I can honestly say that my church building is the ugliest, most worn-out, most dilapidated edifice in my city.
But we are one of the largest, probably the fastest growing church as well.
Why?
Because the pastors preach the Word.
Church growth is not our goal. Uplifting Jesus is our goal.
That's encouraging to hear. Too many these days are more focused on where to build the cafe or what really cool name they can use for the concert hall. Uplifting Christ is what it's all about.
Praise God that is wonderful to hear!
Yeah I went to one in high school that was infested with flies. It was really small, and hot in the summer. We had to vacuum up flies before the service (for me sometimes it was nauseating there were SO many on the floor!) and by the time we were done there were a ton more buzzing around the windows.
I was janitor for a while in my teens. I made $50 a month.
I figure if there's something you don't like but the church is worth it, you bless the church by doing something to fix it. (if it's a 'fixing' issue, not a personal preference/remodel issue). If the bathrooms were bad and I couldn't stand it, I would volunteer to come scrub them myself if it meant keeping a good church going and preaching the truth.
In my old (purpose driven) church I wrote a note and asked for trash cans in the womens' stalls because women don't want to have to carry their... used feminine products out of the stall to the big garbage can by the door! No one EVER did anything about it. So I went out and bought some three dollar cans and put them in there myself. This didn't even faze me until all the crap started happening there and I realized what 'seeker sensitive' was supposed to mean and then I realized they had just blown me off.
For a seeker sensitive church they sure didn't respond to people's legitimate needs. And frankly, my 'need' or sensitivity in this case was an extremely minor example. In fact I wasn't even so worried about it myself (I never have been that modest) but I imagined other women might be. So anyway.. fwiw...
In contrast, pastor would not do anything about gross sin like cohabitation or family abandonment. It was bizarre. So in that church it wasn't important that you offend someone, it mattered WHO you offended. I offended the pastor. That was the cardinal sin. Wouldn't have mattered if I'd been running around with some other guy or drinking myself silly or cheated on the building codes for the church. (yes those are REAL things that happened among leaders at this seeker-sensitive church, and no one did anything...)