Standing around with pastors during a break at an associational pastor’s conference, one pastor lamented that his church had stopped growing. When I asked why, he said his building could only hold so many people. When I asked him why a little thing like drywall would prohibit growth, it was like scales fell off his eyes.
“Reaching people for Jesus doesn’t depend on our building size!” he almost shouted.
Not enough seats
An International Mission Board missionary once challenged me to add up all the available worship seating in our town. Taking that number, I was to double it for churches that might do two services. Were there enough seats for everyone who was not born again?
In the cities I have visited and lived, I have yet to know of a single place that could seat all the lost people in their community.
Here’s why I hate the building material we call drywall: Churches erect really well-designed and beautifully ornate barriers to growth. When we “max” out Sunday worship everyone gets so incredibly excited. (Most pastors can quote Easter attendance numbers — just ask.)
Thom Rainer, founder of Church Answers and former president of Lifeway Christian Resources, has said that buildings feel full when they’re at 80% capacity. Praise the Lord and pass on the drywall.
Don’t think I’m against high attendance drives and building programs. I’m just against thinking that it is enough to seriously bring spiritual transformation to millions headed for hell. Drywall hammered into meeting cubes should not define us as believers.
So, add up all the lost in your county. Divide by 200 as if the lost were new believers. Multiply by $1.5 million that some researchers say it takes to build the typical church building. Get the idea?
What is it really going to take?
When the Apostle Paul was writing the church at Corinth, he told them to not compare their spiritual growth with others: “For we don’t dare classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. But in measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves, they lack understanding” (2 Cor. 10:12). The same can be said of churches that become content just filling their meeting rooms while millions continue to be ignored outside of their church walls.
‘Until all have heard’
Forget the drywall.
Why not train witnesses to keep at it until all have heard and responded to the gospel?
Why not encourage small group leaders to take disciples into their own homes and meet there so they can grow numerically and spiritually?
And why not start some new churches while you’re at it?
Some of that 80% seating you’ll need to feel full may be in a gym, a school, a rented office space, a truck stop, a show barn, a machine shop or your own home.
Reaching people for Jesus shouldn’t be hindered by drywall.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by Mark Snowden, and a version of this story first appeared in The Pathway, the newsjournal of Missouri Baptists.
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