Building and Remodeling the Church

Churches get lots of extraneous phone calls from companies seek our business. In fact I think churches get more junk mail and "junk" calls than individual households do. It is for that reason that I am always wary when the phone rings. It seems that about 1 time in 10 the call is actually something connected to what the church does, the rest are calls offering satellite dishes or to help us with our nonexistent credit card. Occasionally we also get calls from various search sites, phone books, or other public listings that want to update their records. These can sometimes be the worst because the caller does not always have the best grasp of English and so I often find myself repeating what I have said. This last week I had a call that clearly fit into the last category. As I answered all their questions about our address, the name of the pastor, and so on, they came to a question that was intriguing to me, "is you church planning on building or remodeling?" The question caught me by surprise and so I quickly answered "no" since we are not really doing either or those at this moment. The call ended and I began to realized that not only was the answer "yes" for my church, since we were in the middle of several minor projects around the church, but also the church really did have a plan for building on a sanctuary space as the church grew in size, so even if the plans were not set in stone, the church was definitely planning on growing and needing to build on and expand its space. The more I thought about it the more I realized that I want "yes" to be the answer for every church. I know there is a lot of stress that comes with building and remodeling, and I don't mean that every church should be constantly do some sort of project, but I believe every church should be "planning" on building or remodeling. Every church should have as part of its plan for the future the understanding that as the years go by, the ministry needs of the area and the church are going to change, and with those changes, whatever the cause, there will be a need for the church to adapt. Part of that adaption might involve building or remodeling. I love the phrase "moving on to perfection" but I also do not thing that "perfection" is ever something that can be attained by a church. I am willing to concede that a church can be "perfect" for a time and a place, but to remain perfect requires the church to change, because time will pass and what was perfect for on instance is not going to remain so. The challenge for all of us as part of the church is to help to make sure the church is continuing to look at what the needs are around us and consider how me need to build and remodel to be effect in ministry, to "move on towards perfection." It requires sacrifice and the challenge of constantly being ready for change, but I believe that in the end it has value for us. In the end it helps us to be ready and waiting when the Holy Spirit moves through our community and calls us in a new direction, because like it or not, the Holy Spirit is constantly working to remodel both us and the church, we just need to be ready to move along with it.