Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 4
The speaker insists God ultimately didn’t “need a house to live in” but wanted “people to live among,” and he corrects the childhood assumption that “building the temple” might mean fixing the church building; what practices or spending priorities in your church culture subtly reveal you still think in “building/maintenance” categories rather than “God living among a people” categories?
Another way to ask: What does your church spend time and money on that shows you still think mostly about buildings and upkeep? What would it look like to act more like God wants to live among a people, not just in a place?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the speaker’s correction, “building the temple” is not mainly funding or fixing a church facility but shaping a people whose shared life makes God visible. Church habits that focus energy on the physical “church house” more than on becoming truthful, reconciled, and edifying toward one another may reveal a maintenance mindset.
- He recalls assuming as a child that “building the temple…was kind of like building the church house…fix the roof.”
- He clarifies: God said, “I didn’t really need a house to live in. What I wanted was people to live among.”
- Therefore, “we’re not talking about building a building like Solomon’s temple.”
- The “temple that God wants…He wants people that he can live in and through,” so “people can see God.”
- He defines “practical” as “something you can practice,” pointing to behaviors like truth-telling, forgiveness, and edifying speech as the real construction work.