Mammon in Carlisle

The few that are, can justify the need for their building, however, the churches that are failing should stop wasting resources and plough their resources into a more fertile ‘business model’.

That’s right ‘business model’. People who say that Christianity is not a business, would have some ground to stand upon if that ground wasn’t worth billions of pounds, while children starve to death and lost souls stagger to slaughter.

Man’s pride for status is maintaining tradition and buildings. Too often, a congregation judges itself by what it owns rather than what use it is in saving souls.

Too many church buildings are being used for ‘community’ activities in order to maintain their charitable status, rather than being a tool for evangelism. If such ‘community’ activities are not being successfully used as an evangelistic outreach, then the church building and its resources are no more than servants to the secular society.

The spirit of Mammon is manifest in the Carlisle Christian community. The Church in the City of Carlisle is worth at least £40 million in property and pays out at least £750K annually to its staff. All of that investment for how many souls saved a year?

The personal wealth of the Christians in the City of Carlisle will be well over 50 million pounds.

Yet Christianity in the City of Carlisle and in the UK is in the decline. We sing songs about how much we love God yet we waste His resources instead of ploughing seed into evangelism. Church leaders pray for miracles instead of performing them.

And how many churches are involving themselves with non evangelistic activities, simply to maintain their charity status to avoid paying tax?

Let me help you define an evangelistic activity. At some point some one becomes a Christian because of your activity.

Let me help you define a non evangelistic activity. At no point does anyone become a Christian because of your activity, even though you pray and plough time and money and effort into your activity.

Yeah, but, we live by faith, not by sight and we trust in God to bless our efforts.

And there we have the rub - screwed up theology. People walking off a cliff and expecting God to provide the wings.

The truth is that many church buildings are idols that provide some ‘leaders’ and members with a sense of purpose - a self indulgence that masks their inadequacy in outreach.

Multiply that kind of waste of resources across a city, a county, a country and one can imagine the enemy simply bent over with hysterics at the self inflicted wounds that the Christian Church inflicts upon itself.

Imagine this. A church has a building and land worth say, £300,000 (and some are worth millions). They haven’t had a convert since Adam was a boy. They decide that instead of waiting for a miracle, they will perform one.

They sell their church property and begin to meet in a local hotel, or community centre. Not only are their costs and overheads slashed, but they have £200K gathering interest in a bank.

They decide to employ an evangelist for £20K per year. The evangelist is dedicated to that one mission.

The church members continue as before, only they meet in a rented place on Sunday and share homes for bible study.

The evangelist starts to bring in converts. The church numbers grow.

If there is ever a need for a church building in the future, they have the money in the bank to build a purpose built building that is eco friendly, cost effective and designed to their needs and the increase in membership and attendance finances the development.

Everyone lives happily ever after. The end.

Instead of having an empty building and expecting God to fill it, the church needs to go back to the beginning.

In the beginning the church met in houses and as the need grew, a building was created to meet the needs of the church.

I have known the Church in Carlisle since AD 1993. I know how good and decent and dedicated and genuine the Christians are, but most of the churches have lost the plot.

Self preservation is not what the Church should be about. Preserving buildings and preserving hierarchies, for their own sake, is vanity.

I remember one vicar telling me that he was spending 50% of his time applying for grants. Surely God’s Kingdom does not require hand outs? Neither does God want a vicar with the riches of his or her knowledge, tied up in administration that is centred upon maintaining an empty building?

Think outside the box. How best to utilise your resources? God could perform a miracle through you and your fellowship.

Of course there is another way. If your church and resources are without fruit, why not simply sell up and hand the money over to Christians who are saving souls?

There are such churches in Carlisle, but hey, that would require a mighty move of the Holy Spirit for some of the establishment to humble themselves and hand over their resources to another more successful denomination, or church.

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The background sound is a taste of track 6 on side one of the Unity album by Graeme Young -

the track is, ‘Show me your ways’.

Cults in Carlisle?

Control and abuse?

Carlisle’s Occult

Ignore this at your peril

Mammon in Carlisle

Pride and waste

Carlisle United

Not cursed

Mammon in Carlisle

An empty building is a wasted resource. Most churches are empty most of the time. Even on Sunday they are used only for a few hours.

The cost of their upkeep and maintenance and the cost of heating an enormous space with inadequate insulation is a squander of God’s money and given the current Christian craze called saved the planet (as if God was not in control), how does the Church establishment justify heating up the rafters while our toes are freezing in ancient buildings no longer fit for purpose?