Building for the Future

1 Chronicles 29:1-20

It’s a problem many churches would love to have: not enough space. We’re so short of space, if there is a free office, hallway, or closet on Sunday mornings, it’s in use. It could be worse, however; remember 35th Street? Remember what it was like to have 500 or 600 people packed into a lobby that could comfortably hold 100? Remember what it was like to come to church on Palm Sunday or Christmas Eve and crowd around the auditorium doors just to see what was going on inside?

And then there was the parking. If you were disciplined enough to get to church an hour early, you might get a parking place within eyesight of the building. There are many of us, I’m sure, who put on 10 or 20 pounds after we moved into our present facility simply because we no longer had to walk two miles from our cars to the church every Sunday.

God has been very good to us. We now have a beautiful building sitting on 20 acres of land. Every day there are thousands of cars that buzz by our building on the freeway. We have a volleyball court, ball diamond and basketball court. Most importantly, we have an auditorium that seats 700 and an atrium that gives us plenty of room to fellowship.

In spite of all of these positives, we can’t avoid one inescapable truth: we’re out of space. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have an educational wing with enough classes to hold a growing Sunday School? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a sanctuary big enough to seat our entire church family during one incredible service?

What’s the answer? Simple: we have to get excited about building. We need to see the potential this added space would give to our church, and we need to begin praying now that God would provide the funds necessary to finish the project.

The next time you drive by the church, picture in your mind the finished project. See that educational wing extending to the south; see the sanctuary rising above the horizon to the west.

More importantly, see the hundreds of people who will come to know the Lord Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior through this ministry. Picture the classrooms filled with hundreds of people studying God’s Word, becoming disciples, and growing in maturity through the love they have for one another.

What can you do?

1.        Pray.

2.        Be faithful in your giving.

From 1995.