On Sunday, May 23, 2004, I attended a worship service in a California church, followed by a business meeting when the congregation was asked to approve the incurring of a substantial loan to construct a large addition to the church sanctuary, itself less than ten years old. Although well past retirement age, I was an officer in the company proposing a contract for the project. The contract was awarded. There have been other projects like it for me. What has touched me deeply in virtually all the projects has been an underlying feeling by congregations that this is a trying experience, costly, troublesome, time consuming, and separate from the spiritual ministry of the Church. It commonly becomes a matter for tension in a congregation, even costing pastors their appointments, and some lay leaders their positions. I have served a number of churches in an interim capacity, congregations in which all these factors have influenced the life of the church. Contractors have stated or implied to me that they would not likely build another church edifice, what with the human responses, and the unhappy experiences in gaining permits and funding for religious groups. I find myself sympathetic with them in perhaps half of the instances.
The construction of a building for worship and ministry ought to be a special event that can achieve spiritual meaning and growth in a congregation that nothing else is quite comparable. Scripture makes this clear in the construction of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, and the two Temples that followed. The details for each appear in the Bible, and centuries apart. Jesus gave respectful attention to the Temple of Herod (a refurbishing and expansion of the Restoration Temple of Ezra). The early Christians perceived the Temple to be the place where they were to go for public worship and prayer, and from which sanctuary they were to go into the world to preach the gospel, and serve socially. The prayer of Solomon on the dedication of the first Temple, a building of grandeur, is the high point of the spiritual life of Israel in the Old Testament.
King David knew the value of the house of God among the people and wanted to crown his life’s work with the building of a Temple. God denied the privilege to him, but praised him for the desire and motivation to be the sponsor of such a project. The denial was David’s greatest disappointment in his kingship, perhaps in his life – related to spiritual reference. The proposed event was so significant, so spiritually meaningful, that the builder had to be worthy to sponsor and build a house of God that God would honor. Do we have anything to learn from all this? Why would we be given several lengthy stories of this type of construction in so vitally spiritually focused book as the Bible? Why would Solomon’s dedication prayer be the longest prayer recorded in Scripture, and the high point of the Old Testament application of the meaning of Mosaic Law, and the promises of God? Have we missed something? What have we to learn in the physical development of a church congregation? According to Scripture, the house of God becomes a house of prayer; a house of learning; a house God approved (by Jesus’ words) as his residence among mankind; a house where our redemption is the chief message; a primary responsibility of the Holy Spirit in fulfilling the message of Christ; and, a house that reminds us of a house not made with hands where the redeemed exist forever with God. It is a vital matter in any physical advance in a congregation, where the spiritual meaning of the project be clearly communicated, and adopted, if the ensuing events are to be taken from a common purpose to a divine. I have observed the value of making it truly God’s House. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020