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Jaeger says Gothic buildings have a built-in capacity to evoke the sacred. "The shelters that churches have made for themselves have accumulated so much significance and have been cherished for so long," he says, "that they have beauty, symbolism, and power."

Jaeger's work with Partners for Sacred Places aims to get neighborhoods, not just congregations, to recognize the value of historic church buildings.

Churches "are de facto community centers," Jaeger says. "Neighbors instinctively love an older church building's place on the streetscape. It stands out and says, 'In the midst of all the change, this is a place of continuity and stability.'"

This ties into a larger architectural trend, says Eric Jacobsen, author of Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith. "Traditional church buildings may be more attractive to the unchurched because they want to see something that is different from other aspects of their lives," which are often shaped by narrow demographic branding strategies.

But in an industrial park in Voorhees, Pennsylvania, Pastor Jeff Bills says his church, Hope United Methodist, wanted to make only modest hints at traditional design.

"We wanted the building to feel familiar to unchurched folks, and we designed it with that in mind," Bills says. "The worship space is visible from the road, because we want to be transparent, and part of that is seeing into the worship space."

With few traditional Christian symbols, except for a wooden cross on the roof, Hope's building, sheathed in steel beams and broad panes of glass, still evokes sacredness.

"When people walk in the front doors, they are in a vaulted lobby area with a high arch," Bills says. "You look up and it lifts your spirits. People stop and take a moment to take it in."

Mark Torgerson, author of An Architecture of Immanence: Architecture for Worship and Ministry Today, says that in an era in which new buildings are designed to look retro, symbols are especially potent.

"Most people in our culture are symbol savvy," says Torgerson. "The Christian church has adopted powerful symbolism throughout its history, and this has served it well in developing a public presence and nonverbal testimony. … It's [important] to use such a primary avenue for communication."

Jacobsen says a building should reflect the church's theology. "If we claim that God is a God of beauty and that humans are the crown of his creation," he says, "and then build buildings that make humans feel like cogs in a machine, people will wonder if we mean what we say."

One detail at Hope United Methodist Church expresses a different theological claim: the church as an unfinished work.

 "We left an exposed steel beam across the front of the sanctuary," says Bills. "The idea was we could actually knock out that front wall and expand someday if we wanted to. But even if we never do, it reminds us that the church is always a work in progress."

Nathan Bierma is communications and research coordinator for the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and author of Bringing Heaven Down to Earth: Connecting This Life to the Next (P&R, 2005).

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

This article was published today with "Theology in Wood and Concrete."

Our sister publication Your Church offers several articles on architecture, including:

The Master's Plan | Laying the groundwork for God's vision of your ministry space. (May/June 2008)

iChurch | What if Steve Jobs designed your next ministry space? (May/June 2008)

Your Building Code | Currently accepted ideas about design and construction are not always best for growing churches. (March/April 2007)

Our sister blog BuildingforMinistry.com offers more posts on architecture.

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May 2009, Vol. 53, No. 5, Page 36