Church Buildings: Shapes of Worship

The design and shape of space in some measure determines and interprets the activity that takes place there.

Winston churchill once said, “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”

Consider that statement in the context of your home. If someone walked into it and declared, “This is exactly the kind of house I pictured you living in!” how would you respond? Is your personal space sometimes a prison because it improperly serves your interests and needs, or is it a haven with room for your growth, development, and comfort?

If someone offered to build you a house that would reflect as clearly as possible the essence of who you are, what would you specify? Would it be closed in with small rooms and few windows, suggesting a withdrawn person? Or would it be open and spacious with many windows, high ceilings, and lots of color reflecting a gregarious personality? Would it be simple, plain, neat, and pragmatic, expressing commitment to a simple lifestyle?

Churchill made an important point. There is a definite correlation between a given space and what happens within that space. And within the Christian framework, the outward shape of a structure ought to be (in fact, is, for good or ill) determined by the inward spirit at work in it.

To apply this thinking to church architecture, one foundational question must precede all discussion of particulars: What is worship? Only when the purpose, nature, and action of worship are grasped can the next question be entertained: How can the interior use of space reflect and enhance what we do within our church buildings?”

The Purpose Of Worship

The purpose of worship is to glorify God for who he is and what he has done. The Gloria in Excelsis Deo proclaims him “God in the highest … heavenly King … almighty God … alone the Holy One, the Lord, the Most High.” We thus proclaim his transcendence, his ineffable mystery, the mysterium tremendum before which the whole of creation bows in adoration.

But we also worship God for what he has done: for creation, for our redemption, and for the church, his covenant community. For these reasons the apostle John in his vision on Patmos declares God worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because he created all things (Rev. 4:11), and because he was slain and by his blood ransomed men for God and made them a kingdom and priests to God (Rev. 5:9–10).

Indeed, the church is to be a worshiping community par excellence, calld to join the heavenly throng. In worship, the earthly church is lifted into the heavens and joins the eternal chorus in praise of God’s character and loving action toward his creatures.

To reflect property this spiritual reality, it is important first to ask whether our church building is conducive to God-oriented worship. Does the architecture say what we are there to do? Is it consonant with the use it is to receive? We come together to this place to offer God our worship—to hymn and glorify him. Is not the sanctuary in which that worship is offered itself an offering of our perception of what the church as a worshiping community is all about?

Certainly we can worship without a building. If necessary, we can worship in a field, a barn, a house, a storefront, or a garage. But that is no excuse for indifference to space when a congregation is called to build a place in which to gather for worship. What is involved is a recognition of the sanctification of space: the physical context of our corporate worship has everything to do with our witness to who God is and what he is doing in our midst (see, for example, the Israelites’ ecclesiastical trappings in the Old Testament).

Church architecture throughout the ages has been a sign and a symbol of the presence of God in the world, reflecting in its diversity the various aspects of human interpretation of that presence. The great upward sweep of the Gothic arch as well as Byzantine icons of Jesus, Mary, the disciples, the prophets, and the saints both shadow and illuminate the heavenly realities that give meaning and purpose to our life. This suggests a profound truth: the use of space ought to be harmonized with our pattern of God-oriented worship and become its servant.

Because of such considerations, a congregation must face the implications of its choices. Many questions will surface. How, for example, does a building capture the tension between the awe and mystery of the transcendent God as well as express the warmth of an intimate and personal incarnation? Is transcendence only demonstrated in high ceilings, stained glass, and stark, wooden pews? Can lighting, the use of color, cushions, and carpeting be thoughtfully brought together to express the relationship between awe and intimacy?

In other words, the goal of church architecture is to incarnate the meaning of worship in space, and to demonstrate through space the ultimate transformation of creation. In this way, space proclaims the redemption and ultimate transfiguration of creation.

The Method Of Worship

There is a second clue to the relationship of worship to architecture in the method of worship. Here we act out what God has done for us, and present this dramatization of God for us to him as a reenactment of praise and thanksgiving. Our active participation in the worship experience not only glorifies God but revives within us the spirit of God in response to our efforts. We accomplish this in worship through recitation and drama.

The Pulpit—Ark Of The Word

The focal point of recitation is the Word—read, preached, responded to. The custom in both synagogue and church to recite the great deeds of God through Scripture readings makes the worshiping community contemporaneous with God’s actions in history. Reading, done in the power of the Holy Spirit, actualizes God’s Word and paints a vivid picture of a portion of history, making it live with fresh and renewing power. In preaching, God speaks to his people through the preacher, communicating his will to and for them.

Thought must be given to the location of the pulpit. Should it be in front, to the side, on the same level, above? Each location symbolizes a relationship between Word and people. The pulpit is the symbol of God speaking, and should be where it can be seen, where the reader or preacher can be heard. Some churches have two lecterns, one on each side of the sanctuary—an epistle and a gospel side—with the gospel side emphasized as the place of preaching.

Other churches have ceremonial customs around the reading of the gospel, processing into the congregation to illustrate the truth that God became one of us in the Incarnation. Whatever the church custom, care must be taken to locate the pulpit at a place and in a way that provides ample room for the aspect of worship it represents.

