Large church buildings exhaust me. People certainly need a place to commune and worship together; however, both new plants and established churches are regularly distracted by the pursuit of more space, larger crowds, and, thus, greater sums of money to support it all. Our pursuit of buildings clouds our pursuits for the kingdom. One is supposed to serve the other, but the Western church incorrectly flips the order.
This echoes what we see from King Solomon in the first half of 1 Kings 7, which is a detailed schematic of the palace Solomon built for himself. The writer of 1 Kings intentionally juxtaposes his massive home against the dimensions of the Lord’s temple from the previous chapter 6. For a quick comparison, both temples were around 45 ft high, but Solomon’s temple was longer (150 ft. vs 90 ft.) and much wider (75 ft vs. 30 ft), making his palace more than 4x the volume of the Temple. The outsized home reveals the king’s outsized pride.
This was prophetically foretold when God warned future Jewish kings in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. His instructions included prohibitions against maintaining a lot of horses for himself, purchasing horses from Egypt, taking many wives, or amassing great wealth; Solomon ignored each of these. He collects 1,400 chariots with 12,000 horses (1 Kings 10:26) from Egypt (10:28), had 700 wives and 300 concubines (11:3), and “was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth.” (10:23) He incorrectly placed his hope of security and influence in his strategy, his affectionate personality, and his wealth. Does that sound familiar?
His military strength bred a ruthless family that quickly fractured Israel after Solomon’s death. His many wives led his faith away from God, plunging the country into apostasy. His wealth was more focused on his glory than the Lord’s, judging by the respective construction plans. Israel eventually reaped this rotten harvest. The split kingdoms were more susceptible to invasion. Eventually, the northern kingdom was conquered in 722 BC, and Judah followed in 586 BC.
Was Solomon singularly to blame for Israel’s woes? No, but his poor leadership–despite his notorious wisdom–set the stage for subsequent generations to follow deeper into depravity. Similarly, the “strategic,” self-aggrandizing, and protective decisions of Western Christian leaders have laid a foundation for an equally fractured, vulnerable, and faithless population.
James wrote, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27, NIV) As we invest more tithed resources into larger buildings and the accruing interest that comes with them, are we caring more for our fame than widows and orphans? When an organization’s existence depends more on making a mortgage payment than hosting the Holy Spirit, its validation comes from its administration more than its faithfulness. Doesn’t that sound like the example of Solomon’s two temples?
Church buildings–on their own–are not the problem. Churches are community staples affirming the praise of God. They are cultural lampstands, subtly reminding each passer-by that the Lord is worshiped on their grounds; however, the prevalence of our church buildings is clearly inhibiting the spread of Christianity. Where church buildings are most common–in the Northern Hemisphere Western cultures–we see rapid declines in believers. In contrast, where persecution is highest–Southern Hemispherical, Eastern cultures–believers are booming. Persecution may impede a church’s physical construction but accelerates its spiritual construction. We don’t need a church building to grow the church body if we are following the Commission.
We must remember how Christianity began–as a network of house churches. In Acts 2, we see believers communing in the Temple courts (not some specialized buildings) or breaking bread with those who supported the church. As Paul went on his missionary journeys to evangelize the world, he did not first plant a new building and invite strangers. Instead, he preached in the existing synagogues or spoke in community centers, such as the Areopagus in Greece (Acts 17). In His Great Commission, Jesus told the disciples to go make disciples, not to build in His honor. (Matthew 28). Western churches simply have it backward.
It is appropriate for us to desire a place to welcome the Lord, but it should not be our end goal. I doubt any church claims its building is its priority above its spiritual health; however, what does its bank account affirm? God the Father preferred His Tabernacle more than David’s desired temple (2 Samuel 7:7), yet our desire is still to grow more, build more, and spend more. Where our treasure is, so will our hearts be. If we pour our resources into brick and mortar, they cannot be poured into the people within it. The Western church is more interested in its noticeable success than the invisible ones. The Western church will happily invite the lost souls but rarely seeks them. The cumulative time, effort, and resources keeping the grounds fresh is a shallow stand-in for the community work required to keep faith fresh.
Whose glory do our buildings exalt: our leaders or our God? Our church does not need an excessively large building; we need an excessively large faith. We are called to make disciples, not buildings. If we are successfully training our disciples to create more disciples, then no campus would be big enough to contain them all.
Yet, many American streets are lined with the hollowed tombstones of congregations past, where wood and stone are all that remain of a sedentary faith. We must heed the warnings from Solomon’s errors to avoid amassing wealth, centralizing congregations too large for a staff to care for, or exalting our name above the God we claim to worship. The greatest wisdom Solomon may actually impart to us is in helping us avoid his follies. Perhaps, it’s time for us to downsize the Western church property and renovate its faith, instead.
