no surprise that billions of dollars worldwide have been misspent and continue to be misspent on church buildings. Unwary, and often even naive professing Christians are coerced into committing much of their personal resources to these futile endeavors, and in the process they are robbed of vital money that they really need for their families and to help others in need.
I believe that this loss, this misappropriation of funds, will never be more apparent as it will be in the upcoming months or years of very hard financial times that seem to be right around the corner for this nation and the world. I believe that many Christians will one day wish that they had nothing to do with this church building nonsense and instead will wish that the money they wasted was there to help them, their families and others in those desperate times. By the way, most of those buildings will not likely be there as some kind of sanctuary from times of trouble or as some kind of relief center as they are sometimes thought of. Many if not most of the buildings have unpaid mortgages on them and so banks own the note on most of those buildings. That means that they will foreclose and take them away in a heartbeat when the mortgage payments cease to be paid.
ChristiansFree.com
The Greek word ekklesia or ecclesia, as it is sometimes spelled, means “church”. However, this word refers to a called out people, not an architectural structure such as a church building. In context with how the word ekklesia is used in the Bible, it refers to a called out people of God. Very few Christians seem to realize or understand this and the average person on the street also incorrectly thinks of a church as a building not as a people. Many also think of a church as a legal corporate entity, namely a non-profit corporation. The church of Jesus Christ is neither a building or a corporate entity. It is a people of God, built living stone upon living stone. It is not an edifice of dead brick and mortar. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that "The Spirit of the Lord no longer dwells in temples made by the hands of men." So not only is each individual Christians an individual temple of the Holy Spirit, together all Christians make up the larger unseen temple of God that has nothing at all to do with real estate.
It is sad to see so much time, money, effort, energy and focus being spent on church buildings, their upkeep and expansion, buildings that not only don't even need to exist, but shouldn't exist. Millions of dollars are often wasted on just one of the countless thousands upon thousands of church buildings that litter the landscape, money that could have been used to help transform a local community by showing the love of God in real action to people who are in need. But no, we can't have that! We need to build endless meeting places for our comfort and convenience. Strange, but not one time, not in one single place in all of the Bible do we ever see Christians building a church building, let alone for their comfort and convenience.
Nevertheless, probably the number one man made tradition that we see preached from the pulpit today is the "need" for a church building or for a larger church buildiung and pastors are endless trying to collect money to make it happen, pressuring and even manipulating their congregations into giving to this nonsensical practice. So it's no surprise that billions of dollars worldwide have been misspent and continue to be misspent on church buildings. Unwary, and often even naive professing Christians are coerced into committing much of their personal resources to these futile endeavors, and in the process they are robbed of vital money that they really need for their families and to help others in need.
I believe that this loss, this misappropriation of funds, will never be more apparent as it will be in the upcoming months or years of very hard financial times that seem to be right around the corner for this nation and the world. I believe that many Christians will one day wish that they had nothing to do with this church building nonsense and instead will wish that the money they wasted was there to help them, their families and others in those desperate times. By the way, most of those buildings will not likely be there as some kind of sanctuary from times of trouble or as some kind of relief center as they are sometimes thought of. Many if not most of the buildings have unpaid mortgages on them and so banks own the note on most of those buildings. That means that they will foreclose and take them away in a heartbeat when the mortgage payments cease to be paid.
ChristiansFree.com