We church plant among the poorest communities in the world. Often, we are asked why we help our church plants secure buildings. People rightly assume house church movements would be less expensive and perhaps more sustainable. However, we are taking a comprehensive approach to church planting and the “houses” in the communities we work in are not suited for this approach.
The homes are about the size of a small shed and often do not have electricity or running water. Typically they have a few adults and several children living in the home with only one of them open to the gospel; the others can be hostile toward the gospel. This situation is not conducive to hosting worship services and Bible studies, providing meals and food to the community, teaching classes, providing after school programs, and community healthcare, all of which our church plants are involved in.
In short, we help our churches secure a building because they use their building daily for the good of the community. Sure we could focus on house churches, but someone would still be supporting other organizations to do the ministries described above. Why not equip the local church to do both? You can do that by investing in our building fund to help local churches among the global poor continue to bless their communities for the glory of Christ and become more sustainable in the process.