Why close churches?

I was walking along the street today and passed a church building. It was locked up tighter than a bank after hours, with nothing inside but an empty room. How hollow, I thought. How useless. Why pay for a building and use it only twice a week? Many churches follow this same principle. They claim that they are "open" for everybody that needs them... but neglect to add that it is only during the hours of their convenience. Some churches go the "extra mile" (refering to a teaching of Jesus in the gospels) and place a contact phone number on the door should people need them. Now I don't know about you, but unless it was my only choice between life and death, I would prefer to find an alternative source of help than call some unknown person on a phone number at what almost always turns out to be an inconvenient time. So what is the solution here? What could happen instead? For one, the church could be open at the very least, during business hours. That would make it no different than the rest of the world, but in many cases it would make it better than it is today. Or better, it could be open 24hrs a day - a drop-in centre for people that need it at the time. What a wonderful, and novel idea. Unfortunately, looking through those closed doors into the barren room of the church, I don't think I would want to volunteer to staff the place for very long. And I don't expect anyone else would want to staff the place for very long either. Which is probably why the church remains closed up all week. I have recently read about a new movement, the 24-7 prayer movement. It is making some amazing in-roads towards doing this very thing, of having churches open 24hrs a day as a drop-in centre. Maybe this is part of the solution? Right now, I am no different to the rest. I want change. I long for change. But I just don't know how to bring it about. Not yet anyway.