Episode 257: Small Church, Big Building & The Dilemma of Church Spaces
When a missionary or pastor plants a church, they’re not just gathering people—they’re making decisions that quietly shape the work for years to come. And one of the decisions that carries great weight is that of “space.” Where do we meet? When do we start on Sundays? How do we stay nimble and mission-focused without being homeless—or overbuilt? Today’s conversation sits right in that tension: the blessings a building can provide, and the burdens it can introduce, especially when the work is still small and the people are still growing.
My guest today on the Postscript is Blade Sbisa, a church planting pastor in St. Louis who’s just getting the work on the ground with a small team. Blade recently stepped into a rare opportunity to purchase a church building at a phenomenal price—complete with a parsonage—before the plant is really ready to use it. So what do you do when the building is bigger than the congregation? How does it effect the culture and set expectations? Blade is thinking through it all in real time, and his process will help a lot of planters—and sending churches—think more clearly about buildings, stewardship, and the work of making disciples.
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“The Dilemma of Church Spaces” series explores one of the most underexamined—and most formative—realities of church planting: space. Beginning with the early church’s patterns of gathering and the historic instincts that shaped Baptist meeting spaces, the series traces how theology, mission, and context have always informed where and how God’s people meet. Through conversations with pastors planting in vastly different settings, these episodes examine how meeting places shape discipleship, stewardship, leadership, and public witness. From homes and borrowed rooms to inherited buildings, to outgrowing cherished spaces, to navigating expensive global cities where traditional church buildings are increasingly inaccessible, the series surfaces both the benefits and burdens of buildings without offering simplistic answers. At its heart, the series asks a pastoral and theological question: how can churches steward space as a servant of the mission—without allowing it to become the mission itself?
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