In the list of the top ten most stressful events in the life of a church, a church building program is near the top of the list. Not only are building campaigns extremely time consuming, they also require a tremendous amount of wisdom in determining how much is appropriate. As a result, over the next month we’re going to be discussing some issues related to church building programs.
It is not unusual to find churches that paid millions of dollars for a single church building.
How Much Can A Church Building Cost?
Those who are followers of Christ are familiar with the final words of Jesus – the Great Commission. In this final exhortation, Jesus encouraged his disciples to participate in ministries of baptizing and teaching. This movement by the man Jesus has grown all around the world. Not only has the movement grown, but houses of worship have grown. While historically some churches have focused on the artistic magnificence, churches today focus on sheer size. In a pragmatic sense, we believe the capacity limits of these mega buildings must be honorable to God. The building (it is often said) is a ministry tool. Still, there are some who think these religious edifices would be an embarrassment to Jesus. Jesus lived a simple, nomadic life, and would surely be uncomfortable with the money spent on brick and mortar while there is so much suffering from injustice and poverty.
When we look at what the early church spent money on we find churches today have different spending habits. I think we should admit that issues of wealth and power enter into church decision making. This simply shows the complexity of the issue.
Photo by David Paul Ohmer.
A simple search on Wikipedia reveals some startling statistics on some large (and expensive) church buildings.
Willow Creek’s state-of-the-art Worship Center (completed in 2004 at an estimated cost of $73 million) seats over 7,200 people, making it over twice as large as the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and the largest theater in the United States.
It was the first church in the world to make use of two Mitsubishi Diamond Vision high-definition LED screens 14′x 24′ in size, usually seen in new sports stadiums. Each screen is movable on its own track system and can be combined into one giant screen. The Worship Center also has innovative dual, stacked-deck balconies.
Renovations to create the new Lakewood Church are estimated at $75 million. The church was required to pay $11.8 million in rent in advance for the first 30 years of the lease.
In 2007, Lakewood reported spending nearly $30 million every year on its television ministry.
The church building located at Jurong West Street 91 was completed in 2002. Construction of the building costs S$48 million (US$26.6 million) and seats up to 2,300 attendees.
5 Questions Churches Should Ask in the Pre-Building Stage
- Is this building a tool that can be used for kingdom growth? Perhaps churches need to come up with mission statements not only for the church, but also for their building. What is the function of this building? Why is it a worthy expenditure of Kingdom Dollars? What would be the spiritual impact of not doing this building project?
- Is this building going to be a distraction to our ultimate mission? Sometimes it is, and sometimes it is not. This mostly depends on how the leadership leads the congregation through the transition.
- Is this building going to have any direct impact on any current ministry projects? If you need to cut important ministry activities, perhaps reconsidering the size and scope of the building is appropriate.
- What can we afford to pay for? Are you testing God? There is a fine balance between moving forward in faith and testing God. Sometimes churches take out huge loans expecting God to save the day. If God can provide loan payments, could he not also provide a significant down payment today?
- Is there a better use of this money? By default, we assume churches need buildings. That was not the case in the first century. Like individuals, God calls churches to different roles in his kingdom. I know some churches that do not own buildings, but instead use that money for other ministries.
What are my thoughts on the topic? Well, our church here has been renting for 10 years, but we are currently looking for land to buy so we can build a building. I move in agreement with the leadership consensus, but often have reservations, and I ask the question is this going to be a blessing or a burden? But, we are full steam ahead getting ready to enter this nebulous stage of church building ownership.
Half of this post was edited from a previous guest post at Free Money Finance.
So what do you think? Would Jesus rejoice over the current size and magnificence of our buildings or weep over the financial misuse? What other questions should churches consider when building? How much should churches spend on buildings?
More Great Articles:
- Reflections from Preacher’s Breakfast in Ontario, Canada
- How Did the New Testament Church Spend Their Money?
- Who Should the Church Help?
- Short Term Mission Trips: Worth The Cost?
- Church Parsonage | Should A Minister Buy A Home?
- Considerations for Churches Before and During a Building Project
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I can see this issue from both sides. My wife worked at a church that built a brand new church building at the cost of 40+ million dollars (I believe). The church in the end was probably building their new church for the wrong reasons – more as a tribute to a head pastor who had some ego issues, and less about helping others to find Christ. The whole thing came to a head when the head pastor was found to be cheating on his wife and left in disgrace right after the church was completed. It took several years to recover financially, but now the building is becoming more of a blessing now that the aims of the leadership are more in line with Christ’s teaching.
