The last church I was at decided it was going to build a community centre.

The idea was that rather than build a bigger church building to get used one day a week for services, we would build a community facility that could be used as much as possible by community groups with church just meeting there on Sunday. It was deemed a ‘mission project’.

All well and good, and a pretty common idea for churches in the 90’s…

Where it got interesting though was when we began to discuss the question of who could meet there. Who would we allow to use our facility?

And here’s where the theo-logic began to get fuzzy…

Would we allow:

The local rotary club – yes of course!

The P & C – yes…

The book club – uh huh…

The philosophy club – yep…

The yoga group – hmmm… maybe… yoga does involve a spiritual aspect… not so sure, but we think so…

The Mormon choir – hmmm…. again a tricky one… they are cult after all and what if they use our building? what would that say?…

The Freemasons – too hard basket…

The Reiki group – oh I don’t think so… reiki is a new age practice and not compatible with our beliefs. They also do things that involve spiritual power.

A tarot reader – nope – definitely not.

The witches coven – absolutely not! They are against everything we are for. It would not be appropriate.

So, does it matter who meets there?

Does a tarot reader make it somehow corrupt? Or even a witches coven for that matter?

If witches pollute things then should we go to the shops, because after all witches have been known to go to shops?…

And what if the book club were to read a book like the Exorcist? Would we still allow them in?

If its a mission project are there certain kinds of people we want to outreach to and some we would prefer to avoid?

Ok, so my point of view is showing in my cynicism!

What do you think though?

Should there be any boundaries on which groups can use a community facility?