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1) During the medieval age, Christians believed that raising magnificient Churches and towers were the best ways of honouring God who is the maker of all things.
No gift is seen to be too big for him. With this belief, Christian, communities, nations and kings began a competition of who loved God more than the other.
2) At the end, churches and chapels mushroomed every where even in forests. A town of two thousand population could have 6 or more church buildings!
3) Today they have become liabilities and can hardly be maintained. Many have been sold. Many more will be sold. Many churches habouring the remains of saints have been converted to disco halls, hotels, banks and so on.
4) Europeans have learnt from their mistake. Today they build what could be maintained. Today, they put more resources in humanitarian projects than in block and cement work. Today, they realise that the best way to praise God is by buildings human beings whose bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.
5) In Nigeria, we are masters in copying European and American life styles even in things we don’t understand. We even copy their mistakes and regrets. Thus, in Nigeria today the love of God and pastoral success are still measured in blocks and cement. Anything could be sacrificed for it. A God-loving and hard working pastor/priest is the one who knows more dealers on building materials than his sick/poor flock or weak students.
6) In our schools a hard working principal is the one who invests more in block structures than in quality learning.
7) Of course one needs buildings without which an assembly for the people of God or conducive atmosphere for learning would be difficult. But the question is: Must it be so gigantic? Can’t we cut our coat according to our material? Can we maintain in the future what we build now? One can also argue that some of them are built by rich donors. But the question still remains: What happens when the donors are gone or are no longer financially bouyant?
8) Again, many of the buildings we put up are unnecessary duplications which have become liabilities instead of assets. In some cases they are hurriedly and poorly built because of the honour/glory of having started and completed them. Same thing that our useless politicians do.
9) Structures (especially Church buildings) are good as long as they are necessary, affordable and maintainable.
10) The best way to demonstrate our love for God with block structures should be by concentrating on structures that would improve the quality of human life like standard hospitals, schools (of quality), special schools for the differently abled (physically challenged), nursing/old people’s homes; homes for the mentally sick and so on.
11) That is the type of house that Jesus was interested in during his earthly mission. That was the structure he asks us to emulate and multiply. That was the kind of structures that the early Christians established which helped in building a community where no one was neglected. When Jesus talks about the Church, he is referring to the people of God and not to block and cement.
