why have a building?

The Future of Church Facilities has been a hot topic for conversation this week. Barna released and interesting study Tuesday with heavy implications for church space, and without mentioning the research, the topic came up at a staff meeting.

Yesterday, Brad made some interesting observations on the Church Marketing Sucks blog about a student ministry gathering. Apparently it's been in the works for quite a while, but they had a lower-than-expected turnout. He writes,

Gone are the days when event-goers were content with being captivated by the energy of crowds and connected with like-minded peers. It used to be that you could put on an event with awesome experiences (technical) and spectacular content (spiritual) and it would be a winning combination with little competition. These days, events are a dime-a-dozen with often little distinction between purpose, people or participants.

Take a big step back, and I think there's a pattern emerging (no pun intended).

Barna shows us that budding Christians - for whatever reason - don't think they need to attend a church to further their relationship with God. This idea has been festering for years, and what has the Church done? She's kept pace with the social order and turned worship into an experience. Way to engage.

Now it's becoming more and more evident that "events are a dime-a-dozen," and the next generation isn't coming out. They don't starve for social connection like their parents did when they were teenagers, because Twitter tracks their BFF's every move. So what is the Church doing?

It's a question that the western Church as a whole, and that your local church leadership, needs to seriously brainstorm on. Especially if you're in a building project. What is about to dawn that we need to prepare for, plan for, and build for?