What Would You Do with $130 Million? Let's Build a Church!

What Would You Do with $130 Million? Let’s Build a Church!

Posted on November 05, 2009
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That's the plan at First Baptist Church of Dallas... build a $130 million church complex in the Downtown Dallas arts district.

According to the Associated Baptist Press, First Baptist Church in Dallas has launched what leaders say will be the largest church-building campaign in modern history -- a $130 million project that includes the congregation's first entirely new sanctuary since the 1890s.

Once considered the largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention, First Baptist Church has declined from 25,000 members under its legendary pastor of 50 years, W.A. Criswell, to about 11,000 today.

Under leadership of Robert Jeffress, who took over as pastor in 2007, leaders say the church is growing again, but present facilities are inadequate for innovative ministries needed to reach today's generation.

The plans for the church campus include a high-tech, 3,000-seat worship center, which will double the church's current worship capacity. There will also be an education center and 500-space parking garage.

Several of seven major buildings currently in the church's sprawling complex on six city blocks will be demolished to make way for construction. The current historic sanctuary will remain, with a steeple restored to its original height. It will continue to be used for weddings, funerals and special events.

New landmark features include a towering stone waterfall topped with a luminescent cross. A shallow pool surrounded by green space will provide both a common area for downtown residents and guests and a place for open-air baptism services.

"We're creating what I like to call a spiritual oasis in the middle of downtown Dallas," Jeffress said Oct. 3 on Dallas radio station KBCI. "It is going to be the most beautiful facility in downtown Dallas."

What do you think? A great plan or a total waste of money? $130 million well spent or wasted?

Comments

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Phillip Gibb on Fri, November 06, 2009

What is the value of one human soul?
$130 million?
Although you could share that money out to support the needy - it will last a very short time and not really impact the decision of eternity.
You could argue that $130 million spent on a church building will have greater reach to the people in the area of a longer period and be able to empower people to impact the needy over a longer time.
Well that’s my thought
Brittany on Fri, November 06, 2009

Phillip Gibb, OH MY GOSH, you are SO RIGHT! I keep telling my friends at school. Helping the needy is such a loosing battle. I mean even Jesus said that. But this church is going to be SO COOL. If you feed people, they just get hungry again and poor people don’t even understand how much all that food really costs. But people like you can me can really appreciate such a beautiful building. Just looking at the pictures, I like to imagine how good I’ll feel when I see it.
Kenny on Fri, November 06, 2009

Troy Dooly “1. The church is not built yet. Wanting to spend $130 million and do it are two different things.”

Yeah, projects like this often run way under budget.
Phillip Gibb on Fri, November 06, 2009

It certainly looks cool
Kind of thing I pray for - for the Church I go to.
Although the second thought that goes thru my mind is “I wonder what video equipment will be used” ha ha ha
Pastor Matt on Fri, November 06, 2009

Some fantastic sarcastic comments going on here. Loving the humour.
Brittany on Fri, November 06, 2009

Hi Phillip Gibb,

Oh, it is going to be SO COOL. Seriously…just to put it in perspective…it is going to be SO MUCH NICER than the Hollister Store at the mall.

The video has got to be HD. Seriously, have you ever tried to worship to VHS? I went to a Bible study once. I mean they called it a Bible study but when I saw that the message was on a tape, I just prayed, “Please help me through this.” cause I just knew I was going to have a really hard time. I really don’t know how those disciples always seemed to stay so focused all the time.
Jesse Phillips on Fri, November 06, 2009

This is interesting. We wouldn’t even be having this discussion if we didn’t have 2 things:

1) the belief that we must tithe to a company (a non-profit company called “a church”) - is this biblical, many would say absolutely yes.

2) the company may do with that money whatever they want. They have little accountability or oversight.

er, I’m not sure if that’s entirely true. I’ll put in one more tho:

3) Bigger is better. Big building = more people in my church (= more money) = more success & obedience to God

If we were allowed to use our tithe to love and serve those in need, instead of being compelled to give to a company, then we wouldn’t have these churches w/ these huge budgets they’ve accumulated over time which they (since they have no other obligations, they don’t seem to be obligated to help the poor) use it to make their stuff nicer, more attractive.

The nicer, more attractive thing makes total sense and would be a great idea if two things:

1) a church company has no (or little) obligation to use tithes to serve the poor, but rather to add more “attractional” value to their building/organization.

