Church: A Place Where Mystery Happens - #3

One of my professors used to say: "If you don't shape your buildings, they will shape you." The buildings we enter and exit daily are quite different in function and meaning. First, there are the convenience buildings. These are practical and functional. Gyms, supermarkets, car washes, fire-, police-, and gas-stations are not concerned with aesthetics. Parking, traffic flow and accessibility count. Beauty does not. Second, there are commercial buildings. A few are mom-and-pop operations, quaint and attractive. In small town America these buildings demonstrate local color and character. Stores with big muscle and local franchises of national chains have replaced older buildings with one-size-fits-all neon structure. Pizza places, dry cleaners, Nails Forever, Mc-take-outs, mega-and mini-malls dot the neighborhoods of our cities, suburbs, and rural towns. Third, there are community buildings that serve the public. City Hall, the courthouse, the public elementary and high schools, hospitals and clinics make some attempt to reflect a town or regional loveliness. But our buildings are often a curious blend of nostalgia for an irretrievable past and a pragmatic present

Quite a paradox! We cherish beautiful buildings and preserve historic landmarks. We slap up ugly buildings and kitschy eyesores. We become so busy that we are unable to attend to the places we enter and exit daily. The question is simple. Is this place beautiful and attractive or is it ugly and offensive?

Some beautiful and attractive places ought to disturb us. They are testimonies to power, privilege, and injustice. While externally beautiful, they represent an opulence that was acquired at the expense of working people. They laud a world that is alien to gospel values. But other beautiful and attractive places ought to delight us. They reflect a commitment to creating the commons and public square. They are accessible to all. They invite people to courtesy, kindness, and partnership with each other and the land. They permit us to slow down so that we can attend to the beauty that surrounds us.

Our church buildings call forth beauty and practicality. They should attract us to a common life in Christ. They should be practical in their arrangements and materials. They should be flexible enough to facilitate the ritual prayer of disabled, physically challenged, and presently able-bodied people. All these people desire to participate actively and fully in the liturgies of the water bath, the hearing of the Word, and the table sharing, and in the other devotions and events that Christians do. When we shape our buildings well, they shape us well, they reflect what we are and are becoming as church. This kind of attention is fitting because what goes in our churches matters. Church buildings are built to serve God's people, just as we are called to serve God's world.

Christians are not wed to buildings. Our ancestors met in secular buildings - at first in houses, then in basilicas. No one architectural plan is normative for all generations and times. Churches of a particular period and culture may be noble, magnificent, and majestic. But they are not monuments or museums. Churches are dwelling places where the Christian assembly dwells and does humanly wonderful and holy deeds.