We must decide whether we are going to put our money into the building, or into the message. For nearly 1,900 years now, the Church has been putting its money into the building; and, instead of getting out the message, we have been erecting magnificent and luxurious auditoriums in which to worship God.
Some false cults have been much wiser. They put their money into their erroneous message. They know that the message is more important than the building. Yet all over the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada we are still investing in bricks and mortar, whereas God wants us to invest in the message.
Not until the Church realizes that the message is more important than the building will we be able to evangelize the world. If for every 14 cents invested in the "printed page" we can win a soul for Christ, then by all means we should put our money into the message.
God did not tell us to build luxurious churches and invite the people to come in. He told us to go out with the message and preach the Gospel to the entire world. Let us put our money not into the Building, but into the Message.
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Oswald J. Smith (1889 - 1986)
Was a Canadian pastor, author, and missions advocate. He founded The People's Church in Toronto in 1928. Over the course of eighty years he preached more than 12,000 sermons in 80 countries, wrote thirty-five books (with translations into 128 languages), as well as 1,200 poems, of which 100 have been set to music, including "Deeper and Deeper" (first line "Into the heart of Jesus").The great burden of Oswald J. Smith's Christian life was to see the lost come to the Lord. He was well known for the motto: "We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first." and "No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once."
Although he was the long-time pastor of the large and influential Peoples Church in Toronto, Ontario, the name of Oswald J. Smith is most often associated with missions. Born in 1889 in Ontario, at the age of sixteen he attended an evangelistic crusade held by R. A. Torrey and Charles Alexander, where he was saved. Two years later he began Bible College, eventually graduating from both college and seminary. His burden for missions showed up early in life. He applied with a foreign missions board, but they turned him down because of concerns about poor health he had suffered throughout his childhood (a problem which he apparently overcame, since he later worked both in the backwoods of Canada and the mountains of Kentucky, then lived into his late nineties).
If he couldn't go as a missionary, he determined to start a church that would send out missionaries. In 1928 Smith started the Peoples Church, originally called the Cosmopolitan Tabernacle. As a young man he had asked God to enable him to give more than he would ordinarily be able to give, and the blessings he experienced helped him institute faith promise missions giving. With this plan, churches have given multiplied millions to send the Gospel throughout the world. He also established mission works to reach the northern parts of Canada, to reach Jews and to distribute tracts. In addition to his pastoral and missions works, he wrote 1200 poems and hymn lyrics, over 200 of which were set to music. His earthly work ended at his homegoing in 1986.