Reflections and Meditation on Beauty in Church Buildings

             Church beauty is hotly contested in the USA.  Evangelicals, megachurches, and home church folk argue that the Word, movement of the Spirit, sermons, and Holy Scripture is all you need.  Perhaps a modern band and a bongo drum.  With that, the location and the holiness or beauty is less relevant.  For anyone who has been to these types of churches, especially in a warehouse, strip mall, or theatre knows this is a fair representation.  It also matches their nervousness of anything too old or formal.

             On the other end we have various traditional catholics and mainliners, who focus much more on Holiness, sanctity, sacraments, and tradition.  Chapels, Cathedrals, and sanctuaries should uplift the spirit, help one be in the mood to worship, and aid in approach of holiness.  Music should be reverent, and traditional. Some chant, some have an organs, and others an orchestra, with the goal of respectfully honoring God.  They counter that sanctified spaces matter and that where we worship, and the presentation of it matters.  It is also rooted in the community of the past, where churches were locally funded, and improved over hundreds of years. Responsibility was taken buy the laity for the state of the parish church.

             Beauty matters.  All natural goods have their origin in God, and beauty is one of these things. God is beauty and it is a way for people to approach the throne of Grace.  The appeal to pure reason, or pure emotion are not the only ways to approach (or the best ways). A church or denomination that can appeal to multiple paths is doing it right.  The church is the body and needs to all parts in service of God.

             There are practical considerations as well.  The most oft encounter argument against the church beautification is some variant that “this could be better spent on mission or growth.”  Church beauty is itself a type of mission.  It aids in congregants getting in a place to worship that in the stones helps them be in the presence of God.  It can also serve as a draw to outsiders who can first encounter God in the beauty and the ways we address Him.  This beauty should start in architecture, design, statues, iconography, and decor.  It should also expand to music and liturgy.  The way the Lord is praised matters. Is it casual or serious? If God is God and above all gods, seriousness is he order of the day.

How can one argue we shouldn’t respect the Lord in his holiness? Glorify God with edification.

Future iteration: Beauty in Worship and Liturgy, with a break on “Why beauty is not subjective if we are Christian.”