Seekers Seeking Churches that Look like Churches: Keeping Holy Ground Holy
The high altar at St. Martini Lutheran Church in Braunschweig, Germany. The altar was installed by Lutherans. Beautiful!
I’ve seen more than my fair share of new church buildings that strike me as looking more like big-box discount stores, than church buildings. It is always a bad sign to me when I have to go looking for Christian symbols in a church’s “sanctuary” and all I can see first is the drum set and sound insulating plastic for the praise band. I was in a church recently where I did notice that they had a baptismal font, shoved as far off into a corner as possible. Well, what do you know? Come to find out that seekers really are not looking for churches to look like their local Starbucks or warehouse department store. Here’s the story. Here’s a quote, and to my fellow Lutherans, do note the comment: “a building should reflect the church’s theology.” Lutheran churches probably would do well not to try to imitate those churches that do not believe in the Real Presence or baptismal regeneration! When their is not a clear and keen understanding of what is actually going on in worship: that God is among us with His good gifts, serving us with forgiveness, life and salvation, through objective means of giving His grace, it is no wonder that the entire of a church will resemble a concert or lecture hall, more than a place where the God of the Universe is working among His people. Note: the photograph in this blog post is a picture of the altar in St. Martini Church, Braunschweig, Germany. It was installed in the church by Lutherans and it beautifully confesses the realities among us during worship. Note the rich symbolism. Click on it to enlarge it.
“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.”
Watch the flash slideshow: http://www.gracesterling.com/
This church used to be an HQ (Home Quarters)(like Home Depot or Lowes). It’s located in a strip mall.
It is nice to see churches designed for Christians. It seems all too common that churches and services are designed to have more appeal to the world, a world to which our message is foolishness and a stumbling block. Visitors are of course welcome and encouraged to attend, but it should not be surprising if they feel out of place if they do not understand the reason for the order of worship and the design of a church.
While I think we Lutherans do tend to fall short of spreading the Gospel as much as we ought, I think designing a church and services to fulfill that responsibility is lazy evangelism and encourages uneducated laity to remain such. When you can just ask someone to come to services instead of telling them yourself about Christ and helping them to understand and show them mercy in your daily life then is it really helping to spread the Word when they come uninformed to a watered down service providing a reduced Gospel and not focusing on Christ crucified?
I have seen non-Lutheran churches whose outreach efforts consisted not in members showing Christ’s mercy to others but focusing on people inviting friends to their fun services and activities. Such a focus developed into a Pentecostal-like hierarchy in which those who brought more people in were viewed as being more spiritual and those who did not, well, their faith was in question.
I think it is important for our laity to be well educated so that not only can their faith be maintained but also be better equipped to share that faith with others in their daily lives. An educated laity also helps pastors to remain faithful when they may be tempted to stray theologically. We should not expect pastors to be perfect and never tempted or in need of help. Hopefully they get such help and guidance from fellow pastors but whether or not such help is available the laity should strive to be educated and able to help if needed. To such an end I hope people will take advantage of the current sale on the Book of Concord. It is a valuable resource as are many of the books at CPH. One other that applies to the topic at hand is Matthew Harrison’s Christ Have Mercy.
Jen,
That website is scary on so many levels!
Alex,
great post!