First Baptist Church Dallas’ obscene fundraising campaign
flockwoodFirst Baptist Church in Dallas is asking its members to dig, dig, dig, dig deep.
The Texas congregation, with average attendance of 3,200, just announced a new $130 million fundraising campaign, according to Sam Hodges of the Dallas Morning News.
That works out to $40,625 per worshipper.
Churchgoers need to fork over wheelbarrows-full of the Almighty dollar because “The finest facility in this area should be one that glorifies almighty God,” says Pastor Robert Jeffress.
The $130 million is on top of the $48 million churchgoers shelled out to complete another recent building project in 2006.
First Baptist already has plenty of seats. And the building, as far as I can tell, has glorified Almighty God rather satisfactorily over the past century. The church today is a fraction of the size it was (or claimed to be) when W.A. Criswell and George W. Truett served as pastor. But the new 3,000 seat auditorium and classroom buildings “will make room for hundreds or even thousands more worshipers and Sunday School attendees…”
Yep: $130 million spent to make room for “hundreds” (at least) more people. And this massive amount of spending, we’re told, will make God look good.
To find out precisely how this mammoth project will glorify God, you can visit the church’s building project Web site by clicking here.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Let’s see. Cowboys Stadium cost $1.8 billion for 80 000 to 110 000 seats; First Baptist will pay $130 million for 3000 seats. That’s $16 363 to $22 500 per seat for Cowboys Stadium, $43 333 per seat for First Baptist.
That can’t possibly be right, can it?
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I could think of 130 million better things to spend that money on than another church.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Sounds like they’re taking tips from the Pentagon on effective pricing controls.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:02 am
[...] Another person’s view of the First Baptist Dallas project. [...]
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:11 am
I have been attending First Baptist Dallas for over a year now, and have felt very blessed by the conservative, traditional preaching. I had begun the process to join the church, but the discussions about the building plans over the last few months made me uneasy so I decided to wait until they actually unveiled the plans formally. Before I made a commitment to this church I wanted to be certain that this really was the place for me.
I shuddered when they displayed the renderings of the new sanctuary. It immediately made me think of that monstrosity in Houston–Lakewood Church. What I truly don’t understand is why they need a larger sanctuary. I attend services there every Sunday and the sanctuary is at best half full. I am often the only person on the pew where I usually sit. Occasionally there might be one couple who sits on the other end of the pew. More often than not, the pew in front of me is empty. The lovely, historical sanctuary they have now seems more than adequate for the current level of attendance, and could easily accommodate more people.
What also distresses me are comments made by Dr. Jeffress on several occasions. He told the congregation during one of the Sunday evening services that one of the conditions of his accepting the pastorate at FBC Dallas two years ago was that they would build a new church campus for him. During one of the “Ask the Pastor” sessions a few months ago, he said that he “felt God had brought him to First Baptist specifically to build a new church”. He was speaking of the building campaign, not building the body of Christ. These comments made me very uneasy.
Some of the buildings in the campus are quite old and can no longer be used. I can understand why those need to be either renovated or replaced altogether. What I cannot understand, what I cannot fathom, is why it has to be such an expensive, extravagant project. They were almost crowing with pleasure when they said that this was the most expensive church building project in modern history. Where is the humility of Christ? Why does it have to be such a landmark project? Why can’t they simply repair or replace the buildings that can no longer be used, but do so in a more modest way? I just truly don’t understand.
I realize this is a rather long and rambling comment. Please forgive me. I have not been able to discuss my dismay with anyone. Every single person I have spoken with at FBC Dallas over the last few months is extremely enthusiastic about this project. No one sees it the way I do, so I have simply kept quiet.
I am deeply saddened to say that after attending Sunday’s service, where they unveiled the building plans, I do not plan to return to FBC Dallas again. I feel quite lost and utterly adrift. Church communion is such an important part of my life. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
One wonders how many hungry people $130 million would feed. One wonders even more whether anyone at the church ever thought about this question.
November 5th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Having been a recovering Baptist for decades now, I’m reasonably confident, Caleb, that your question never crossed the mind of Rev(?) Jeffress. Baptists are not much interested in feeding the hungry–that is essentially irrelevant, on their theology, to getting their reserved seat in HEAVEN, on the right hand side of the throne. Feeding the hungry is purely optional individual private charity stuff–they falsely believe. Jeffress is more likely to have thought of how many Muslims, or other infidels, one could kill with $130 million.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:54 am
That’s a sad commentary on the denomination, the Church, and the pastor, Asinus. Unfortunately, from what I know of these folks, it’s probably true.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Miss Linda, you could not be a member. I am a blessed member at that church and it is crowded! You might want to consider joining a non visionary church because you will be most miserable here.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Hey MSDF, we are not playing games here we are Glorifying the Lord. When you go in the doors of the Cowboy stadium you come out a looser. When you come in our doors you come out transformed. What we spend and what we want to do for the Glory of the Lord isn’t any of your business.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Caleb Powers, why don’t you come learn of how many millions of people we have and will feed?
