bldg and/or mission

David Loar (Fairlawn West United Church of Christ/UCC), Akron OH

It seems to me that local churches who are struggling to be transformed by Christ to be more "in" the world instead of being "of" the world...are losing their struggle! I hear of churches selling their buildings because they can't afford to keep them up...and the churches folding up. I wonder why they fold up. I am experiencing a similar thing as we struggle with building issues and it feels like we are going to hold on to and struggle with the building until our last breath.

We are renting to another congregation to use our building. They are nice folks, but their basic sense of what is a church and our's is different. But we feel beholden to them because of among other things...the money they pay helps us keep up the bldg. My sense is that we are spending valuable time and energy on being a landlord and bldg management in this relationship so we can keep them in the loop for their rent money that could and should be focused on our reaching out to the wider world as the body of Christ.

There are misunderstandings developing among our staff and with folks in our church about issues with the bldg both long term and just day to day needs. From my view, it isn't worth it.

I would prefer we develop a bldg management group of three people and let them make all the decisions about the bldg. The rest of us can then get on with what is our calling as apostles, teachers, preachers, and so on of the Gospel.