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Why congregations build buildings is an interesting study? Back in the 80’s I regularly heard church people remark, “If you want people to come to your church, build a new building.” The idea was that if a congregation could afford to build, then it was a vibrant and growing fellowship rather than some stuck in mud, always-done-it-this-way club of old stogies. Consequently, a lot of new church buildings went up in the 80’s as congregations blatantly tried to make a name for themselves in the grand competition for new members that went on between churches. Unfortunately, the result was mostly “sheep stealing” rather than new disciples of Jesus. Congregations lost members to each other over what amounts to religious consumerism. Congregations were making a name for themselves through building up-to-date facilities to house their snazzy church programming and charismatic ministers. People came, but mostly from other churches. Sadly, the “build it and they will come” model of church growth did little to further the name of Jesus. Census figures still showed that Christianity was waning in North America.
Building a new church these days is a rare occurrence. Today in North America we are dissolving more congregations and selling the buildings than we are planting congregations and building facilities to house them. Most church buildings are simply ghostly reminders of the day when Western culture and Christian religion walked hand-in-hand, a relationship that has all but withered. The idea that a culture, a civilization needs a god to make it great has all but died.
Looking at Genesis, the relationship between a culture and its god is at the heart of what the story of The Tower of Babel is about. We have a tendency to mistakenly think that the story of the Tower of Babel is about a group of humans who got prideful and wanted to build a tower so high that they could stand equal to God and so God punished them by confusing their languages. But the story of Babel is better read as the parable of how humans try to use God to make their civilizations safe, secure, and culturally great (or great again).
If we step back roughly 5,000 thousand years into ancient Mesopotamia with the ort of historical accuracy that archaeology provides, we find that ancient Mesopotamians didn’t build skyscraper-type buildings or CNN towers. Rather, they built tall step-pyramids called ziggurats and usually right beside the ziggurat was a temple. The purpose for which they built these ziggurats was not so that they could climb so high that they could go into the heavens to be with the gods. That’s what mountaintops were for. These ziggurats worked the other way around. They were rather staircases for the gods to come down to earth from the heavens to come be with the people by taking their place on a throne in a temple. The Ark of the Covenant wasn’t just a box for keeping the tablet of the Ten Commandments. It was also God’s throne on earth. The lid was called the mercy seat.
The people at Babel were apparently trying to build the highest of all ziggurats to try to get the highest of all gods to come down and be their god in order to make their civilization great. Mind you, as the story goes, back in the days of Noah God had commanded humans to spread out over the earth. But the Babel folks stopped short of that mandate and decided to settle down and build a civilization - the seedbed of Empire, of Conquest.
Babel represents our human attempts to build civil religions. Civil religion is when we use God to undergird our ways of doing civic community rather than trying to get our communities to reflect God’s image – the loving communion of the Father Son and Holy Spirit – and God’s way of doing community as modeled by Jesus as the way of unconditional, self-giving love. Civil religion is asking God to bless our empire building, our ideas of prosperity and power, rather than committing ourselves to God’s kingdom and the way of Jesus Christ. Simply put, civil religion is our using God to make our own name great rather than lifting up God’s name in praise, gratitude, and humble service by building love-based community.
When I see a new church building, and that’s a rare sight, a question comes to mind: Is this just one more Tower of Babel? Is this just one more congregation trying to get God to make its name, its programming, its charismatic minister…great. I am suspicious of this fundamental need we seem to have as congregations to have a sacred space represented by a building. If we read the Bible from cover to cover, we find the trajectory that God is on is not reposing his presence in buildings. God wants to be embodied in human community. God doesn’t want a building where he can sit on a throne cut off from the world. God wants to live in and among us. That’s why God the Son became the human person, Jesus. That’s why God filled the followers of Jesus with the Holy Spirit. I believe God would rather we spread out through our communities meeting in living rooms and kitchens, restaurants, or school cafeterias instead of holing up in buildings that we can’t really afford.
The last thing Jesus said to his disciples before ascending was to mandate them to go into the world and make disciples and he promised to be with us. We did that for a few centuries and met in homes, caves, and even tombs. Yet, soon enough we let ourselves and our ideas of God get co-opted by Empire and we have been embroiled in civil religion ever since…at least until recently here in North America and prior to that in Europe. It’s this civil religion-based Christianity that’s dying in our culture. The true church, the body of Christ is still alive and well. Now is the time to yield to the Holy Spirit and leave the building mentality behind, and as the body of Christ, get back to making disciples of Jesus everywhere we are – in our homes, in our neighbourhoods, in our workplaces, in coffee shops, in schools, and even in church basements. The mandate and the drive of the Spirit is to scatter forth, not to settle down. Amen.
