Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Build to Suit

I drove by a piece of undeveloped land that had an interesting sign. The sign said, "For Sale: Build to Suit." As long as you have the money, you can develop and build however you like on this piece of land. You can design it so it is tailor-made to suit you.

Build to Suit is an intriguing concept in building up land. It's a devastating concept in building a church. When we cease to view the church as the Body of Christ and we start to view it as an organization, it's very easy to pursue a Build to Suit mentality. When we lose sight of our mission to worship God, we begin to worship self. When we fail to remember that our purpose is to seek and save the lost, personal preference becomes the order of the day.

The harsh reality is that the church doesn't exist to please you. Nor does it exist to please me. Advancing agendas or preaching preferences just isn't what we're all about. This is what makes leadership in the church difficult at times. A leader is always upsetting somebody's apple cart. Whenever a decision is made to go THIS way, you can rest assured that somebody is convinced that we should go THAT way. But if the church operated on a Build to Suit mentality, the end result is that we go NO way.