Downtown is no place for a church.
The downtown church building was once a welcomed reminder in our society of the importance of the centrality of Christ. Towering steeples announced to approaching travelers that the Christian faith was an essential part of community life.
Those days appear to be eroding fast.
Of course it is quickly recognized that a church building, towering steeple and religious activity is not necessarily a sign of a vibrant Christian faith. The absence of them, however, speaks volumes.
I have been hearing, for some time, about the move in many cities to ban churches from occupying space in their business districts. However, I did not expect to find such nonsense in small-town Georgia.
Enter Jefferson, Georgia. The Associated Press is reporting, “The Jefferson City Council has voted to ban churches from opening in the eight-block area surrounding the town’s central square.”
There is the fear that churches would take up parking space that could be better used for restaurants and that the existence of churches would hinder down-town alcohol sales. In other words, Churches just are not good for business.
How different from our Puritan forefathers who built “Meeting Houses” in the center of town. Why would they do such a thing? The Puritans recognized God as is the supreme Governor of all things. The well-being of any family, town or nation was directly connected to recognition of the supremacy of God.
The Mayor and City Council of Jefferson don’t seem to get it. For them it seems that the pragmatic concerns of business reigns supreme over ultimate things.
It is not just the leadership in Jefferson, GA who are seemingly blind to eternal realities. It is increasingly difficult in many communities for new churches to open.
A community that welcomes churches is a community that has a long range vision that embraces the ultimate well-being of its citizens.
Godly churches are not opposed to the growth of business. In fact it can be shown that faithful churches are strong contributors to the local economy at every level. Their greatest contribution, however, is to the spiritual and moral well-being of a community.
When local governments fail to consider the ultimate well being of their citizens then the door is open for all sorts of corruption. Though there might be temporal successes the long-term impact is not good.
Perhaps you wonder why we should stick our collective noses in the politics of Jefferson. What is happening in Jefferson is the latest in a wave of such decisions in which community leaders are determining that it is not in the best interest of the community to welcome churches downtown. Today it is Jefferson. Tomorrow it might be your town.
2 comments:
Recently I asked two of my children what they disliked most about me. Both, when interviewed seperately, said the same thing. Apathy. It took about two seconds to for me to agree with them that this had become a problem for me (two witnesses, so to speak). Over many months and years of seemingly endless trials and attempts to honor God during these trials, I had become weary of doing what was right. I had developed a "whatever" attitude.
When thinking about the issue of churches being banned in this area or that as well as other government issues, I find that I often have the same thought process. "Whatever. There's nothing that we little guys can do. We have fought for years to no avail. Why keep trying?" Newton's second law of thermodynamics is in play here.
My question is...How hard do we try, as believers in an eternity where such things don't matter, to change these types of things? How involved should we get?
Terri Terrell
Hi Terri,
I don't see any real call in the New Testament for the church to invest her time, energy and resources in seeking to effect political change from the outside in. The church is called upon to preach the gospel and to challenge and instruct believers in how to live out their faith in the midst of a wicked world. So, on the one hand, political action is not the answer but neither is passivity.
The banning of churches from business districts is a reflection of our culture's quick slide into deeper darkness. It is just another example of trying to shut out the light. Therefore it is a fresh call to the church to preach the gospel, hold up the light, seek to be faithful in living the truth.
In some cases we might be delighted that some churches are not allowed downtown (or anywhere else for that matter). However, one thing that we can learn from those Christians who fought for religious liberty. For the government to shut the door on one particular church is to open the door to shutting down all churches. So, historically, many Christians have fought for religious liberty for all people.
When the govt seeks to turn off the light of truth--they have overstepped their jurisdiction. Therefore we must be humbly submissive to the authorities (Romans 13) and we should feel the freedom to use the opportunities of appeal that we have in our society to seek to bring the light to as many places as possible.
I often struggle with the issue of how to speak to the culture on these sorts of issues without communicating that the culture is a sort of savior.
Thanks for writing.
RR
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