This afternoon I started reading Soong-Chan Rah’s The Next Evangelicalism. As those who know me will profess, I have an ear for stewardship applications, and I certainly found one very quickly in Rah’s book. Rather than attempt to offer an introduction to the book I will go straight to the point. Rah tells of a congregation of white ladies who are the only remaining members of an enormous church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the winter these ladies meet in the back room because they cannot afford to heat the main sanctuary designed to seat one-thousand people. Rah explains that within a half-mile radius of this essentially vacant church are close to fifty immigrant, minority, and multi-ethnic congregations that cram hundreds of members into much smaller spaces. Rah begs the question as to why a dozen women are meeting in an enormous church that they don’t appear to need much less afford while ten, maybe twenty-times as many people meet in much less accommodating spaces. The answer is ownership; in some way or another, whether it is all twelve ladies at the church, a select few, or the denomination that holds the title to the property, someone thinks they own this church.

A couple of years ago I worked with a denomination of churches that was encountering this same scenario in many of its urban churches. In many instances, white congregations were shrinking and Latino congregations were growing rapidly under the same roof. Unfortunately, the church boards were often dominated if not completely made up of members of the white congregations. These church boards controlled the keys which often created unreasonable constraints for the Latino ministries.

I don’t think this is about race, nor do I think this is about the older folks dying and the next generation wanting to take over. No, what is happening here is that we, as a church as well as individuals, occasionally forget who owns what. We must remember who actually owns the keys. Len Sweet insists that this is the most elemental biblical attitude toward life: God is the owner. I am the ower. He also references David who most certainly would have been tempted to claim ownership of the temple for himself. David said Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the splendor, and the majesty; for everything in heaven and on earth is yours. All things come from you, and of your own do we give you. (1 Chronicles 29:14)

We don’t own anything, and it seems to me that the last thing in the world we would even try own would be a church building. We tell ourselves everything is the Lord’s, we are His stewards, and we are responsible for the stewardship of those things that God has entrusted to us. Oh, really? So, why is your congregation still meeting in a building that is ten-times larger than you need? I know of several congregations in our community right now that have no business still trying to fill the space that they have blessed with for so many years. In contrast, I also know of many congregations that are growing tremendously; yet, for a number of reasons, they have no place to call their home. Does Christian stewardship sometimes require us to surrender the responsiblity of stewardship to someone else? I believe it most certainly does.

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Jason leads the fund-raising, marketing, and recruitment efforts at Logos Academy; an inter-cultural, Gospel-centered, community school located in York City, Pennsylvania. Jason and his family are active members of the City Church community. In addition to his full-time ministry, Jason speaks to groups about Christian stewardship, generous giving, and effective ministry advancement. You can learn more at The Generous Life.