What Difference Would it Make?

Let’s assume for a minute that Cornerstone Church gets a ‘home’.  A place we can call our own.  A place we can use anytime.  A place to hang out a sign that says, ‘here we are’.  What difference would it make?

Would a home help us to grow numerically?   I have an unscientific theory that churches see a 10-20% increase in attendance after they move into a new building or complete a new building project.   Why this seems to be so is unclear.  Maybe it’s the novelty of a new place.  Maybe it’s a change of scenery that causes a congregation to get noticed.  Maybe it’s a psychology of ‘something is happening’, so people check it out.  But growth based purely on curiosity or psychology is not really New Testament Acts Chapter 2 growth.

Would a home promote evangelism? Do people come to Jesus because there is a church that hangs out a sign? Church signs are only good for people who are looking for a church to attend.  And generally speaking, most people in our culture are not looking for a church.  After all, churches are for people who have deep spiritual needs, or for people who can’t make it on their own, or for people who are sinners in need of redemption.  Few people in our culture see themselves in those terms.

Would a home help us grow closer to one another?  It’s nice to have a place we can gather together, but I’ve noticed we can meet one another and share life together in a number of different places.  Snickerdoodles, for one, is not a bad place to meet.  Someone’s home, it could be argued, is the most effective place to share life together.  Our meetings in the basement of Immanuel Lutheran Church have produced just as much fellowship and joy in one another as our meetings at the Sr. Center or anywhere else.

Would a home help us serve the community? We could certainly offer our space for the community to use, just like the public schools do and the Senior Center does, and the public library does, and the fire department does, and the legion hall does, and the town hall does, and other churches do.  It wouldn’t make us unique.

Would a home stimulate spiritual growth in our lives?  Would it draw us closer to Christ?  Would it send us deeper into His Word or propel us to depend on Him more?  It may prove a good place to have a Bible Study, but true spiritual growth begins in the heart, not in a building.

Are you getting my point?  A ‘church home’ may be a good thing, and in my next blog I want to say why, but for now, the point I want to make is that having a church home is not what causes growth, or ministry, or fellowship, or service or sanctification.  All of those things happen through the power of God’s Spirit and the labor of God’s people.