August 23, 2013 (Friday)
When I was a teenager, a family friend took me to a football game at Rice Institute. We sat on planks in the very old-style stadium and watched Rice and Tulane play a good game against each other. Later, when I started college classes at Baylor, the school used the same type of old stadium where the fans sat on planks. Baylor built a new stadium in 1950 and has played all her home games in it for well over 60 years. About that same time, Rice built a huge stadium for the games (Billy Graham preached to 100,000 people there once). Now Baylor has a huge and beautiful stadium planned for the banks of the Brazos River. It will cost many millions of dollars.
Stadiums (or, stadia, if you insist), however, have little to do with the quality of football teams.
How about applying the same principle to church buildings? I was reading recently about the new building for the First Baptist Church of Dallas. Sounds like a city within itself. I hope to see it some day. I know it is wonderful. But then I think of the church buildings I’ve seen through the years, where the mighty works of God were seen, but the buildings were of very simple construction, usually a bell tower or steeple with open windows for air circulation and a rectangular room filled with seats for a sanctuary. When Sunday School classes were convened, each class was separated by bed sheets hung on wires. We could hear whatever was being said in the other classes.
Of course, I do not want to go back to those days of primitive seating, no classrooms, and no air conditioning. All I am saying is that the Spirit of God moved upon the worship services in those old buildings. It is the same power of the Holy Spirit we seek today as we construct modern houses of worship. I’m just reminding myself and you that the main object of our search for a better church is the manifestation of God’s power in the worship and ministry of each church, and in the hearts and daily lives of the members. We must not let ourselves begin to rely upon anything else.
By all means, let us have the kinds of church plants fit for the 21st century, but let us always remember they are means to a much more important end: knowing God better and serving Him well.