Church planting and fresh expressions resourced by Incarnate Network

Local churches close and are often sold off to developers at a fraction of the value with apparently no alternative due to UK charity law.

But Kingdom Developments Limited (KDL) is owned by Baptists and can act as a vehicle to enable re-development of old baptist buildings. The profits can then be ploughed back for Kingdom purposes. It’s both simple, and effective.

What do buildings which our Christian fellowships use, say about God?

Creativity… I love it! Internet websites are teeming with people falling over themselves to tell you just how much they love it too. One such contributor summed it up thus, "…creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun." I’m not certain that ‘breaking rules’ would necessarily be something I could or should wholeheartedly endorse as a Baptist Regional Minister! But I do want to encourage the Christian family to rediscover fun!

I believe that the level of creativity in the churches of the South West Baptist Association, where I am based,  is very high. Hardly a week goes by when I don’t get to hear of a church getting creative in some aspect of its outreach, worship or fellowship life. I am encouraged by this – after all, both creation and recreation lie at the heart of God’s purposes for humankind. We really must take another look at what it means in Scripture to have been created in God’s image. Such a statement can only mean that something about me and you reminds God of Himself! Now that is an incredible thought.

In my experience, sustainable ‘creativity’ needs at least three core ingredients.

The first of these is ‘unity’. Where a church takes seriously the call of the apostle Paul to ‘make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose’ (Phil. 2) – there you will find fertile soil for creativity. One of the most important things that Christian leaders can do, is to model to their churches unity as expressed by excellence in Team relationships: a Team where members encourage each other, look for the best in each other and pray for each other; a Team where laughter is infectious and sadness is shared; a Team where serving God is addictive and rewarding. You can tell I’m having a great time! Praise God that this is our experience within the South West Baptist Association.

Secondly, creativity requires ‘security’. Where church leaders encourage good fellowship within their churches, they will find that security becomes a bi-product, and people then feel ‘safe’. When folk feel secure they somehow soften and become more willing to yield to God’s will for their lives. They start to listen to each other too. In turn, this enables God by His Spirit to release gifts within them that can be used for the building up of His Church and also to reach out to the world at large. Christians thrive in an atmosphere of security.

Thirdly, good creativity requires ‘risk takers’ – churches and individuals able to capture a vision from the Lord, who are then given the freedom and opportunity to ‘go for it’. Such people are like gold dust here in the South West. These are Christians who are prepared to have 50 ideas rubbished before one visionary nugget breaks through; people who are really able to laugh at themselves before others do; folk who are at ease with themselves and respected by all. That said, it is still possible for fear to occasionally grip them and to get in their way. Fear that manifests itself when a risk-taker asks, ‘…but what will people think if I get it wrong?’ Perhaps a quote I discovered from a non-Christian might help, “…to live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” Never a truer word…

It was as some local Baptist ‘risk takers’ met together here in the South West, that their creativity gave birth to the concept of Kingdom Developments Ltd. We felt that we were being called to offer a new service to the Christian community. A number of us had become frustrated at seeing local churches close and then watch them often being sold off to developers at a fraction of the value that could have been achieved if the buildings had first been redeveloped by the Christian community. There was apparently no alternative. Unfortunately most bodies that end up ‘inheriting’ closed churches are not able to redevelop property because it falls outside of their charitable objectives. However, the creation of a wholly owned, ‘arms length’ company like KDL is a vehicle to enable such development to take place. The profits can then be ploughed back for Kingdom purposes. It’s both simple, and effective.

To date, the very fact that KDL exists and that we are able to consider using it on a case-by-case basis, we have not had to use it! The auction or private sale proceeds received over the past couple of years have been at the top end of the pre-sale estimates. I do not believe that this can simply be put down to the market being particularly buoyant. I believe it is because we have another tool available to us now which can make us more assertive.

A calculation always has to be made – what is the market doing at the moment? Could we achieve a good return on the property without having to resort to using KDL? Our independent development surveyor helps our Board of Directors to arrive at this judgement on each occasion.

The interesting thing is that most of the work of KDL to date has been in offering quality advice to churches of all denominations on issues ranging from minor building problems right through to redevelopment and major refits. Our over-riding task, though, is to ensure that the buildings that Christians occupy are supporting them in their mission objectives – not getting in the way!