something I wrote for my cross cultural orientation class recently...we were supposed to respond with a couple descriptive paragraphs about an article involving Chicago and Religion (this is one of 5 online post assignments about various topics)...annnnd I may or may not have got a little carried away:) that's passion I guess, right? :)I wrote this after reading an article about a church called the House of Hope in Chicago that seats 10,000 and costed over 53 million dollars to construct..."Firstly, it's appropriate to start off with a summary of the article's content. The fifty million dollar "House of Hope", home to Chicago's Salem Baptist Church, can seat 10,000 people! Quoted stating, "In order for the world to see how big God is, the world is going to have see God's people doing God-sized things.", Salem's senior pastor James Meeks desires for this "House of Hope" to genuinely be a place in which people can find hope and protection from life's complexity. The Church's 203,000 square-foot, three-floor facility contains three regulation sized basketball courts, a drive-thru ticket box window, locker rooms, two 19'x11' projector screens and a 1.4 million dollar sound system. According to Meeks, "It's about rebuilding life, and rebuilding communities."
Practically bursting at my seems as I read this article, I cannot disagree more with a church of this magnitude. How can there be a justified way to spend almost one and one half million dollars on a sound system? How can fifty million dollars be spent on developing and constructing a building in Jesus' name? I believe that this church is an example of the lie that some modern culture has began to believe that somehow the building and draw of a church is as important as its purpose. What happened to the simplicity bled by Jesus that called for us to pray to heal others in Jesus' name, to go out to the people and share the Gospel, and to depend on the power of God Almighty to bring those opportunities into our lives? I'm sorry, but for people to see how big our Lord is, they need not be presented with unnecessary attraction to a facility. Hasn't God the Father showed up as only a whisper? I want to suggest that the God-sized things needed to show the nation God's majesty that Meeks presents are not consisted of buildings and a great worship band; rather, God wishes to show His glory to the world through us, his people that he's imparted the Holy Spirit onto for guidance and conviction.
In saying all of this, I must concede in some way by saying that the conviction of this church to draw a massive community together and crown Christ as Lord over all of them is amazing. The way that they will be used in the future in bringing people together for a united purpose is so incredibly honorable. My opinion remains that, the amount of money put into this church makes me cringe because how else could even thirty or forty million dollars of that been used to save lives? Meeks says that its all about rebuilding life and rebuilding community. I say that this church could have rebuilt life in other suffering nations, in OUR nation by not spending its money on so many unnecessary aspects of a ridiculously-sized BUILDING and giving it away. I say that its all about sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and surrender of our lives to God's purpose.
I have asked many questions within my article review, but I will pose one more: Is not the church US as a community together going forth on God's prompting, rather than a building to bring others into our way of life?"
