Pastors and local church leaderships all agree that the greatest expense in the church today is the church building. The purchasing of land to build the church building on and paying a building contractor to build the church building can cost millions of dollars.  Even when the men of the church help build the church building or build it all themselves, the building of a new church building is very costly. But the high cost of having a church building continues after the building is completed.

Church furnishings for the sanctuary--carpet, church pews, church pulpit, pulpit chairs, the communion table and musical instruments--must be purchased and installed. Nurseries, Sunday School rooms, the pastor's study and bathrooms must be completed and furnished.  Then there's the church grounds. They must be landscaped and the parking lot paved.  In addition, a water well and septic tank must be purchased and installed in most cases, especially, if the church building is located outside the city limits. And the cost doesn't end there. The upkeep of the church building and its grounds must be maintained, and the monthly utility bills must be paid.

So where does the church obtain such money?  From its members.  Many members, who are willing to give a tenth of their income plus offerings over and above their ten-percent tithes.  Since a local church pastor's ministry success is measured by the amount of growth of the church membership, by the amount of growth of the giving of tithes and offerings, and by the size and value of the church building built, while he has been the church pastor, these things become the pastor's overall goals.  However, this was not the case with the Apostles.  We never see them building church buildings.  As a matter of fact, no where in the entire Bible do we see God's people ever building church buildings.  Nor do we ever find where God ever commanded anyone to do so. If we are to obey God, we must obey His Word. Christians today must live our Christian lives by the examples of the first Christians, beginning with Acts 2, when the church of Jesus Christ, the body of Christ on earth, was born and Salvation was made available to all.

On the day of Pentecost, 3000 people were saved. (Acts 2:41)  Even by today's modern standards, this would be considered a very large congregation of members.  Wonder why Peter didn't start a church building fund drive, command the multitude to give tithes and offerings and appoint a church building committee that very day?   These people had money.  We see in Acts 2:45 that they sold their possessions and goods.  But notice what they did with the money, "...and parted them as every man had need", and not to a church building fund. Unlike the pastors today, Peter's, along with the other apostles, only goal, was pleasing God, after he was saved at Pentecost.  And the way he pleased God was in his total obedience to Him.

"The reason the Apostles didn't build church buildings is simply because they believed that Jesus was coming back in their life time," I've heard pastors explain.  "And because of that, they spent all of their time preaching the gospel to the lost and teaching and training the Christians to grow spiritually so they could go out and do the same."

If that is the case, then why aren't our pastors following the apostles example.  It worked much better than anything that denominational and local church leaders have ever done.  And the reason it worked is because the apostles obeyed God instead of following man's tradition. They understood what salvation in Jesus Christ meant.  They understood that the moment Jesus saved them, the Spirit of Christ--the same Jesus, with whom they had walked, physically--came into their new spirit to lead and guide them into all truth.  They understood that being a christian meant that Jesus would live His life, spiritually, through them at the same time that He was seated on the throne in heaven on the right hand of the Father God.  And they knew what the church was, that it was not a building, a house of worship, but a people, the body of Christ in the earth.  Our pastors, church leaderships, denominational leaders and seminary professors would do well to turn to God's Word, read it, heed it, practice it and obey it to the fullest.