When we heard that a church building down the road from us was being put to auction, we knew we had to make a bid. Since CCB currently worships in a secondary school theatre, having our own space would open up a myriad of ways to serve our local community with the good news of Jesus Christ. However, the time frame was ridiculously tight – we only had a matter of weeks to put together a team, come up with a plan, gather pledges, and place a viable bid. Given what God enabled us to achieve in the time we had available, we felt confident that he was behind us in this endeavour.
Unfortunately however, it was not to be. We received the sad news that we had been outbid by a housing developer and nursery group. Obviously, we were gutted, especially given the amount of time, energy and emotion invested into acquiring our own building. But our greatest sadness was for the people living immediately surrounding the building, because they have lost both a gospel and community presence which has been there for over 100 years.
So as a church, we are really disappointed…but we are not destroyed! We have recently been looking at 1 Chronicles in our Sunday services, which has been full of theologically rich reminders as we process the news of our unsuccessful bid. Here are just a few reflections on how this part of the Scriptures can speak powerfully into this current situation.
1. The LORD doesn’t need a building to permanently dwell with his people.
“I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day. I have moved from one tent site to another, from one dwelling-place to another” (17:5).
The Creator was very much content to camp with his people in the desert, and now he is very much content to live in us by his Spirit. Perhaps God wants us to be very conscious that he alone is our security, not a building of bricks and mortar.
2. We don’t need a building to be successful.
“Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their leaders whom I commanded to shepherd my people, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’” (17:6).
Perhaps this is most relevant to church leaders and elders, but this is a brilliant reminder that our success is not measured by the impressiveness of our ministry, or our building. Our success is seen in how we shepherd the flock entrusted to us by the Great Shepherd. Perhaps God wishes us to keep this as our focus, rather than being distracted by other things.
3. The LORD will ensure that his house is built one way or another.
“I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you: when your days are over and you go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom” (17:10-11).
Despite the disappointment of learning that he won’t build the temple, David still trusts God’s promise to eternally bless his house. Jesus Christ is that offspring, and we are that house (Hebrews 3:6)! As a church family we had many ideas about how the new building could be used to spread the good news, but even though our plan has not been successful, we can still trust God’s sovereign purposes. He remains seated on the throne, and perhaps he has another building for us.
4. Satan will always oppose God’s kingdom, but will ultimately lose.
“David took the crown from the head of their Molech – its weight was found to be a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones – and it was placed on David’s head” (20:2).
We have a spiritual enemy who seeks to prevent the advance of Jesus’ kingdom – either through outright attack (as in chapters 18-20), or more subtly through tempting us to pride, greed and self-sufficiency (as in 21:1). Jesus tells us that the Prince of this World has been defeated, but we must continue to resist him even while we await the final victory. We should not be surprised when our kingdom endeavours are opposed, but as long as we are united to the king we cannot possibly lose. Let’s continue to guard our hearts against Satan’s lies at this particular moment of disappointment.
5. The King has been abundantly generous to us in so many ways.
“I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. You have many workers: stonecutters, masons and carpenters, as well as those skilled in every kind of work” (22:14-16).
Just as David suffered to provide for the building of the house of the Lord, so our King suffered to provide all that is needed for the building up of his church. We can honestly say we lack nothing! With this bid process in mind, it really was quite remarkable how the Lord gave us exactly the right people, with the right gifts, at the right time. Even more remarkable is that within a matter of weeks he enabled us to raise over £3 million, the majority of the gifts and loans coming from within our relatively young congregation! It is the abundant generosity of the King which has inspired kingdom people to be so generous, and we must not ever forget this miracle of grace.
6. We continue to build, whilst seeking the Lord.
“Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the Lord.” (22:19).
Seeking or enquiring of the Lord is very much a favourite theme of the Chronicler and that is precisely what we must do now in the midst of our disappointment. We of course know that our goal remains the same – we must continue building the house upon the foundation Christ has laid, protecting God’s sacred treasures redeemed out of enemy hands (that’s Christians), as well as making God’s Name known to the nations in our part of London. But towards this goal, with our plan for this church building having seemingly faltered, we now continue to devote our hearts to seek the Lord in prayer to discover what his sovereign purposes might be.
So, we are disappointed…but we are not destroyed!
