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I sense it's just a matter of time and all churches will lose their tax exempt status ... especially regarding property tax exemptions. I can't see that the "non-church attending majority" will tolerate this much longer. It's already being challenged ...
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At 11/08/2006 12:15:00 PM, 
Jemila Kwon
Lydia, I totally agree about feeding people and sharing lives being more important than having a fancy building, or even a building at all. this is not field of dreams, after all :) I personally think renting coffee shops after hours would be a pretty cool approach to public gatherings that are open to the larger community.
I also think as we move more toward communities rather than large scale productions every single week, it will be more feasible to building-share or borrow/rent a space for periodic large scale events/gatherings.
Lydia and Jemila,
Any of the above changes would not only be welcome, but would really challenge Jesus-followers to reflect on what it's really about in the first place. I'm of the opinion that Acts holds the key to informing us of ideas as to how the future of the body could be. In any case, "Render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and render unto God that which belongs to God" is actually archaic when applied to giving churches tax-exempt status. This feels especially true if you've ever visited a megachurch - it's like you're going to a rock show or something - and all those slick brochures and cafes - I'm sure if those behind the separation of church and state in the U.S. had envisioned this setting, there wouldn't have been any tax break. Those places just rake in the money!
I think it will be a blessing... Having tax-exempt status puts government strangle holds on the church... Let us be loosed from Caesar! Christ is our king!
Bring it on! I think this will be a way to seperate the wheat from the chaff.... are we here to serve God or be served by a powerful mega church service!
Again, I say, bring it on!
I have been predicting this for years and I, too, welcome it. Right now we attend a fairly large church that is in debt for a huge building that I don't see making an impact on the community. It is just a place to have more and more stuff for us to attend. I don't want our money or time tied to this anymore. I long to be free of that and to devote time, energy and resources to serving others. The move is coming, God is pulling us out of it now.
I like Jemila's suggestion to rent out coffee shops after hours. I just think if we didn't have our big building to drive to, we might start looking to our own neighbors to fellowship, to serve, to build community Truly become missional!
To echo Joy, Bring it On!
I think that losing the tax-exempt status would be an opportunity to ask ourselves why we are giving in the first place. Is it to serve our own interests by getting a tax deduction or to serve God's interests?
My husband and I pastor a cyberchurch and we decided not to file a 501(c)3 because we don't want the government dictating what we can and cannot say. Also, we wanted to challenge people to really think about their motives for giving. Surprisingly, we got a lot of support and truly joyful giving.
Concerning the cyberchurch, we knew that whatever we did, it wouldn't be about building a ministry, but about building people. After searching the New Testament to learn about church structure (since what we've seen modeled seems ineffective or ineffecient at best), we found that God doesn't seem that interested in the structure. He seems more interested in relationships and what those relationships produce.
The reason for a cyberchurch is simple--that's where the people God called us to pastor live. We live in Los Angeles and the lifestyle here is transitory and shallow. But everyone can connect online and are more likely to drop the facades.
Most of our ministry is through emails, but we do a lot of coffee shop and home meetings, too. We don't believe that a cyberchurch is ideal, and ours in is infancy, but it is one way to reach out to people we ordinarily wouldn't be able to.
The website gives a fuller picture if you're interested in checking it out: communityemergo.com
Also, we have a blog page called Diablogue for anyone to contribute. So far it's been all men and it's mostly been critical or self-serving. We sure could use some feminine voices!
One word: downsizing.
Fewer churches will be able to afford to own their buildings.
Fewer churches will be able to afford to add on to the buildings they already own.
More small or new churches will meet in homes or in free or low-cost venues.
I see these changes as a good thing. Call me a socialist ( ;) ), but why pay money for a building when you could spend that money helping people who don't have food to eat or a place to sleep at night?