I agree with the theology, but am not comfortable imposing it on churches who have a different theology.

julie, I agree that many of us have taken the side of the races/runners. I know I could certainly have better presented both sides of the issue, or at least cited the time that a huge downtown DC race coincided with Palm Sunday. Not cool. At the same time, I was equally surprised to see you making a rights-based argument on behalf of the churches. Appeals to 'rights' seem difficult and distasteful, especially for groups (like churches) that are supposed to be about service and powerlessness. But–to your point– even museums have a right and a responsibility to exist. Fair enough.

jhimm, great point about tithing. There are plenty of churches that never take an offering, and that take weeks and even months off from regular meetings. Direct deposit, PayPal, and the plain old Postal Service work fine for contributions. Or just contributing extra next week.

Guido, right! Running– and especially marathoning– is an undeniably religious activity. Sounds like R's church gets that, which is great to hear.

But…

I belong to one of those mainline churches in downtown Austin that went to that meeting on the races. I could be mistaken (because I was not there), but I believe that what the churches are asking for is just for there to be two consistent routes in and out of downtown on race days, NOT for the races to be discontinued. The problem is that each race is sponsored by a different group or cause and chooses a different course. When there are 20 races a year (easily) that means 20 different routes. If we could know that (for example) 5th St. and MLK were always going to be open as east/west routes and Red River would always be open for north/south then parishioners could get used to how to get to church on "race days". As it is, no one ever knows because each course is different.

Our church is very, very supportive of races. Our priests even go to bless the courses and hold services for runners the Saturday nights before marathons. We are not asking for the races to stop or even for there to be fewer of them. I think we (and I am not personally involved in this issue so I hope I am not making a big mistake here) are just asking for there to always be the same east/west and north/south roads available for people to get to the churches.

I have a limited understanding of our budget, but I believe (in our defense) that 95% comes from pledges, not Sunday giving. so, money is not the issue here – worship is.

That said, we are way, way, way, way too attached to our buildings. Way too attached. I agree with that. But, the same could be said for mega-churches and most any church that is not a house church, right? As soon as you set up shop, you have something to maintain and that becomes (even if you don't want it to be) goal number one. That is why Jesus professed a way, not a religion, I guess.

Some other thoughts I had:

meet on Saturdays on those weekends – there could be plenty of notice given out about the dates the church would meet on Saturdays instead of Sundays as the race dates are surely planned way in advance

and then there is the thought that maybe church groups shouldn't be located in buildings and should consist of smaller groups that meet in homes, coffee shops or other gathering places with larger gatherings occuring only a few times a year – I have been so discouraged during the last 20 years because every church I know of seems to always be needing more space and more money to build or support more space – i feel there is too much emphasis on the whole group being together every week and everyone hearing the same lesson/sermon and having all the paid staff and programs and on and on and on. I hesitate to say this because my heart does go out to those who are in full time ministry and earning their living. I don't think those people are bad or entered into the system with anything but good motives (I am sure there are some who did but I don't know of them) – but the truth is I feel the system is broken and unsustainable and needs to be changed. It seems we always have excuses not to change it – from needing a good children's program to the building we meet in is historic (I admit I am guilty of using these and many more excuses myself) – but I really beieve we are messing up by continuing to have church more associated with buildings, programs and staff than with a group of people that we know intimately and are "really" doing life (physically and spiritually) with. So – I waver back and forth – having compassion for those who are in these churches and don't want to offend and are trying to reach "compromises" and trying to be gentle, to being totally frustrated and pretty aggravated that they are dealing with this type of issue at all because I think they are "doing church" wrong in the first place.

That's really never what Jesus talked about. He talked about people. When we can get past the building and the need to go there at a specific time on a specific day, some of these issues will be resolved. Not all of them, but some of them.

The other problem seems to be viewing the marathon and the church as oppositional entities. I'm not certain they need to be (and I think Julie's attempted to say that), despite the title of the post .

On one hand, Julie's right … we'd never tell a business or a hospital who's right of way had been impeded to "just get over it." On the other hand, it is the church. There's a part of me that rejects that sub-conscious knee-jerk Constantinian thinking that we get to have the right of way on Sundays. Like Sunday is the Christian's day, somehow. That's kind of what people hear when churches complain about an issue, even politely and graciously.

So, to me as I think about this conundrum, the real question becomes, how can the church(es) serve their people subversively in the midst of the marathons AND how can they serve the marathons as well? It becomes a both/and rather than an either/or.

that's a purely internal issue these churches need to address which is being exposed by circumstances, but the solution isn't to change the circumstances.