At the church I pastor we have been in the midst of building challenges. During the flood of October, 2015, we had a structure that housed our fellowship hall, children's ministry area and nursery severely damaged by the record setting waters. Since then we have been wading through the process of what to do and how to do it. At the end of that process, we had clear choices before us, but none of them were easy. Buildings, church facilities, can be an emotional topic. People become attached to buildings. In many cases their names are on plaques, bricks, rows of pews; stained glass windows; their relatives were involved in construction; they grew up there. This is my first journey through a "building" issue as a pastor, and I've often struggled with it. It's been frustrating at times, especially in how the loss of facilities has affected our ministry and outreach. Their is tension involved when large sums of money will be involved in rectifying the problems. Their is uncertainty. During this process I've come to reflect upon the original house of God, the tabernacle, for perspective in viewing these issues.
For those unfamiliar with the tabernacle, this was the place, designed by God Himself, for His chosen people, Israel, to come to worship Him. Contrary to the modern view of buildings, which tends towards bigger; fancier; more comfortable; modern; the more extravagant the better, God didn't seem to care for these niceties when He considered where He desired to be worshipped. Instead of a grandiose house built to cater to those who attended, God told His people to worship Him in a tent!
Wherever the children of Israel wandered, they carried His tent with them. The priests were charged with it's care and for assembling and disassembling it. God gave very specific instructions for how His tent was to be designed, handled and treated. He took His tent seriously, and expected the Israelites to do so as well. But in the end, we cannot escape the reality that for Himself; God; Creator of the universe; Savior of the world; did not instruct Israel to build Him a grand "house." He didn't design it for their comfort. He declared His tent; functional; portable; efficient; simple; would suffice.
Why? God most certainly is deserving of glory! He alone is worthy! Later in the life of Israel God would relent to the desire of King David to build Him a grand house to be worshipped in. God approved of David's desire to do so. When David's son, King Solomon, finally finished the ornate, glorious temple, God blessed the event. But even with this new, glorious temple, Solomon knew God did not need it. In 1 Chronicles 6:18, in his prayer of dedication, Solomon says; "But will God indeed dwell with men on earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple that I have built."
In this age of huge church structures with every bell and whistle, why do I think we need to remember this?
You see, God met with His people in the tabernacle, and later continued to do so in the temple. He was never concerned with how ornate the structure, or how appealing it was to man. God's concern has always been for the heart of the people who gathered to worship Him. God would later abandon meeting with His people in that ornate temple due to the hardness of their hearts. The building became nothing more than a fancy, expensive, hunk of rock, as His glory departed it. He later judged Israel and the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. We saw this same thing happen again as a later temple was destroyed by Rome in 67 AD. It was never about the building for God!
Yet today, we seem fixated on having a bigger and better building. For many, this is the standard of whether God is present with His people. It is the thing many look at when considering where to attend church. In many cases it looks like an arms race to top the church up the street. Countless tens of millions of dollars are poured in to buildings. Beautiful, ornate, fancy structures we call the "house of God." Many seem to hold the opinion this is what God desires. What He will use for His glory.
Yet nowhere in scripture do we find this expressed by God. God has always valued people far more than brick and mortar. It is hearts for which He is jealous, not whether He has a nicer house than Allah, Buddha, the church up the street, or the Carolina Panthers. He declares you and I are the "temple of the Holy Spirit," not some address for our "church" on the mailbox. Without people loving Him without all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, their is no church, just a building.
Our witness to the world is not our real estate, but our love for one another. To many times we seem to have forgotten that.
As for us, we're nearing an end to our building issues, and my prayer is simple. I pray we have God honoring tent, and our heart is set upon people, just as His is. For no matter how spectacular the structure may be, it is His people living His way that make it His house.
Or should I say His tent.
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