Funmurphys: the Blog

Breaking Up Is Easy; Dividing Up Is Hard

As a learned laywer once told me: Divorce is simple; the property settlement is hard. The Episcopalians seems to be learning that truth now as the jockying for property ownership is starting to turn ugly.

I'll offer just one bit of advice for those who are leaving the ECUSA for its abandonment of biblical teaching: The church is not the building the congregation meets in, the church is the congregation (and in a larger sense, all of us Christians). New buildings can easily be built by vital congregations; moribund congregations can't support oversized buildings and a mostly empty building provides mute testimony for those who have ears for such things.

I understand the desire to continue to worship and fellowship in the same place you always have, but what is the witness that you stood firmer on the property than the teaching? If it comes to it, let the building be a millstone around the ECUSAs neck. What is the market for old church buildings? What will the witness be if the ECUSA keeps you out but sells the property either to another congregation or to a developer? If you really want it badly enough, you might be able to buy it back from the ECUSA rump in a couple of years. A few years of exile in the desert might even do your congregation some good as it helps you focus on Jesus and not the distractions of this world.