"Church" Six

It typically comes as a surprise to people that Reading City Church does not seek to own a building in the near future, perhaps not ever. Many churches start off without a building but eventually, most will purchase one. We may, but I hope not.

Why?

First as I have previously mentioned, once a building is owned, we are indebted to pay the bills associated with it. In order to do this, we have to adopt largely a "come and see what we've got going on" style of ministry as opposed to a "go out and be the church in community" style of ministry.

Secondly, the minute we own a building, we come to identify ourselves with that building. It becomes our home. This is not a bad thing at all but it can easily lead to a false sense of comfort in which we forget that in this world we are nomads, aliens, strangers, exiles, called to live the ways of another Kingdom by being salt and light in the kingdoms all around us.

Thirdly, the church must be the church where people live and hang out. In John 4 a woman asked Jesus where the most religious place was to worship God, the best location in which to be His people. Jesus responded by telling her ""Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem...a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." The holiest place in Jesus time was the Temple. A section of the temple was the Holy of Holies, where the presence of God was said to dwell. It was separated by a thick purple curtain and only the high priest could enter it one day a year. When Jesus breathed His last on the cross, that curtain was torn from bottom to top. The holiness of God's presence was no longer contained to a single place but was set loose, so to speak, throughout the world. In the book of Acts, we see the reality of this as healings, salvations, miracles, discipleship, preaching and baptisms happened in the streets where ordinary people lived and hung out.

Fourthly, speaking practically here - Reading is a city with a lot of empty space. Some of it is cheap, some of it is free. We simply would not be good stewards,  if we sought to own unless it was absolutely a necessity.

 I am sure there are some who read these words and wonder, "how long can they really go without owning a building?" It is a fair question. Will we never own a building? I think we will have to for some non-profit initiatives that we want to do in the city, but as far as an actual church meeting type of building, I hope we do not. There are churches not far from us that have made the same decision. Some of these are in the their thousands and many years past their formation and they still do not own and have no intention to.

Life in and of itself complicates just about everything. We don't need any help in that area. As I mentioned before, RCC will fight to remain simple so that we can keep focused on Jesus and His mission. By not owning a building, we hope to be free of some of the constraints that could clutter our purpose.