Barnabas File

Church architecture has always fascinated me.     The spaces we create for worship and their theological implications challenge my thinking about how we try to express the spiritual through the physical.    One of the most interesting and challenging papers I wrote in seminary was on the subject “The Church and Architecture” for Dr. John Newport’s Philosophy of Religion class. In recent years, I have come to realize how easy it is to confuse sacred space with sacred presence. Sacred space--whether constructed or naturally occurring--provides an environment where we can prepare to encounter God.  Sacred presence occurs whenever we perceive God in a meaningful way.   There can be a beautifully designed sacred space, but we do not necessarily find God there unless our hearts and minds are prepared to do so.  We have all visited beautiful spaces that were created for the worship of God, but meaningful worship no longer takes ...

“ Be still , and know that I am God.—Psalm 46:10a In seminary, I became very interested in church architecture.   In a Philosophy of Religion class with John Newport, I wrote a paper on the theological implications of worship space.   Dr. Newport liked it and encouraged me to delve in the topic further.   One of the things I enjoy is experiencing worship spaces and documenting them with photographs but I don’t build worship centers. While visiting with a friend recently, I learned that her early ambition was to become an architect and design church buildings.   Instead, she found herself in divinity school and the wife of a minister! As we talked together, we realized that even though we early on were attracted to the design and use of worship space and we are not involved in building or designing physical spaces, we have found a way to create sacred space without bricks and mortar. My friend does it by planning and creating retreat settings...