I was reminded this past Sunday why renting a school to hold our weekly Sunday gatherings in can at times be a bit stressful. We use the auditorium for our gatherings, and at times, like last Sunday, are forced to maneuver around some pretty substantial theater arts set designs the school is using at the time for plays or musicals. It throws off our set-up…significantly. It changes our lighting, our sound, and the overall “feel” in the room we generally work hard to cultivate.

Do we still worship Jesus? Of course. Does the Holy Spirit still dwell among us in rich ways? Of course. Is the Gospel still preached? Of course. But for those of you who are wondering why we use rented space vs. owning our own space right now, here’s a breakdown of some benefits and pitfalls to not owning our own building.

Top 3 Pitfalls:

1. We have to be a portable church. This means we set-up and tear-down EVERYTHING week in and week out. Exterior signage, Welcome Area displays and information tables, auditorium sound system and curtain dividers, and probably the most involved of all is the KidsPoint Children’s Areas - the classrooms, large group worship room, signage and registration tables.

2. Significant amounts of volunteers are needed every week. By nature of needing to get everything set up on Sundays, it requires that we have teams of people who arrive early and stay late in order to make this happen. Recruiting volunteers is hard enough for a church who owns their own building, but add on top of that the fact that we need people to transform a school into a church each week and the demand for volunteers is compounded.

3. We are at the mercy of the school and the school district. At any moment the school can kick us out. We operate on a month-to-month contract with the district, and at the end of every month the school and the district have the right to ask us to leave. As well, we are forced to trust that every Sunday when we arrive to begin setting up that the stage and hallways will be clear and classrooms will be ready for us to move our stuff in. Often times this is not the case, which forces us to make adjustments that add time and energy to set-up.

Top 3 Benefits:

1. We GET to be a portable church. This in itself has some pitfalls, but also carries with it many benefits:

• We are not tied down to any property. If we find a space that works better for us, and we believe the Lord is leading us there, we can move, anytime we want.
• While it is hard on volunteers to set-up and tear-down each week, it does help to remind us that our church is not a building. It’s not a place we go, it’s a life we live.
• It gives people a vested interest in making Sundays “happen”. Being on a team that helps transform the school builds morale and community because you have worked hard together and feel a sense of holy pride and ownership for what goes on at your church.

2. We’re not tied down financially. We don’t have a mortgage, pay property taxes, hire custodial or maintenance crews, pay gas or electricity bills or hire lawn crews to keep the church grounds looking nice. It’s like staying in a hotel. You pay a small fee for the room and reap the benefits of someone else coming in to clean, someone else maintaining the pool and lawn, someone else changing the light bulbs and someone else fixing the toilet or sink when you clog it up! All that to say, our money is not committed long term to any one facility. We owe the bank nothing. There’s much freedom in that.

3. It plants us in the context of our unreached city. By using public space to “do” church we are throwing ourselves head first into the fabric of the community we live in. Not that a church building can’t accomplish that, but using public, “secular” space acts as an accountability measure for our mission - to step outside of the walls of our “church” and BE the Church in our city, for our city. When you don’t have four walls of a “true” church building, it is often easier to be reminded that your identity as a church is not determined by what happens inside the building, but outside. If the day comes when we do own our own space, we will have to work extra hard and be extra intentional about reminding ourselves that our building does not attract people to Jesus, but the Gospel lived and breathed out through our lives does.

For His Fame,

Jason

Tags: benefits to rented space, pitfalls to rented space, portable church, rented space, school as church

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 2:14 pm and is filed under General News and Info.