2) the “attractional” strategy is a great way to gain and grow more disciples who go out and serve & love people and win more to Christ.

I think both of these are wrong, personally. I think the attractional strategy, tho simple, popular, appearing to be successful based on attendance numbers - is not successful, but has produced the failure of the Church we see today.
& I think The Church is obligated to use tithes to serve the poor. If you look at the NT model, this what they did & what Paul was eager to do. In fact, they didn’t even have the tithe - tho I agree it’s a nice idea. I think the NT model is more like 100% not 10%
JR on Fri, November 06, 2009

Some of the comments here are starting to get a little bit ridiculous. While I don’t know that I would personally want to be part of this project, I see that a lot of you criticize and ridicule, yet many of you will go to churches this Sunday that spend about the same amount on buildings per capita, and give a smaller percentage of your annual budget to missions than FBC does.

Consider this: If FBC grows to 10,000 in attendance (which is very possible with the building they are proposing) that will be an average of $13,000 per person. This would be the same as a church of 200 people meeting in a building that costs $2.6 million. That happens every week and no one notices. In some American communities, $2.6 mil won’t get you much of a building at all.

FBC is reaching out to the downtown and central Dallas population. Building there is expensive and there are a limited number of strong churches in the immediate vicinity.

The mathematics behind this actually bode better for FBC than they do for a number of other churches, but a lot of people just see big numbers a freak out.
Pastor Matt on Fri, November 06, 2009

We rent our meeting space at about $2 per head per week. If we quadrupled in size we’d rent a different building at about $1 per head per week.

The largest size we could rent in the area would be a 1500 seater for about 80 cents per head per week - assuming we only did one service - we could logistically do 4 on a Sunday if we needed to for around 40-50 cents per head per week.

I agree that downtown Dallas is likely to be more expensive, but I wonder how many years it would take to make it worthwhile to build or buy. For me the maths just don’t add up - why spend so much on such a low-capacity building that will sit empty at least 90% of waking hours?
Kenn on Fri, November 06, 2009

A church with 3,000 seats and 500 parking spaces? That’s one way to get Texans to carpool.
Jason Curlee on Fri, November 06, 2009

Seems like $130 million to build a 3,000 seat auditorium for a congregation of 11,000 that wants to grow is setting their sights too low….they will already have to move in doing at least 4 to 5 services without much room to grow…I’m sure they have a plan for that.

Maybe they would at an extra 70 million and make a larger auditorium.

I have no problem with what they may want to do…I obviously think they could accomplish way more for a lot less…but if they feel they are being proper stewards of God’s money then more power to them
Nate Helm on Sat, November 07, 2009

How do you respond to this? I am speechless…not mad, but saddened that we, as Christians, in America—just don’t get it. This is Genesis 11:14 fleshed out…settling down, build a city, making a name for ourselves, a tower that reaches to heaves…sound familiar?
Brittany on Sat, November 07, 2009

OK Nate, you are missing the big, whole, entire boat. EVERYBODY says Jesus spoke on a hilltop and didn’t need a big auditorium, but I’d just like to add that if we were living way back then, that would PROBABLY make sense to all of us. But we live in AMERICA and if we’re not saddled with debt, NO ONE is going to be able to relate to us.

Also, what EVERYONE forgets is that 98% of church growth in America is not from new believers, but church hoppers. Well, you know about that hot and cold thing? Well, when all those people see the new programs, and more importantly the AMAZING building, I just can’t wait…Imagine throngs of previously malcontented churchgoers from every other Dallas congregation gathering all in one place. That should make it just a little easier on EVERY OTHER church in the city, OK?
Pastor Matt on Sat, November 07, 2009

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but if “98% of church growth in America is from church hoppers” then it would be fair to say that the statistics for the growth of the church in America are out by a factor of 50 - ie, the church isn’t really growing. Transference growth is not growth of the church as a whole - its just moving people around different buildings and leaders.
Brittany on Sun, November 08, 2009

OK, Pastor Matt, TECHNICALLY you’re correct, but ONLY if you think really, really big picture. By focusing on ourselves, it SEEMS like we’re doing a really good thing. Seriously, we’ve not even broken ground and we’re ALREADY over capacity even if we run three services EVERY Sunday. I can’t help but think God has no choice but to be pleased with that.