priorities

I have written much in criticism of big church spending.  Jerry Rankin has an awesome post on his blog.  Here is a quote:

What our convoluted priorities are practically saying is, “It is better to let the lost multitudes never hear the gospel and go to hell, than change the way our denomination functions.” It is too bad that we have a system in which only two percent of our resources are given to reach a lost world that Jesus died to save. It is unfortunate our denomination can channel only 17 percent of Cooperative Program allocations to international missions because we have to sustain everything else we are doing. We can’t expect to cease a valid ministry, compromise programs that serve ourselves and our own churches in order to provide resources to get the gospel to those who have never heard! That, in essence, is what is being communicated.

kingdom building

Check out these two photo series by Travis Schaeffer. I don't know what he is trying to accomplish. The first link is a series of 11 Mega Churches and the second is 41 Wal-Marts. I love the quote he has on the first one: "

The result is a wash: rather than making America more Christian, the mega churches have simply succeeded in making Christianity more American"

When you look at the photos from the air there are many similarities. The differences, so far as I can tell, are as follows:

1. Wal-Mart is a business.

2. The churches appear to try to do something with symmetry and shape. Wal-Marts are square and the churches deviated more.

3. Churches also have larger parking lots.

4. Then again, the churches have to put all their "customers" in there on one day in a few hours. Wal-Mart has people there every day of the week.

From the pictures it appears that church facilities are a lot of wasted space in the city in that they cover huge tracts of land and are only used a few times a week by a special set of people. Why do we always build our own things and start our own programs? We would be better served--not to mention that we would better serve the community--if we simply used what space was available and used existing programs. Imagine the impact that thousands of dedicated Christians could make if they started invading YMCAs, inner city community centers, and soup kitchens rather than expecting people to come to a facility out in the suburbs one or two days a week to have their needs met. How many of the parents who actually need a parenting class come to the church for it? We would reach more by infiltrating existing structures which are neutral in their orientation.

Our gross appropriation of land use is necessitated by our addiction to cars. My town would be well served to have a metro. We spend gazillions a year trying to build roads fast enough (and they don't build roads fast enough!) and expanding the footprint of the city, thus making driving more and more a necessity, and it seems that the job is never finished. My town typically makes it to the top few spots every year on being the most expensive town in which to operate a vehicle. The problem is that we have a massive, predominately poor, immigrant community which cannot afford vehicle ownership. This means that they all settle in the densely packed low rent district. This has a domino effect on schools, crime, and other public services. There are over 300 languages spoken in my town. When all of those people clump up together they no longer try to integrate and adopt the host language and culture. This is a problem which will soon spin out of control and have far reaching, devastating, effects. One answer is better transportation infrastructure. But that is just crazy talk....

While we are on the topic of mega churches, here are a couple of videos about some stuff going on in the DFW metroplex. This is a news story about Ed Young Jr. They are going after him hard.

Here is his response. IMO, his response is worse than the allegations.... He says he didn’t see the news piece, but he is commenting on everything in it. Does he have political advisors?

-they don’t own a plane, they lease it [@5:00 min]

-And his house isn’t 10,000 sqft it is only 7820sqft [@7:00 min]

That is so much better than before…

What Dallas needs is more mega churches..... (/sarcasm). The money that falls through the cracks at his church and FBC Dallas would be enough to support a small country.

And I am gonna quit before I get nasty.

Here are some posts on similar topics:

eccleastical greed: a lack of ethos in urban space

Priorities

Athens, Jerusalem, Wall Street and the Church

athens, jerusalem, wall street and the church

"What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" laments Tertulian. This was in the context of his rejection of Greek philosophy. While I personally do not share his lament, here is an echo for our day.

What has wall street to do the the church?! Apparently everything. Michael Frost says that we often just tithe to ourselves. I couln't agree more. We have whole heartedly adopted the consumerism of our day. The watching world hears us talk about our concern for our community and the poor and the world. These are vapid proclamations as we live the American dream both on the individual and corporate levels. The world is not fooled.

Here is what set me off today. FBC Dallas has been planning a massive building project-- massive to the tune of 130 million--for quite some time.  If you are interested in dieting and don't want to eat lunch, watch FBC's promotional video.  This is a kingdom unto the pride of man.  Recently, the Dallas Cowboys build a new stadium for 1.3 billion, At&T built a 350 million dollar preforming arts center and a 500 million dollar convention center hotel.  FBC is simply buying into consumerism.  They are not alone in their folly.  Most churches follow secular culture into the pit of materialism.  We spend gobs of money for new paint, playground equipment, iron crosses, bigger screens, and other similar crap.  All of this goes on a building which typically gets minimal usage.  Why should we have multi-million dollar childrens' facilities while children live in garbage dumps in India {not to mention all around the world!}.  Our denomination can't send missionaries and yet, we just keep buying into the American dream.

Do we really wonder why the post Christian generation doesn't want anything to do with church?  I can't say that I blame them...