July 05, 1998

RADIO BROADCAST

I wasn't able to find a church for evening service on the way to S. Boston, VA. Instead as I cycled, I listened to a broadcast from a large Baptist church in Lynchburg. They were talking about the start of a fund-raising plan to build a new church complex.

The pastor was explaining to the congregation that for the new millennium they would have to build a new mega-church complex that would cost over two hundred million dollars. The auditorium would seat almost twelve thousand people. It would have a cemetery, kid's playground that would rival anything either Burger King or Mac Donald's would build, a retirement home, and a studio to provide 24-hour cable TV.

What disturbed me about this was a that where in the Bible does it say that you need to build a temple to Y'SHUA. He never really worshipped to the masses inside extra for small groups in the Temple courtyard.

What people don't understand is that when church is mentioned in the Bible it is not a building but the people inside of it. Why couldn't the money be used to help the needy instead of being used to make a extravagant comfort zone for people's religious entertainment. $200,000,000 could build between 4,000 and 20,000 Habitat homes for families depending on what country you built them in.