The church building is a tool

Posted on February 10, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 9 Comments

I received an email yesterday from a man who visited a new church only to be confronted by the pastor because the man’s wife brought a drink into the “sanctuary.” Lest you think that this is uncommon, it was not long ago that I attended a church where the pastor made a huge deal out of anything other than water being brought into the auditorium. Presumably, such rules are in place because of fear that coffee or other drinks might get spilled on the carpet and result in a stain.

I have two fundamental issues with this thinking. The first issue has to do with the whole idea of any part of the building being the “sanctuary.” When believers enter the meeting room to gather for worship, they are not entering the temple where they will encounter God. The believers are temples (1 Cor. 6:19) carrying the Holy Spirit with them into the meeting. To protect one part of the building as being more holy or special makes no sense to me.

Secondly, the church is not the building, the church is the people who gather there for worship. It should be kept in mind that the people matter more to God than the building. A church leadership that does not understand this is not worthy of following.

Proverbs 14:4 says, “where there are no oxen, the manger is clean.” When the manger is fulfilling its role of feeding oxen, it becomes a little messy. To remain clean requires that the manger avoid it’s designed purpose.

In the same way, the “church” building is intended to facilitate worship. It should be used to bring people into a deeper relationship with God. It should be used to meet the needs of the people who gather there. When it is used in this way, it is likely that the carpet will pick up a few stains and the building might show some wear and tear.

There is nothing wrong with having beautiful tools. I have known some auto mechanics that have impressive tool chests with shiny chrome plated wrenches and other tools. While the chrome plating is nice to have, it is not the plating that makes the tool useful. The wrench is useful because it is made of forged steel and it is sized properly for the nut that requires turning.

In the same way, the building in which we worship may be beautiful or it may be rather plain. Either way, the building can serve its intended function of being a gathering place of believers. We are to be good stewards of the resources God has given us, so if we have been given a beautiful building, we should be faithful in maintaining the building. But at the same time, we should never forget that the building is a means to an end and not an end in itself. The building is a tool to bring people into community.

Church leaders will be graded by God on how well they shepherded the people that came under their care, not on how well they preserved the carpet in the building. Leaders will have to give an account of how well they used the building to change lives and facilitate worship of God.

Do I want coffee stains on the carpet at my church? Yes, I think I do. Because if we are going to get people together, if we are going to facilitate relationship, we are going to do things like drink coffee and munch on snacks. When we do this, accidents will happen. Drinks will get spilled and food will get dropped. It is inevitable.

Since I want the interaction with people (and the snacks are nice to have), I will live with a few stains in the carpet.

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

Spiritual CPR – No Insurance Required

What is important is that I had it ALL. I had been a practicing Christian since my youth. My faith was growing. My relationship with God was solid. I had a great income. My children, though typical teenagers, were doing well. All the boxes were checked. Life was sweet UNTIL a mistake at work was made on my watch. The bottom fell out of my life. My heart figuratively stopped beating and God began to perform Spiritual CPR in order to save my life.

No man, Lord – Reflections on John 8

John 8 teaches us that the memory of our own sins should be a sufficient deterrent against judgment of others. If it is not, we better start remembering before we start casting stones.

He sat down to teach – Sermon on the Mount Series #2

The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount: 1 When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 2 He opened His mouth and began to teach them . . .” (Matthew 5:1-2 NASB) At the end of chapter 4, Matthew informs us […]

Root causes of legalism

The result of legalism is that those who are in the system cannot become what God intends them to be. Rather than a deepening understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, legalists are satisfied with rule keeping.

On shining faces

In Exodus 34 we find that as a result of being in close relationship with God, Moses’ face shone to the point where the people were afraid of him. As a result, Moses went around with a veil over his face so that the people could bear his presence. This was an anomaly, this is something that doesn’t […]

On the value of good preaching

We should expect our preacher to communicate to himself and to us the diagnosis that God makes upon our condition and the corrective action that God prescribes. We don’t need or want the preacher to interfere with this process by filtering out the inconvenient or disturbing bits.