Most churches of today are now bound by the gifts being God instead of the giver of the gift being God. Most of these churches really do start out with good intentions. These churches have outreaches and grow in membership. These churches procure a building to meet in. These churches expand and build bigger buildings, etc. The point is not in the building nor the size of the building. The point is not to let the building consume the resources specifically reserved for other impact ministries. Solomon did the same thing when he built the temple for God. Where he was a wise and just man at one time, Solomon squandered his resources for idolotry and his numerous concubines. Sometimes, this is what happens to the church, we squander resources reserved for outreach and other high-impact ministries and we intermarry and feed the building maintenance fund instead of the needy people who drive and walk by everyday. We have the paved parking lot. We have the best gym. We have the best manicured landscapes. Then we realize that since we have only a specific amount of money, more money goes to the improvement, maintenance, and rennovation of the buildings and grounds of the physical building that was originally designated to reach, feed, nourish, and clothe the Spiritual temple. What ends up happening in many cases is that many outgoing ministries are sacrificed and reduced in order to make the "Ministry" i.e., the mentality and headquarters, upscaled. Yes, on the outside, we appear successful and holy. We have our TV ministry where we show grand design churches packed. We show how we are "the stuff" because we get to speak at other churches built pastored by people of the same mentality. We have elaborate offices and production sets as we detail the lives of sucessful people that appear to be superhuman. I would like to someday see a show where average people in Christianity talk about their sucesses, but learned much from their shortcomings. However, on the inside, the growth is now stymied since the church that once fed the community via the commandments of the Great Commission now feeds itself and it's monsters of continual maintenance to where the Great Decommission is now the environmental norm instead of the Great Commission being the Spiritual mandate.

Before I proceed, I would like to share again some text from an article I once wrote called Totem to Temple. I wrote Totem to Temple to expose some basic forms of idolotry and to discuss the basic change in direction and the paradigms churches and people sometimes take. After you read the text below, I would now like to show further the concept of upscaling / downsizing in detail:

If you ever noticed that all of the stationary temples men built (in God's will) for God listed in the Bible were later destroyed and no longer standing when the people turned their backs on God. The only temple in the Bible that was never destroyed was the mobile tent that was used as a temple throughout the times from Moses to David. I find this very interesting due to the fact that since we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are to go out to do the will of the father and preach the Great Commission, that the temple of today is moble and not stationary. You see, to do the will of the Father and the Great Commission, we must go out into all the world... (Matthew 28:18). The concept of today tells us to come to the stationary place of worship moved by human works. Jesus instructs us, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, to go out and take the temple of the Holy Spirit along with Jesus to the poor, oppressed, and dying. Where many manistries are now moved by human works and labor, the spiritual temple is moved by the breath of life that God gives us to fulfill his divine will. Acts 17:24 tells us that "God does not live in temples built by human hands". Mobile temples of the Holy Spirit come in all different colors, shapes, sizes, gender, and culture. Like the description of the temple described in Exodus 26, the outside may not be appealing to the human eyes, but the inside of the temple is full of the beauty, splendor, and the best of what God has to offer.

Matthew Barnett wrote in his new book The Church That Never Sleeps about the disturbing trend that influences church planting today. Many churches move out of the inner city because the neighborhoods are not safe and the money is inexistent in these neighborhoods. These churches move outward to surburbia and reach the Yuppie generation. In this way, they feel and look successful in the eyes of man. Now there are some who go back to the inner city to tackle these same problems that drove the surburbia mega churches away and to provide outreach and helps to those needy people who have lost vision and have lost the ability to help themselves. These people have come to realize that today's church is not of mortar and landscapes. Today's church is of people, disciples, and the meeting of needs and the development of relationships. The successful church is the church that goes where the needy people are and refuses to embrace the mentality of "Here I am, come to us". Successful churches give back to and help rebuild their decaying communities instead of bleeding every drop of resources from the community to enhance themselves.

There is nothing inherently wrong about having a building, many buses, and the things you need to reach people. In fact, throughout the New Testament, Paul went from city to city to the churches established and ministered there and performed outreach to where thousands were saved. In any Army today, there exists a headquarters that acts as "command control central" to delegate the outreaches of war and also to protect what is theirs. Most offensive armies go out to war, not wait for the war to come to them. At the same time, members of that army are prepared at a moments notice to pack up and go where the General tells them to go and to do what the General tells them to do. The kingdom of God is this way also. We have a headquarters called the local church, the local church is to raise up soldiers to go out and use their resources (church buses, tracks, etc) to conquer their neighborhoods and inner cities for God. The local church must also be prepared to protect the areas of their cities won for God by defending them not against another church driven to believe that they are the only church that can minister there, but defend their cities against Satan, the real enemy. A true cutting-edge Christian (pastor or member) is ready when the call of God is so evident to begin preparations for the next task at hand of outreach. Some will see new ministries formed and come under the auspices of the headquarters (local church) while some will be "spiritually transferred" to another church and/or another area of the world for a new mission in their lives.

In summary, the key here is to increase the kingdom of God according to the scriptures. In order to maintain successful Spiritual growth and to fulfill the Great Commission, one must allow God to bring the Ministry to the next echelon of Spiritual greatness and continue to enhance and grow the ministries of outreach. Like the holy of holies in Moses time, the ministry of Jesus and the twelve disciples, and the outreaches of Paul, Peter and others in the book of Acts, portability to get into motion in order to fulfill the work of God while being submissive in reporting to headquarters (the local church) is vital for true Christian growth. In many instances, churches have so much "baggage" (a building designed for them nobody else wants, debt over and beyond their ability to pay, lack of vision and renewal, etc) to carry that their ability to move when needed and move when called by God is either hindered, delayed, or impossible to accomplish. Too many of the resources are tied and bound to maintaining the uneccessary baggage acquired. Therefore, the church is distracted from their true calling to reach the lost and minister to the needy people. Churches that succeed are churches that can quickly move at the command of Jesus to go into a new territory to claim that neighborhood and claim that culture for Jesus to impact people's lives.

Lord, I ask that you would help us to be low maintenance, high impact Christians. Instead of the excess baggage, teach us to be portable and mobile like the disciples in Matthew 10 to go out and reach our world and culture for you. I ask that we would never discontinue outreaching ministries in the name of making a ministry appear good in man's eyes. We repent for any actions that may have caused us to behave like this in the past. Teach us to be versatile and focus on Jesus to fulfill the call. In Jesus name I pray, AMEN!