Todd and I spent this past Valentine’s Day weekend meeting with a wonderful church in the city of Montreal. Its official name is the Italian Pentecostal Christian Church of Montreal, but it is better known as Fabre St Pentecostal church. Founded in 1920, this church has been faithfully serving the Italian- Canadian community of Montreal. I must admit that I’m not sure that I have met a more welcoming and hospitable church with a heartfelt desire to operate with excellence. They accepted us as family, and I have no doubt that I gained a few pounds over the weekend.
What we experienced in our time there was similar to experiences that we have had with many churches in the past. This is a church with multiple thriving ministries, a dedicated congregation, and a well defined vision for future growth, but it is contained within a facility that negatively shapes their ministries, and inaccurately defines them as a church. Most churches tend to grow accidentally in a painful reaction to desperate needs over time. Since the solution is an intense reaction to a single need the solution is usually damaging. In this way many church facilities grow like bacteria in what appears to be a random fashion. It is difficult to fault the church for growing in this fashion. In the case of Fabre they are contained by an inner city neighborhood of row homes, and their growth included the purchase of many of the neighboring homes, which they then modified for ministry use. Since these homes were not designed for church use, they are certainly not an ideal place to grow ministries. The rooms are small; there are multiple level changes and circuitous and narrow halls to navigate. All of this can be quite intimidating to a first time visitor. But converting existing construction is also a wise use of limited funds.
For me the greater concern is the effect of a poorly functioning building on the mind-set of the church. I have seen this played out in four ways. First there may be a pride in poverty. As an example, the church I attended as a child refused to install air-conditioning or padded pews, because those “comforts” would be a sign of a softening commitment to attend on a Sunday Morning. A second attitude is a resignation to poverty. This facility is part of the cross we must be bear as a Christian and we need to make the most of it. Perhaps that may be the case in certain extreme situations, but I have often found that attitude to be a cover for a lack of faith to do something risky, such as engage in a major building program or even move the church altogether. A third danger is a mental shaping of the ministry. Since the building is shaping the ministry, over time the ministry leaders can lose sight of the fact that there are better ways of doing their ministry, and they fall into the pattern that the building dictates. Finally there is a mental blindness to many that have attended the church for many years. These are people that have become so accustomed to the facility that they fail to see it in the eyes of an outsider, and they fail to see how the building is negatively communicating who they are as a church.
Fortunately, I don’t believe any of these are a factor in the case of Fabre St. The staff and ministry leaders there clearly understand the limitations and negative connotations associated with their current facility. There is no pride and no fatalistic acceptance of the way things are. They are stepping out in faith to purchase and renovate a new building that will act as a blank canvas for God to shape their ministries. The leadership at Fabre has a clear vision for how their ministry can explode if given the proper tools. I am greatly encouraged by this church, and would ask all to keep them in prayer as they continue down the road of faith as a part of God’s vision for Montreal.
