In the matter of giving and receiving, the church has responsibilities, just as the giver does. We have seen that God wants His people to refrain from giving financially when there are unresolved conflicts in the church. We have also seen that giving is a response of obedience over time, and not the result of …
The Tribute Tithe
Whatever we do, we should seek to do it all to the glory of God. This includes the details of our worship service, certainly, but it also includes other issues, like architecture and design. But a step behind that is the question of money, and raising money. Underneath all of it is the heart attitude …
Winnowing the Givers
Most Christians appreciate the blessings of actually having a church building, but many Christians also detest many aspects of getting the buildings built. Chief among the objects of our distaste would be the vexed problem of fundraising. This is not surprising, because it is too often the case that we want to pursue a Holy …
The Actual Inconsistency
God tells us in His Word that as His people we are to come out from the world, and to be separate from it. This separation, this distinction, is what holiness means. To be holy is to be set apart. The fundamental point of holiness is to have God make a distinction in His people …
The Pride Part
Pride is a protean thing, a true shape shifter. Whenever a creature desires to believe in his own superiority, this is a desire that can be projected onto anything. When it comes to the erection of buildings and sanctuaries, we can take aesthetic pride in the beauty of what we have done, or economic pride …
Keep On Keeping On
When God established His church in the first century, there were a number of unique things about it. The surrounding world was overwhelmingly pagan, and so the burgeoning Christian movement had to make certain decisions about priorities. The first thing that happened after Pentecost was not a building campaign. Neither was it a political movement. …
A Refuge for Honesty
In his great psalm of confession, the psalmist says that he has acknowledged his sin to God, and goes on to say that he had not hidden his iniquity (Ps. 32:5). Because we live in a world full of sin, and because we as God’s people live our lives here, when we come to church …
Ichabod Memorial
When Solomon dedicated the Temple, one of the things that happened is that the glory of God filled the Temple, such that the priests could not even go in (2 Chron. 7:1-2). When Moses communed with the Lord at the door of the tabernacle, God appeared there in a pillar of glory (Ex. 33:9). When …
Solid Joys
A building speaks of permanence. So when we build a church building—especially if there is a lot of brick and stone involved—this speaks of permanence as well. But we have to be careful. For Christians, this material world is not the final state of things. However, this does not mean that the final state of …
Steeples of Pride
All of this is submitted to God, but, Lord willing, our church sanctuary is going to have a steeple. And a steeple illustrates the perennial problem that believers have in this fallen world. A steeple can be illustrative of the humility of man before God, but it can also be a glaring example of the …