BUILDING TOGETHER
Dear Foothills Family and Friends,
Tom McSherry, our Head Elder and Chair of the New Sanctuary/Worship Center Planning Team will share with us this coming Sabbath updates on where we are in the process of raising funds for and planning our new Worship Center!
This building project will complete the beautiful and practically useful ministry center and campus with which God has generously blessed Foothills Community Church.
I’d like to share some thoughts about Building Together. You may have wondered whether building church buildings is biblical, or whether it is necessary and wise to build a new sanctuary on our campus. I don’t have all the answers, but would like to share from my heart some of the reasons that I’m excited about this vision coming to fruition.
When we speak of a “church building” in context of the New Testament, we’re not simply talking about a pile of brick and other building material.Instead we’re talking about the people of God. “You are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9; 16-17; 1 Peter 2:5).
Ephesians2:21-22 says: “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Biblically speaking, church is a body of believers that live out the Gospel in their words and actions. The church is at its best when the people inside the building take Jesus’ message outside the building and serve those they meet.
The building is valuable for a number of important reasons:
1. A PLACE TO GATHER—without a place to gather, like a building, scattered saints cannot become a church.
2. MAXIMIZING THE MINISTRIES OF WORD AND WORSHIP—With a dedicated building, the church can be optimized for preaching, teaching, worship and fellowship.
3. GROWTH—A building is a strategic part of a church’s trellis that can be intentionally shaped to support vine growth.
4. LONG-TERM STABILITY—Buildings promote stability and give greater freedom to gospel ministry. When our campus is completed and available, we can better sink deep roots into the neighborhood and community.
5. PUBLIC GOSPEL WITNESS—A church’s public identity in a city is a persistent witness to the gospel. (House churches are valuable, but generally “invisible”). The church should aspire to foster a corporate, public testimony to the gospel.
6. OUR NEED FOR SANCTUARY—In this hectic, chaotic world we need a dedicated place to go where our souls can find rest, recalibration and restoration. Jesus felt the need to withdraw every now and then in order to recharge his spirit so that He could give more fully of Himself to God’s mission.
We need a quiet, beautiful, worshipful place to meditate, pray, be still, and know the presence of God. In the dedicated Sanctuary, there will be times when he very air will seem charged with the presence of the Holy. Our new Sanctuary will provide space for our families to create and nurture special memories and traditions preserving identity and history. These spiritual traditions provide refuge and security plus confidence and focus for the lifelong joyful walk with Jesus!
The earthly sanctuary (in the Old Testament) had a Holy Place and a Most Holy. This layout of the two apartments is the most important part of the specifications God gave to Moses, David, and Ezekiel.
The Book of Hebrews tells of the original tabernacle in heaven (Heb. 8:1-5) and indicates that after Christ made His sacrifice at Calvary, He entered the heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 1:2) to begin a two-phased ministry. The two holy places have everything to do with Christ’s ministry to REDEEM and RESTORE. Christ redeems humans and restores the universe to its pre-cosmic controversy status.
While God is certainly not bound to any geographic location, we can rejoice in how He continually makes His presence known when we gather to worship and pray and study the Word, and practice the sacraments of Sabbath, Communion and loving Service.
“Let them construct a Sanctuary for Me, that I may be present among them” (Ex. 25:8).
Duff
