Jared C. Wilson, writing at the Evangel blog on the First Things website, says, “I am from Texas. I love Texas. I get Texas.” Which I suppose makes him worth listening to on FBC Dallas’ 130 million dollar building campaign. Yes, you read correctly: 130,000,000.00 USD.
First, Wilson provides a word about Christianity, Texas style. He writes,
“Most every time I talk ‘church’ with Texas folk who are still in Texas, the leading question is ‘How many are you running?’ or ‘How big is your building?’ It would be an exaggeration to say every conversation begins this way but it would not be an exaggeration to say most of them do.”
But, Wilson warns, this is not “just a Texas problem, but it is a Texas-sized problem in evangelicalism.”
What hopes does FBC Dallas have in a building project of this proportion? There is one clue that Wilson extracts from the church’s Q&A on the endeavor: “[T]he glass walls have an evangelistic effect: people walking by have a view in from the street and feel drawn in.”
Wilson concludes: “Not go and tell. Come and see is the ‘mission’ of megachurchianity.”
You can read all of Wilson’s post here.
It’s obvious Wilson does not think this kind of budget is justified. What do you, the reader, think? (Again, you can read some of FBC Dallas’ justification here.)
