Waiting to Move
Christ Community Church Decides to Hold Off On Building New Campus, Entering Into Period of Discernment
by Allison Kennedy
from Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (GA), June 23, 2007

About six acres of the land will be left undeveloped. A few houses sit on one edge of it, and a convenience store on the other. It is two miles from the Manchester Expressway exit and one mile from the main campus of Columbus State University.

Things were full steam ahead until a month or two ago. Cowart and his 10-member church board met and decided to hold off temporarily, in order to raise another $1 million. This was to avoid massive debt.

"We had a plan but we really began to see that we'd be going into significant debt and we heard the Lord say, 'Stop.' We'd be swamped with debt, and it'd take years trying to pay it off," Cowart said. "I think the biggest thing is, we were at a crossroads — are we going to become a church about meeting our own needs or about reaching others? The danger is to rush into something nicer and newer and it'd be easy to get comfortable with that. But the Lord has put us here first for others. ... We will go as people are ready to move forward."

If construction had remained on schedule, Christ Community members would have been worshiping in their new church this coming fall. Eventually there will be a new sanctuary and educational space. The church has rented its current building since 1998.

After the board unanimously decided to put the project on hold, the membership voted and did the same. "I think people were taken aback at first," said Kimberly Gaymon, who has attended the church for two years and is taking classes to become a member. "Then there came a sense of renewed purpose, that this is not just about a building." Gaymon was in the church's second service when Cowart presented the board's decision earlier this spring. "I was kind of thinking, 'What does that mean? Does it mean we failed?' Very quickly I realized I wanted to be part of a ministry rather than a church building." Twice in her own life, and now at Christ Community, Gaymon has been part of congregations that have met in temporary quarters — one in a YMCA. "I think this has been a really positive thing for the church and has realigned people's priorities."

In fact, the financial reality of moving ahead pointed to deeper spiritual lessons, Cowart believes. One is listening for God's direction and leading. Another is regaining a passion for the larger community. A third is for more members to have the opportunity to contribute to the campaign, to avoid giving by a relatively small number.

Cowart described this season of waiting as a period of discernment. Theoretically, the necessary $1 million could materialize today, he said, and the church would still hold back until people agreed it was time. Cowart said he thinks, on the whole, the church has lost some of its "fire" for the community, "where people are hurting and lost. ... That's hard to measure but we have to keep discerning where we are."

Christ Community, which averages about 500 people in Sunday worship, has been described as a congregation on the edge, doing some of what many congregations in the city do not. For one, it has a skateboard park on its current property, which seemed a necessity after some skaters starting showing up years ago. Other members have served breakfast to late-night partiers exiting Memory Lane, a bar across the street. That ministry has tapered off after Fort Benning officials put some Columbus bars off limits to soldiers several years ago.

"We are most known for being a place and church where you can come as you are and you will be received," said Cowart, whose church is in the Free Methodist denomination. "We say that we're a safe place to hear a dangerous message. We deeply believe in the gospel, but we don't want anything in our community to push people away. If the Word of God offends, we can't help that, but we don't want to be offensive."

Dress at the church is casual, as is the music and general atmosphere, where "we're not trying to impress people with our spirituality," Cowart said. The institutional church is downplayed, with an emphasis on worshippers and ministry.

Kim Sheek, a church member who's been on the board since January, has been a Christ Community member for two years with his wife Nancy and their three children.

"I would say we are all in complete agreement as a body," Sheek said about the decision to hold off construction. "It was a very hard decision to make. ... Being new to that group, I was impressed that they had the courage to wait."

Churches are not immune, of course, to the consumer mindset of "buy now, pay later." But the decision to halt construction seems to have taught people that "the church is supposed to be different," Sheek said. Another danger, this particular church has found, is to focus too much on the image of moving forward, as that often signals success, smooth sailing and having it all together. Asking people to wait and pray is the more gutsy move, Sheek said.

"On an individual level, this has impacted us," he said of him and his family. "We have re-examined how we're living our lives, from a financial standpoint."

"Buildings cost money and they can become a source of pride," Cowart said. "And if that happens, we lose our soul."