Does it seem that no church is respectable without a mortgage, as the good-natured priest in a popular movie once quipped?
Cavernous churches and burdensome mortgages seem to be turning many Christians to less formal places for spiritual refreshment, such as prayer groups and Bible study groups. These often meet in private homes. Is the overspent generation yearning for the grassroots simplicity of Jesus' essential teachings? Are church members tiring of preoccupation with meeting bank obligations?
According to the biblical accounts of Jesus' transfiguration and his conversation with Moses and Elias, Peter's first impulse was to set up three tabernacles. Then "a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." Matt. 17:5
