TheMinistryCafe

There has been quite a hiatus in blog posts to The Ministry Café. (If you subscribe to the RSS feed, you probably have wondered what’s happened.) We’ve gone through a challenging season - along with most other businesses - and getting through it has taken priority over new posts.  But as a new year often brings with it reflections, I’ll share some of mine here.   

          2009 was a year of set-backs and scale-down for survival. The architectural service sector was among the hardest hit in the economy, with up to 60% unemployed. For a company like ours that works exclusively with Christian ministries, it was no less challenging, as pastors and leaders did not have the heart to ask their people to give to a new building program when many in the congregation have lost jobs and perhaps houses as well. The last time the construction industry was hit hard was in the early 90’s, on the heals of the S.& L. crisis. I remember that time well, as several development projects I was designing stopped cold, and my personal income dropped to a fraction of what it had been the year before. Architects are usually the first to feel a recession, as projects on the drawing boards (an out-dated term, now) are either abandoned or postponed. Likewise, we tend to feel the recovery first as design precedes construction. Few are feeling a recovery yet.

          Architects that I interacted with around the country in 2009 shared similar stories. Some had to close their doors, including very large and prestigious firms. Others said “if we can just make it to 2010, we should be okay”. All that I spoke to had down-sized to some degree - most between 50% and 60% of their staff. It is interesting to me that in late 2008, as the economy dropped and construction was hit hard, the AIA produced a list of the most promising sectors for 2009. One of these was church construction. Based on recent and historical trends, this seemed to be a reasonable projection. The church-building sector had been a strong for several years, and churches tend to grow during hard times, as people who had not been paying much attention to God realize anew their need for Him. That can be a good consequence of disillusionment with consumerism. But what the AIA did not consider was that church construction is paid for by donations, and growing churches may not have higher incomes with unemployment rates at 11%!  Never-the-less, the AIA’s projection fueled all sorts of architects and design-builders interest to market to churches. It seemed as if suddenly everyone was a ‘church-design expert’, if they had a church or two in their portfolio. This was quite obvious from last church-building conference I attended in November. It seemed that there were twice as many vendors as there were attendees, less than half the number of attendees as there had been for the same conference a year before, and more than double the number of architects and builders as in previous years. This proved to be the start of my New Years reflection, as I observed the exhibit hall floor and believe I may have caught a glimpse of Jesus’ heart on this matter; it was nauseating. Had we become the modern day money-changers and animal-sellers in the temple, trying to take advantage of worshippers for financial gain? Hawking and marketing goods, were we really there because the Lord was leading us to ‘market’ in this way?

          Here’s the heart of my reflection: Over the years in this business of building church facilities, I see how I have drifted from being primarily spirit-led to being largely market-driven, and that has to change. It seems that marketing, networks, methodology and recognition in the field have become what we’ve depended on for continued growth and success. It is not that any of those things are wrong in and of themselves; they have a place and can add value to our company. The underlying issues are ones of trust and dependence. Truly, my best design ideas have come after prayer. Unexpected provision has come to us when we have trusted in Him despite what we could see (or couldn’t see) with our eyes. My “roots” in this business came out of a clear calling by the Holy Spirit, followed by Divine provision. But over the years, it seems that a Galatians 3:3 transition has taken place: “After beginning in the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” A ‘return to my roots’ is a return to a simplicity of devotion to Jesus and a dependence on the Holy Spirit’s leading. If it took the faltering economy and a corresponding disillusionment with our human efforts to make this clear to me, then it is good that it happened. So I’m returning to my roots now, and already have a real sense of peace – even if the economy and the church-building market haven’t improved!