Expert: Scott Talbot - 4/18/2009

Question
My church of two years has been meeting in a school hall and now is leasing a
sport arena and to date has spent over 200 thousand on putting in offices and
carpets, air conditioning, meeting/congregational area from the contributions of
the congregation - I am troubled as the building is not theirs as it is leased and
at a price less due to renovations. Is this sin and or a transgression?

Answer
Hi Kathleen,

It's nice to hear from you.

Hmm, I'm not sure if I would call this a sin. At worst, it might be unwise use of funds, and poor stewardship of the people's money. But I'm not sure of that, either, because I'm not sure about the details.

It would be foolish to put a lot of money into renovating a leased property that belongs to someone else. However, as you mentioned, the price is less due to the renovations.

Here's the question. Is the break on the lease payments enough to compensate for all the money being put into the renovations? Don't forget to consider the fact that the church still benefits from these improvements, even though they don't own the building.

My recommendation is to approach those in leadership and politely share your concerns. Perhaps their explanation will help you to better understand what's going on, and will help you to better evaluate things.

In the end, you will have to make a judgment yourself about whether or not you feel comfortable with the decisions leadership is making.

If you do not, then you have several choices. 1) Do not support it with your funds, if you feel those funds are not being used responsibly; 2) Go through proper channels to vote in alternative leaders, if you can do so graciously; and/or 3) Consider connecting with a church whose leadership you CAN support.

Scott