November 17th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Kim,
Kim, I am dismayed at your lack of graciousness in your comments, especially when making it well known that you are a member of FBC-Dallas(and I would assume) a believer in Christ. Surely, we can disagree with one another without resorting to such unkind comments such as you directed to Linda. I, too, was once a member and now live in a different state. I must agree that I am very concerned about the state of affairs at the church from what I read, witness myself when I visit and hear from family that are still attending. The church, from what I have seen myself and heard from others, is not full but, as Linda indicated, much lower in attendance than even a number of years ago. Irregardless, the more crucial issue is what is the most God-glorfying way that we can use the resources God has given to us to make eternal investments in others. I have to question whether a building project such as this one is truly the best investment that could be made for the Gospel. Where are the mission projects? Where are the church plants? Do we really need to build bigger and fancier churches? Is God truly glorified in this or are we? And, I think the question needs to be asked, in reaching the world for Christ (which I truly believe FBC-Dallas aims to do), are we looking too much like the world that they do not see Christ in us? Let us all be carefull not to become too proud (as some comments have reflected) in what our church has done that we exalt ourselves instead of considering the blessing of His grace in even being a part of the incredible task of sharing Him with others.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
It’s one thing to disagree with the building progam, but some of you are going to far with your criticism. You should be appalled at your comments that a pastor would wonder how many non-christians money could kill. Absolutely uncalled for.
As far as feeding the hungry goes: FBD does feed the hungry. We also give shelter and jobs to homeless. We provide sonograms and prenatal care for uninsured, struggling pregant people. All of these things are done on a weekly basis through various programs and through the time given by members and ministers alike. These things are very important to the church but are not the most crucial. The church exists to glorify God and to expand His kindgom while on we are all on earth. This is why we preach the gospel and ask for people to respond during invitations. So what that we are thinking on an eternal level in addition to our current one?
Linda, I’m not quite sure which service you are going to because as someone who participates in all three services we are quite full. I hope that you find somewhere that you can plug into and find that communion again.
June 14th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Hello all,
As a former member of FBC, Dallas, I found this blog and thought I’d add my thoughts -
I did some more homework that I thought is very interesting.
According the official centennial history of the First Baptist Church of Dallas by historian Leon McBeth, written in 1968 -
The Sanctuary, under George W. Truett, was extensively remodeled and enlarged in 1924. The Dallas architectural firm of R. H. Hunt did the design.
Quoting McBeth (page 167):
“All classrooms were removed from the auditorium, and the walls removed to extend the building northeastward. A second balcony was added. The pews were moved to face St. Paul, and the pulpit was moved to it’s present location. In this way, more than 1,000 seats were added, and the auditorium, except for some later remodeling” (this was done in 1956 when they removed the second balcony and extended the lower one to compensate for the loss of seats – TWW) “reached substantially it’s present dimensions and arrangement, with a seating capacity of about 4,000.”
SO – in 1968, the seating capacity of the revised 1891 Sanctuary was rated at 4,000.
Now, I have some experience in this area, and can tell you from over 30 years of working with churches, their floorplans, etc., that the standards of measurement for seating people has changed.
The defacto standard for decades was 18 inches per person. That said, the 4,000 seating capacity comes out to 72,000″ of seats, if you allow 18″ per person.
Today, however, folks are larger (too much Texas BBQ), and the standard has changed to 24 inches per person. When you divide 72,000″ by 24″, you get 3,000.
Now, let’s say that the members of FBC, Dallas eat a LOT of Texas BBQ, and are bigger than that. Even if we allow 30 inches of space per person, that’s still 2,400 seats, which, up until as recently as 10 years ago, that’s what the quoted seating capacity of the existing Sanctuary was.
But one of the reasons they are giving for needing this new performing arts (er, “worship”) center is that the seating capacity of the existing Sanctuary is too small – they are currently stating that the new facility will “double” the seating capacity, which means they’re rating the old one at only 1,500 seats!
Now, while it IS true that, in recent years, the “stage” (some of us still prefer to call it a platform) has been extended and they’ve lost some seats. However, they didn’t lose NINE HUNDRED of them!
In fact, to arrive at the “magic” 1,500 number that gets doubled when they move into the new building, each member of FBC, Dallas would have to be FOUR FEET WIDE!
This is what I like to call “Creative Counting”, otherwise known as “Decide what you want to do and then make the number fit it because you know that the people won’t check your numbers out.”
With regard to the outdoor fountain/ baptistry, I wonder if they’ve thought about the following:
1. Water is a great purifier. It picks up all kinds of dirt, flith, pollen, etc.
2. Air is a great carrier of dirt, filth, pollen, air pollution, etc.
3. Downtown Dallas has lots of dirt, pollen, air pollution, exhaust gases, etc. in the air – except right after a rain.
4. The fountain, with it’s cascading water, will very effectively collect the dirt, pollen, air pollution, exhaust gases, etc. that passes by and around the water, as carried by the air of downtown Dallas.
