In 2014, a Pew survey found that almost 60 percent of older millennials go to church once annually or less, meaning religious buildings are more vulnerable to condoification than ever.
Some people are not to happy about this.
Church property in Cities are becoming very valuable much coveted real estate.
And there is a lot of incentive to convert tax free property into tax generating property.
In Newport Beach California, at the mouth of Lido Island, a wonderful church has been sold to a developer and the parishioners are very unhappy about it.
Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa California, located in Santa Ana California, sits on ten acres of very valuable real estate.Wonder what pressures are at play when it comes to all of this valuable untaxed real estate?
A very old church in Orange California has been converted into an "Avilas" Mexican food restaurant.
What happens to churches whose religious residents have left?
Often, they become a bit more secular.
And at other times they just decay and deteriorate into rubble.
A 700-year-old Dominican Church in the Netherlands is now a public library.
An 1867 church building Brisbane, Australia, is now a private residence.
A Gothic church built in 1909, overlooking Mission Dolores Park, San Francisco, California is now a private residence.
Conversion of the late 18th century St. Nicholas Georgian Church, by Kyloe, Northumberland, England turned into a private residence. Brian Broderson should have stayed ministering in England.
The Church Brew Works Bar, in a catholic church built in 1878, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Detroit: Abandoned Church below
St. Bonaventure Church abandoned in Philadelphia below
The true church of Jesus Christ is not a building or any kind of material structure.
ReplyDeleteAnd you are living stones that God is building into a spiritual house, His temple,to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5
The church of God is all the Christians, individually as well as collectively.
From Him (Jesus Christ)the whole body is fitted and held together by every supporting ligament (individual Christians).
And as each individual part does its work, the body (The Church)grows and builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:16
1 Corinthians 10:17
Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf.
They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Colossians 2:19
Ephesians 2:21
In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
Colossians 2:2
that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ,
The Church of Jesus Christ is everywhere.
It is His people!
They are the Church and not structures made by man.