Thursday, January 04, 2007

Church Architecture


The other day, I was listening to a sermon by William Willimon, former Dean of chapel at Duke. The sermon was delivered on the anniversary of the completion of the Duke chapel. The sermon got me thinking about church architecture and the message it sends to our people and the community. First of all, does it convey a message? If not, this is a moot point. But, I think in most cases the answer is yes, our architecture does convey a message or messages. Willimon makes the argument that the church stands up and out against the surrounding culture, and therefore our architecture should do so as well. Going beyond this thought, what does our architecture indicate about our theology of God? Who is the God we worship and what is he like? It is certainly in error to say that we can come to him in any manner we please (our church had a good discussion about this during our Sunday night study of Leviticus), but this is digressing. I think our architecture says quite a bit about our theology and how we view God. Is God, as Joan Osborne puts it, "one of us?" or is he other? Furthermore, what does our architecture say about how we worship God? Unfortunately, I think we pass over many of these issues without ever thinking about them. Of course, then again, maybe I have too much time on my hands... Any thoughts?

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