Interesting, and unusually accurate, report in The Herald today.
We have too many buildings in the Church of Scotland today. It is a scandal that we allow congregations to spend £500,000 on repairs that do not in any way affect the shape or structure of the building, when for the same price a new building could have been constructed. It is wicked of Presbyteries to give priority status to buildings in the middle of a field, surrounded by a community of sheep, while giving lower status to buildings in a village serving a needy community.
Most of our buildings were built 100+ years ago on a model of church architecture that was, at that time 100+ years old. The buildings we are using today largely do not communicate anything of the gospel to our generation. What they do communicate is old fashioned, uncomfortable, cold and alien.
New people decide about the gospel by their experience of our buildings, and for most the decision is not positive.
We should dispose of all church buildings more than 30 years old and replace our present building stock with about 800 new, purpose built properties on the understanding that they will need replaced to serve a new generation in about 50 years.
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