Jason

All good points. I think it’s dependent on situation and where God wants you. For us, the school is working out nicely in terms of out lease and situation. We have on site storage and the people there are nice. However, we are not allowed to cross promote the church within the school (Favoritism for a paying client was brought up).

The downside for us is that we are still small…Looking to grow but a limited amount of helpers. Also, we really need to set some additional things up and that’s hard when you’re limited on volunteers. With a permanent location, we could set things up and leave them up. We could also use the building through the week for other ventures such as mentoring, school tutor work, etc.. I think there are benefits both for and against. Having done both, I can see them all.

My focus for writing this article however, was on the assumptions made by the author of the piece that pastors are burnt out with no vision and that discourages others. I just don’t see that to be the case and think it’s a pretty broad stroke to brush with.

Nice to see you again! I may have to call you about your mailing. We’re doing a large one in a couple of weeks ourselves!

Some of the reasons we are or like being Portable:
Being Portable has always been part of the vision because we are in a small city inundated with empty church buildings. We don’t need another church building in town.
Being Portable has allowed us to pick a location on the river. In a divided town location makes a huge difference and we wouldn’t have had this option if we picked a permanent place.
Being Portable has meant that there are other events going on where we meet when we meet and thus new people are finding us all the time who weren’t looking for us. This wouldn’t happen if we had a permanent building.
Being Portable has meant that we aren’t burning out a staff or volunteers during the week with cleaning, fixing, and grooming a building because it is done by someone else.
Being Portable is a far wiser financial move for us. Instead of having a Utilities bill we are able to supplies for the homeless shelter we are building.
Being Portable has created a bond among those who are a part of set up and tear down each week.

I could probably think of some others but that is what I’m thinking.

It also gets old explaining to people why you are inviting them to church at a high school.