An event space. . .

When I first moved to the South, it was not uncommon for some Church of Christ folk to call and ask about renting the worship space for weddings -- the Church of Christ not using instruments and typically having rather plain buildings.  Yeah, we got some calls.  Not as many as people thought we did but a few.  We have also had people ask to rent the worship space for everything from piano recitals to funeral home sponsored memorial services.  I soon learned the downside to the idea that worship space is not sacred but merely an event space.  It is not that I am unsympathetic to those who find themselves hard-pressed to rent space for performances or family events or a host of other things.  I get it.  But there is definitely a down side to the whole idea that the property of churches is merely event space waiting to be rented. A lot of folks did not get why I thought it was a bad idea to rent out the nave and chancel as if it were merely multipurpose space.

Some continue to be perfectly okay with this.  Some cultivate the idea that their sacred space can and should be used for secular events -- naves and chancels filled with drink bars, food stations, gift tables, dance floors, and all kinds of other things alien to the Sunday morning rituals that occupy the same space.  We wrestle with the same kind of thing for our congregation's music series and make sure that if it is held in the nave, it does not embarrass us or Christ.  There have been some close calls though.  Some do not seem to be bothered by the idea and rather like the whole business of the church as an event space business.  Some count on the revenue earned to pay bills.  In some, including such venues as Washington's National Cathedral, it is this that finances the whole operation.  Furthermore, some justify whatever occupies the sacred space as a "ministry" or some sort or another.  After all, if it brings in the warm bodies and some dollars, how bad can it be?

I grew up looking at a neighboring town's LCMS church that had been replaced and sold and ended up as a hog house -- minus the steeple.  Wow.  Is that all there is to what happens on Sunday morning?  The problem is that for too many outside of Christianity and even for some of those within, the holy ground of God's presence is no longer special.  It is just space.  Space that costs money and needs an income stream to pay for it.  In the end, though, the blurring of the sacred and secular helps no one and hurts everyone.  For an old coot like me who still gets agitated when guys do not remove their hats or people bring in an armload of drink containers, it is not a small problem.  Down the road we will reap bad fruit from our failure to guard the doors and maintain the integrity of the space.  It will cost us something more than money and we will not be able to get it back after we lose it.