When the Movement Moves In: How to Keep Your Church from Becoming an Institution
When the Movement Moves In: How to Keep Your Church from Becoming an Institution
Lesson #27 from 40 Lessons in 40 Years
When I was one of the pastors at Granger, we spent nearly ten years as a portable church, setting up and tearing down every Sunday in a rented movie theater complex. Our team arrived while it was still dark, unloading trailers, running cables, building stages, setting up lights, transforming one movie theater into a worship center and several others into nurseries and kids ministry space. And then, hours later, we’d tear it all down and do it again the next weekend.
A few years into this, we began doing the same thing on Saturdays in an elementary school. We were multi-site before it was cool. Two full set-ups and tear-downs every weekend.
It was exhausting.
And electric.
There was a shared sense of ownership, urgency, and passion. Everyone was part of making it happen. We didn’t just attend church…we were the church in action. And we invested our time and energy and emotions to create space for others to join us…every single week.
So when we finally moved into our first permanent facility, we were thrilled. We imagined how much easier Saturdays and Sundays would be. No more 5 a.m. alarms. No more dragging pipe-and-drape into the gym. Not to mention, we’d finally have space for ministry 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year-round. Talk about a dream come true.
Thousands of churches around the country have their own version of this same story. Most new churches begin in rented space. They find space that works until it doesn’t, and then they find something else, and then move again, and move one more time, and try to find land or a building while they move yet again. Rick Warren at Saddleback said they moved over 70 times in the early days. He said the only criterion for coming to church was figuring out where they were meeting, since they moved so often.
When we moved into our own building at Granger, we were elated. And relieved. We finally had our own home.
But it didn’t take long before something shifted.
We were no longer a scrappy, mobile tribe on mission. We became...settled. Comfortable. Stable. Safe. Slowly, without meaning to, we started making decisions that protected what we had instead of pursuing what could be. We were a movement that had moved into a building, but we were starting to act more like an institution.
It happens to nearly every church that finds a permanent home. The very thing that feels like a win, like having your own space, can slowly and subtly become a weight. The building that once felt like a launch pad can start to feel like an anchor.
So how do you avoid that? How do you keep the fire alive once the chairs don’t need to be stacked and the speakers are permanently mounted to the ceiling?
Here are five things you can do to preserve the spirit of the movement…even after you move in:
1. Keep Telling the Stories of Sacrifice
Don’t let your people forget what it took to get here. Talk about the early days: the 4:30 a.m. call times, the broken-down trailers, the volunteers who gave up their weekends to make church happen. When you honor those stories, you remind everyone that comfort was never the goal. Sacrifice was always part of the DNA. Movement thrives on memory. Institutions thrive on amenities.
2. Design Ministry That Requires People, Not Just Spaces
It’s easy to default to programs that depend on rooms, stages, facilities, and staff. It’s easy to think we need paid musicians and contracted facility care. But don’t let your building do all the ministry. Create environments that still need people – small groups in homes, outreach in the community, student gatherings off-site. If your ministry model requires human presence more than property square footage, you’ll keep people engaged.
In our new ebook, 40 Lessons in 40 Years of Ministry, we say it this way: “A church is not a machine…people are not cogs in a machine, they’re souls to shepherd” (lesson #27).
3. Bake Agility Into Your Culture
Just because you can do something the same way every week doesn’t mean you should. Shake up routines. Change service times once in a while. Launch something that forces people to be uncomfortable again—whether it’s a new campus, a serving initiative, or something entirely out of the norm. Institutions resist change. Movements are fueled by it.
4. Celebrate Risk, Not Just Results
Permanent buildings can make you risk-averse. Once you’ve got assets, you start protecting them. But if your culture only celebrates what’s safe and successful, you’ll lose the raw, risk-taking edge that built the church in the first place. Find ways to reward innovation, highlight experiments (even failed ones), and remind people that faith always feels like a bit of a leap.
5. Recruit Like You’re Still Portable
When you were portable, you had to recruit. Everyone needed to help. But once you have a building and attendance is soaring and the budget has more margin – it’s tempting to begin to hire staff to do the very things you previously used volunteers to accomplish. Resist hiring. Keep the expectation high for everyone to pitch in. Make volunteering feel essential again—not optional. Serve teams aren’t about filling roles; they’re about fueling ownership.
It’s a gift to have a space of your own. But don’t let the space shape your spirit. The church is at its best when it moves—when it flexes, adapts, risks, and sacrifices.
So if you're dreaming of the day when you finally get to move into your own building, just know: the real work starts then. The challenge is not getting people in the building—it’s keeping the movement alive once they are.
If you’ve ever felt the tension between movement and institution, you’re not alone. That’s why we put together 40 Lessons in 40 Years in Ministry. Real stories and practical wisdom you can lean on, whether you’re just starting out or decades in. Consider it a companion for the road, packed with reminders that you don’t have to carry the weight alone.
And check out Season 2 of The LeadingSmart Podcast, where I discuss these 40 lessons in depth.