Healing Place Arena not a waste
It is with great sadness that I read Andrew Robertson’s column “Megachurch buildings are a complete waste of money,” concerning our new building over at Healing Place Church, affectionately called The Arena.The cost of The Arena has been a subject of great concern for us over the past five years. We broke ground two months before Katrina, with a budget of $12-$14 million. That’s no small amount, mind you, but we worked hard to be as frugal as possible. For example, we have concrete floors throughout our sanctuary. However, post Katrina construction prices escalated our cost wildly, for us and everyone else building anything since then. Consider the LSU Union by comparison — last I heard, those cost were $72 million for renovation. We built an entire building for half that price, by exercising frugality.I know The Arena gets all the attention, but have you seen our other churches? There’s one in Donaldsonville where the congregation is too poor to donate enough to sustain it. So we pay for it all out of The Arena. There is a second one like that in inner-scity Baton Rouge called the Dream Center. There is a third in Mozambique, Africa, and a fourth in Swaziland, Africa. All are paid for by The Arena. And that happens because we can all come together in one place where we give and learn together.Most importantly though, Healing Place Church has never taught prosperity. We teach Jesus inspired service to you and our community, as outlined in our Pastor’s Book, “Servolution.” You can spot our red shirts all over the community serving the people anyway we can. Not one mention of prosperity from any of them. I’d love to invite you to a service where you can see for yourself. Just let me know, and I’ll even get you a cup of coffee.
Mathew FalconHealing Place Church Technical Team
 
Big churches needed for big crowds
I’m writing in response to Andrew Robertson’s editorial on the Healing Place Church (HPC) arena. Perhaps the best way to answer his critiques of HPC in particular — and megachurches in general — is with a question. Why would a church need a large building? My best guess would be that there are lots of people that want to go there. If a ministry isn’t concerned with reaching people, then what’s the point?The message is what’s holy, not the method. God is the same today as he was when time began, but people and culture are not. Why shouldn’t the church relate to people where they already are?A big church or well-mowed lawn won’t help anyone. But fill a building with a group of people willing to serve others and tell people that God really does love them with no strings attached, and that might change the world.Is 36 million dollars worth saving one person’s life? As a Christian, I follow the teachings of a man named Jesus. And he said a good shepherd would leave his 99 sheep, just to find the one that was lost. We reach the world by serving one person at a time. It’s never about the money. It’s about the people we are able to reach. So with great love and grace, I humbly disagree that “megachurch buildings are a complete waste of money”.
Caleb BrownUniversity alumnus