Editor’s Note: The following is a document produced by the elders of Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, VA to instruct their congregation on how to think about upcoming building renovations.
As we continue in a season of hiring architects and contractors to evaluate our facilities and recommend steps toward building and renovating facilities, it seems prudent to discuss and develop our theology of buildings. The goal as elders will be to wisely avoid two ditches:
Glorying in our buildings (a form of materialism) — where we measure our church health by buildings, or measure the Lord’s faithfulness to us by the quality of our buildings, or boast in our buildings before others, or find encouragement for gospel ministry from our buildings. Despising our buildings (a form of asceticism) — where we measure our spiritual maturity by how happy we are with dilapidated buildings, or boast in our old facilities, or equate physical renovations and construction with worldliness, or wrongly accuse God of judging churches who improve their facilities.
Along with avoiding these ditches, we also want to develop a positive, biblical understanding of physical resources in fulfilling our calling as ambassadors for Christ and ministers of the
To continue...read the full-length post originally published on this site.
