Sacred Spaces or Meeting Places?

I n 1966, St. Louis unveiled a new stadium. Following the advice of experts that stadiums for a particular sport are unnecessary, Busch Stadium was generic, designed for both the baseball and football Cardinals. Backers boasted it would become the pride of St. Louis. It didn’t. By 2005, sports fans watched as wrecking balls knocked it down.What went wrong? Someone forgot to tell the experts that a stadium built for both baseball and football doesn’t work for either sport.

Across the state, Kansas City took a different approach. In 1972, they bucked the trend and built two new stadiums side by side.Thirty-five years later, both these stadiums are going strong and have become beloved by players and fans alike.

About the same time Busch Stadium was built, the experts in church architecture took the same approach. In Ugly as Sin: Why They Changed Our Churches from Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces and How We Can Change Them Back Again 1, Michael S. Rose recounts how, throwing out nearly two thousand years of architectural history, it was decreed that churches should be generic all-purpose buildings. Suburban America is littered with the unfortunate results.

In his book, Rose proposes three fundamental laws of good church architecture, based on historic examples.The properly designed church should reflect the principles of verticality, permanence, and iconography. Verticality means the architecture pulls the eyes heavenward. Permanence means the structure is of durable materials with an enduring design. Iconography means the building and its decoration reflects its distinct purpose as a Christian house of worship.

The principle of verticality echoes Psalm 121:1: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help,” and Colossians 3:1-2: “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” This principle is seen in the towers, spires, and soaring ceilings of classic church design.

Architects classify buildings by their expected lifespan. The principle of permanence was once common for churches and other public buildings, such as courthouses and office buildings that were built to last a century or more. Today, it is considered more cost effective to build a fifty, thirty, or twenty-five year building, and plan in advance to tear it down and replace it. Many of the offices, schools, stores, and restaurants we frequent now will all be gone in a few decades. Sadly, this also applies to many churches where we worship. Many modern churches are downright disposable. This may make sense in some circumstances or be all a congregation can afford. However, it may also reflect the faddish, fleeting nature of these congregations and their theology.

The principle of permanence symbolizes the words of Psalm 79:13: “From generation to generation we will recount Your praise,” and our Lord’s promises in Matthew 16:18: “On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” and Matthew 28:20: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” A church building built to last reflects that the Lord and His promises don’t change.

What’s most striking about many new sanctuaries compared to classic churches is the iconography. Jesus says even “the stones will cry out” His praises (Luke 19:40), and a properly designed church uses iconography to tell the story of salvation.

By Rev. Kevin Vogts

However, the trend is to erect bare structures, devoid of symbolism, color, and decor. As one architect told our congregation’s building committee, “Most pastors of successful churches don’t want stained glass or any kind of decoration in their churches. They think it just distracts people from worship.”

On the one hand, Jesus promises, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am among them” (Matthew 18:20). So, our Lord’s presence and blessing and true Christian worship does not depend on either the elaborateness or plainness of the building or, for that matter, any building at all.

But to some extent, the trend toward bland churches reflects a different attitude about what is happening in the church’s services. Where worship focuses on practical life issues rather than salvation and eternal life, it makes sense that their buildings are often more like lecture halls or theaters. Here’s how one Midwest mega-church describes their new sanctuary: “You’ll find nearly eight hundred comfortable seats with cup holders to bring your beverage with you to services. There isn’t a bad seat in the house!”

In contrast to such a pragmatic view, traditional Christian preaching and worship is about the Gospel, the primary topics in Scripture of sin and salvation, and the hope of eternal life. There is a place for topics related to our lives in this world, but the pragmatic must not overshadow or replace the kerygmatic. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” Jesus puts the priority of the kerygmatic over the pragmatic in a piercing question: “What will it profit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

Many modern churches omit or downplay traditional sanctuary furnishings, altar, pulpit, lectern, and baptismal font. Pulpits are made of Plexiglas, designed to fade inconspicuously into the background.This deemphasis on the furnishings related to the Word and Sacraments often reflects a de-emphasis on the Word and Sacraments themselves. In contrast, the prominence and permanence of traditional sanctuary furnishings symbolizes the central role and unchanging nature of the Word and Sacraments in the life of the Church. As Rose documents in Ugly as Sin, for forty years the dominant school in church architecture has been the goal of having the church look not like a church but a generic public building such as an office, store, theater, or recreation center. This was based on the notion that people would be more comfortable in a nonreligious setting.This misguided notion missed the point that people are specifically looking for the comfort of religion in a church, and they expect the church’s architecture to reflect that.

Architecture can have a powerful influence on how we act and even what we believe, says Rose. It’s probably no coincidence that when church buildings became no longer special places, people began to feel more and more that they had nothing special to offer; that when churches began to look like offices, stores, theaters and recreation centers, people began to feel they could find the same fulfillment in such places as they could in the Church.

The new Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis is definitely built for baseball—and the fans and players love it. Like Camden Yards in Baltimore and Miller Park in Milwaukee, it gets its inspiration from classic stadiums in the early days of baseball.These new, old-style stadiums, which are springing up around the country, have been called “temples to baseball.” If the world now understands the advantages of building stadiums specifically designed as “temples to baseball,” maybe the Church should go back to building sanctuaries specifically designed as “temples to Christ”!

Rev. Kevin Vogts is pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Dakota Dunes, South Dakota. He was formerly Director of Communications at Concordia University Wisconsin, and serves on the LCMS Board for Communications Services. His e-mail address is pastorvogts@longlines.com.

1 Manchester: Sophia Institute Press, 2001.

Photos courtesy of Dale Lightfoot • www.lightfootphotography.com ©2007