The Lord’S Supper-Food For The Body

The church also acts out the gospel through drama, with the most important dramatic event the reenactment of the Lord’s Supper. In it the sign of his death is the focus of communication between God and the congregation. As the Jews have acted out the Passover, so Christians have enacted the new pass-over of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. From the beginning of Christian worship, the table has been the place where bread and wine, the symbols of Christ’s death and our communion with him, have been placed. In recent years, increased attention has been paid to Communion as a vital, if not necessary, part of worship, and many congregations are celebrating it more often.

The Communion table’s significance calls for consideration of its placement and of the space around it. Obviously it should be located where it may be easily observed so as to facilitate worship by sight. Many Protestant churches have abandoned the practice of placing a small, inconspicuous table below the pulpit on the same level as the people. Instead, more artistic, even modern, table designs are being placed on the raised chancel along with the pulpit or pulpits. In some churches the table is placed in the center, with the pulpit to the side; others place both table and pulpit off-center to suggest equal importance of Word and sacrament.

Wherever the table is placed, thought must be given to its use in the drama of enacting Christ’s death, and of the congregation’s communion with him and with each other. The space around it must be designed to allow for clergy and others who minister to perform their functions freely.

The manner in which Communion is served is likewise important. If the congregation walks forward to receive the elements, enough space must be allowed for their movement toward the table and return to their seats without chaos. It is another matter when the elders or the deacons serve Communion.

The Baptismal Font-Waters Of Life

A third essential and dramatic element of worship is the baptismal font or pool, for baptism represents the entrance rite into the church, the body of Christ. It is the drama of dying, being buried, and rising again to new life in Jesus Christ. Its location is also significant.

Some churches place the baptismal font at the church entrance as a symbolic reminder that the people have come into the body of Christ through baptism (accompanied by faith). Others place the font or pool toward the front of the sanctuary, enabling the worshiping congregation to see together the major symbols of worship—font, pulpit, and table.

In fact, if these symbols, these facilitators of our experience of God, were not of central importance we could deliberate about bricks and mortar in strictly economic terms and in almost capricious notions of taste. (In churches where these central avenues to God are ignored, the architecture reflects the fact.) However, church architecture from the beginning has established the centrality of these various modes of communion with God. God himself, in the Old Testament, gave detailed instructions about what went where in his tabernacle. He is concerned that our worship extend incarnationally into our places of worship.

The Action Of Worship

Worship is something we do, not something we watch. Public worship is congregational, something to be engaged in by all, and not merely a function of clergy and choir. There have been times in history when worship was something accomplished by the minister and choir while the people passively viewed the proceedings.

In the Medieval period, worship was regarded as an “epiphany,” a great show to be observed. A similar deficiency in understanding has developed again among some Protestants. In an increasing number of instances, worship is not even an epiphany of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. It is no more than a religious talent show.

This modern perversion debases worship at its very center. The only remedy is to recover worship as an action in which all God’s people are equally engaged; a corporate drama in which each must play his or her part. The recovery of worship as a recitation and dramatization of the Christ event is central to congregational worship.

It is important, therefore, to work through the arrangement of the congregation and ministers to facilitate congregational action. For example, an elongated building with a raised platform at one end and rows of pews in a straight line, separated from the platform by height and space, gives the illusion that it is only what takes place on the platform that is important. It results in a “them” and “us” sense: we are the audience and they are the actors or players.

If worship is to be truly congregational, no such false dichotomy should be built into the church structure. A building in the round (or three-quarter round) is significantly more conducive to congregational worship. Here all the people, the members of the body, can see and sense each other’s presence. The worship leaders and the worship symbols are closer to the congregation, giving a sense of congregational action and participation.

Space must also be allocated for special worship events—Christmas, Palm Sunday, Easter, Pentecost, and other significant days—in the life of God’s people. Adequate space must be allowed for processions, creative dance, plays, and activities that call for the active movement of the congregation or other members of the worshiping community.

Planning For Building

I have attempted to describe how the use of space must be determined by the activity that takes place within that space. It is thus essential for a congregation to come to grips with the purpose, method, and action of worship.

While this article could not address the economics of the issue, it is obvious that in this day of environmental concern and sensitivity to the poor, any building plan undertaken should be born out of a responsible perspective on simplicity, flexibility, and stewardship of money.

Not everyone has the opportunity to start from scratch to accomplish a church building that reflects the current congregation’s understanding of worship. Edward A. Sovik, in Architecture for Worship (Augsburg, 1973), demonstrates how these matters, along with the theology of worship, can be taken into consideration not only in building a new building, but also in refurbishing an existing sanctuary. In brief, his suggestion involves the development of an all-purpose sanctuary with movable chairs, tables, pulpit, and font, which would allow the same space to be used for multiple purposes and to be arranged in a variety of ways to accommodate the space required by a particular worship event, the season of the year, or to provide variety as needed to encourage congregational participation.

Just as you would design your home to best serve your needs and style of life, so should the house of God be constructed in a way most conducive to his worship. Dealing with the issues of style of worship as well as stewardship is necessary whether you build from the ground up or merely adjust to a preexisting situation. And the endeavor contributes greatly to the spiritual health and vitality of the congregation. Selecting an architect with a grasp of the meaning of Christian worship will greatly enhance the prospects of a satisfactory outcome. Whatever the outcome in each individual congregation, the process of sanctifying space for the corporate worship of God can itself be a profound worship experience.

“Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.” (Ps. 127:1).

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