At the church we attend the first 20 or so years of its existence the church didn’t even have a building. The church (several locations) met in school buildings, just renting space on the weekends. In the end having to rent space was a bit limiting, and 2 years ago the church bought an existing building and rehabbed it for about 7 million – much less than some of the other large churches. The church building has allowed for expansion of outreach programs, and has truly been a blessing to the congregation and community.
So I think buildings can be a huge blessing for the faithful, as long as the leadership and congregation are aiming towards goals that are in line with God’s word. If they don’t – they will crash and burn.
our church has rented retail space for it’s 10 year history…. they pay about $100,000 a year or more…
they are now looking at building something.. because the building they rent is old and the cost of rent keeps going up…. And the landlord won’t do repairs that need to be done…
I know it won’t be cheap… but paying cash for a building is smart if god provides the money… this way with no monthly rental or payment fee, that leaves more money for kingdom work.
Larry James posted some time back on a church in Texas that was spending over 100 million on their new building. I can’t find that post.
@Matt
I’ll I can say is that doesn’t surprise me.
So what do you think? Is that excessive?
Seems excessive to me. But if God provides the funds without incurring debt, it could be ok. Maybe.
I guess I would ask how much they are spending on missions both domestic and foreign. How much are they spending on “true religion”, the widows and orphans? I am just asking. I have no idea. But these questions have to be asked to make sure our motives are in the right place.
The second thing is often the older generation from a completely different and now dated worldview are the ones pulling these strings. That is not a bad thing. But what can be frightening about that is they might spend millions of dollars on something that people 40 years younger don’t care the least about and/or don’t believe actually advances the mission of Christ’s church. So what do you do with a 100 million dollar building 20 years from now when the new generation of leaders don’t think church buildings are the way to go or if the economy turns south and the overhead turns out to be outrage and reckless?
I like your list of 5 questions, our church just finished a capital campaign and we are building this summer. It has been a rewarding project and I look forward to more opportunities that our building will bring to our town. Buildings are not the church the people are the church and my hope is that Jesus wont be embarrassed with us.
@Gholmes
I’m thankful that it has been such a rewarding project – that means your church probably did things right. The focus on the people is always essential to keep in the front of the congregations mind.
@Matt Dabbs
Those are very important questions to ask. I wonder how much of church budgets are spent on buildings?
I completely agree about the generational shift. That is a very important observation. The young people who are going to pick up the bills in the future probably won’t care as much about the building. I’ve seen studies that 80% of church contributions come from those 65 and older. Will the younger generation step up and carry the payments or will they be happy to default? There is a lot of discussion about house churches and home based movements and I wonder how that will affect the future generations. Bookmark this post and check back in 20 years and we’ll see what happens.
Good questions Craig. We’re also about to add on to our church building. (Approximately a $500,000 project.) I feel that it’s distracted from my ministry for two years!! But I also know there are people unable to attend our services because the building isn’t handicap accessible.
The cell church model has been around for at least a couple of decades now, and while it’s attractive to some people, it’s not for everyone.
I’m slow to distinguish between investing in a church building and missions. I understand the math is simple. We could have employed a college minister (which we don’t have) for 10 years rather than spend that much on a building. But I wonder if it’s not also a bit simplistic.
Buildings provide a visible presence in the community. While that in itself is not sufficient, I would like to think it provides a beacon to people seeking God, more so than my anonymous house. Buildings also facilitate ministry and the greater numbers that come with church growth. I’ve run a kids club ministry with 20 kids in a church building and 6 in a garage. The event at the church building worked much better and the larger numbers encouraged the kids (and the organisers) to keep coming back.
OK, I’ll stop now. Yes, I know church buildings have their disadvantages, and I’ve shuddered many times at the cost of construction and maintenance, but I don’t think it’s so simple to cap the size or cost of a building and direct it to some other “worthwhile” ministry.
I do like the idea of a mission statement for a building!!
@AussiePete
Thanks for pointing out the ministry cost – that is important.
You are right that there will always be a need for buildings. They can be very useful and worthwhile as long as their ‘purpose’ is clear. Just like any tool it can be used properly and misused.
Thanks for the comment.