5. The open pool could easily be a repository of unsavory items, such as paper cups, newspapers, coins, and the “gifts” of the odd vagrant that wanders by at all hours.
6. The cost to clean – and keep clean – the waters in the fountain will be beyond imagination.
I wonder if they’ve thought of this.
But, even so, I, for one, would NOT want to be immersed (baptized) in the water there!
Besides, they will have a perfectly good baptistry inside the new “worship center” – why build two?
While I’m at it – I think that we baptists are pretty sorry when it comes to preserving history: it seems like most of us are just itching to wipe out anything that reminds us of the past and build our own monuments.
Take what’s going on at FBC, Dallas, as a prime example of this – to hear Jeffress and his spinmeaisters tell it, the whole place was in ruins when he arrived, the facilities they currently own were never useful in carrying on the ministries of the church, and, therefore, the whole thing needs to be torn down (except for the Sanctuary, which is protected by the National Register, or it would go, too!). Makes you wonder how they survived with them all these years…
The real problem most of the modern-day baptists have is that they think that buildings and programs reach people with their message. The real truth is that people reach people, not buildings. When a church reaches the point that it believes that the buildings reach people, they’re in real trouble…
June 29th, 2010 at 1:35 am
Todd White: I’m so glad I happened upon this blog, especially if only to read your research and knowledge of what has been and will be going on at First Baptist Church, Dallas, which the new people delight in calling it “first dallas.” After reading all of the above, it is obvious those people don’t have a clue in what is going on behind the scenes. Kim Pederson has been there only a few years – two, maybe three. Miss Linda was smart to back off. I, among others, believe in preservation and memories to hand down to the next generation, not destroy and build something else just because it is fancy and showy. If you didn’t see the inside of the Criswell Building, then you don’t know that beautiful chapels, offices, Sunday School rooms, bride’s room and reception parlor were all destroyed. The stained glass windows cannot be found in the new building, and the beautiful Slaughter Chapel with piano and organ was replaced by a small meeting room with a piano in an upstairs loft. The gorgeous stone floor was found in an old warehouse on Inustrial Blvd. and purchased for a residence. Eighteen carloads of steel were used to erect the Criswell Building. It was built to stand until the end of time. The cost for repairs would have been put to better use than the $400,000 office remodeling expenses for Mac Brunson and his wife.
Robert Jeffress came in on the coat tails of the Criswells. He showed his appreciation by taking the Criswell Sunday School Class off radio at 9:30 a.m., using Dr. Lamar Cooper as the scapegoat. However, he had already planned to remove the class it from
the radio this year. There are many class members who are now homebound, but were able to still be a part of the class by listening to the teachings of Dr. Cooper each Sunday. Those who were in the hospital or ill at home – even many people from other counties would listen when they were unable to go to their Sunday School classes. The Criswell Class, started by Mrs. W. A. Criswell, is not a young class, but it has a large attendance.
The church has separated itself from Criswell College, Dallas Life Foundation, the Pregnancy Center, and others I am not aware of. This means they no longer have to support them.
Yes, Dr. Criswell had plans to enlarge the sanctuary and children’s school. He would have wanted a larger school for children. I do not think he would want all the glassy, showy part. Maybe it will be called a mega church, but there will be no comparison to Ed Young’s Fellowship Church in Grapevine where people stand in line waiting for all three morning services.
June 30th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
You know what they say about the Baptists: Where two or three are gathered together, they form a building committee!
July 1st, 2010 at 9:35 am
I think most have missed the point: why would a bigger building “glorify” God when his people are starving-most here in america–has anyone ever seen some of the Indian reservations lately?
God owns the whole world-he does not need a bigger building. The money spent on these buildings, serve nothing better than a form of idolatry. Many denominations now will not feed or cloth the needy-except they belong to the church–woe be until these hypocrites.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:13 am
With the renovation/expansion of First Baptist Dallas, has come the closing of the Developmental Learning Center which is a day care center associated with FBC. In their fund raising, FBC neglected to set aside money for space for the children of the DLC, thus they decided to close the DLC with very little notice to the parents and employees of the DLC. First Baptist Dallas claims to be a Christian organization yet they have left a number of families burdened with the need to find a care facility for their children. But that isn’t even the kicker, FBC Dallas has left several people out in the cold to find jobs in a market that isn’t very cooperative. Not only are these people having trouble finding jobs, they are unable to collect any type of unemployment due to the fact that FBC Dallas is a non-profit organization and FBC Dallas has not offered these people any compensation. Some of these people have been at FBC/DLC for years and now they are going to be jobless with no compensation, no health insurance, etc… Truly unethical!!!