Anonymous Asks (299)

“When is the right time to build a new church building?”

Church buildings have a long history, though the New Testament makes no mention of them. Christians in the first century met briefly in the temple precincts in Jerusalem, preached the gospel in synagogues throughout the world, and gathered for worship, prayer and edification in private homes and possibly in borrowed or rented spaces. (We do not know, for example, who owned the “upper room” in Acts 1 or the one in Acts 20.)

The first century church was comparatively discreet and mobile. Frequent persecution tends to make that necessary. You don’t put up a sign and start construction when people are trying to kill you.

To Build or Not to Build

As Christianity became increasingly acceptable in the broader culture, believers began investing in public places of worship. They have continued doing so for almost 2,000 years. From spectacular edifices to simple, functional spaces, it has been commonplace to direct a significant portion of Christian giving toward the cost of a regular place for the saints to gather.

Today, gathering together without a church building is becoming increasingly difficult and costly, particularly in Toronto, where the reduced rental rates school boards once offered to charitable organizations no longer apply to churches, meaning rents for some local meetings have gone from $900 per month to as much as $4,000, prohibitive numbers for small groups of Christians. It’s still possible to rent convention-sized rooms in hotels and theaters, but that too may be a fairly expensive proposition for a small group, leading Christians to consider the advantages of owning a building.

The Disadvantages of Ownership

However, there are serious disadvantages to building ownership as well. Construction costs for a building big enough to seat a hundred or more run into the multi-millions, and property taxes, heating, electricity and maintenance create ongoing monthly obligations that don’t exist with rentals. Most congregations want to build before they have sufficient funds in hand to do so, which means taking on debt, poor practice for believers individually or corporately. Not all Christians are going to be comfortable carrying a sizable mortgage for a church building, which may lead to disagreements about the use of offerings, especially among believers who are mission-minded or care deeply about supporting itinerant Bible teachers and other Christian workers, not to mention widows, retired full-time workers and the needy.

Moreover, what goes into any local offering box may vary considerably from year to year with factors like the age and size of the congregation, unemployment and cost of living coming into play. Predicting what next year’s donation levels may look like is trying to hit a moving target, and church leaders often fail miserably at it.

On top of all this, the political climate in Canada is currently shifting in ways that make long-term, large financial commitments potentially unwise for groups of Christians who want to establish a regular place to gather for worship and mutual edification. Several recent trends are worth considering before making a multi-million dollar investment in a building project.

Cultural Trends Worth Considering

Governments across the world recently demonstrated the ease with which they can flex their muscles and shut down corporate worship indefinitely, turning billions of dollars of property collectively owned by Christians into white elephants. With the media constantly flapping about “the next pandemic”, it is not unrealistic for Christians to consider the possibility that similar measures may be imposed on believers in the near future.

Church burnings are a new Canadian trend. Activists have torched eighty-five church buildings since 2021 in response to unsubstantiated allegations of Roman Catholic historical abuses of the indigenous. That may not worry evangelicals … yet. Perhaps it should. There’s no reason a hot-button issue like abortion or LGBTQ ‘rights’ might not inspire mob culture to take aim at other groups of Christians in similar fashion.

The current Canadian government continues to virtue signal its commitment to keeping feminists and the “diversity and inclusion” crowd happy at the expense of Christians. In 2018, they introduced changes to their youth summer jobs program that required applicants for grant money — churches, youth camps and so on — to check a box confirming they respect “women’s reproductive rights”. Could you do that? I couldn’t. It should be obvious that any financial connection between Church and State, including tax breaks for “charitable donations”, makes churches susceptible to government controls of this type. Tax breaks influence giving, and predictable giving is a necessary consideration in any long-term financial commitment.

Not Now

Faced with all these potential negatives, I’m inclined to think the answer to “When is the right time to build a new church building?” is “Not now.” At least, not in Canada. If you prefer the traditional church building, there are dozens, even hundreds, currently available to attend in most cities. Enjoy them while you can. But a home church comes at no greater cost than a few donuts and a pot of coffee, and many Canadian homes have rooms that can seat twenty to thirty people without even using the window ledge. There’s no compelling reason any individual Christian gathering needs to be larger than that.

Certainly no biblically compelling reason.