Do we really need a building?

We have a broad understanding that we have too many Church buildings  to properly maintain, alter  in response to current needs and fully utilise, and this comes into particular and challenging focus for individual church families. We understand the need to maintain buildings as a facilitator and not because this is the primary function of the church family, and whilst difficult to achieve we know that a reasonable balance must be achieved between maintenance and ministry.

One approach to funding only the premises we need and when we need them is to ask if we need our own building, can we share or hire more suitable premises for some or all of our building base activities.

• Does the Church family activities use all of the premise available or are we reliant upon letting of rooms we do not need to maintain our buildings. As we move further into this area do we become over focused upon mainitaining premises which we do not use or are possibly unsuitable. (See further information under the Stewardship section) Is this the point which suggests a mission strategy review.
• Not having suitable premises should not restrict new initiatives
• Buildings are naturally slow to change and the level of investment to achieve the facilities needed can be prohibitive
• One of the significant disadvantages of being a building ‘owner’ is that we have tended as churches to be overly building based and expecting people to come to us is becoming more challenging.