by Calvin Jen

If God is truly sovereign over all spheres of our lives, and if our chief end is to glorify God and to bring as many people into a personal relationship with God as possible, then certainly as Christians we should want to seek God’s will for our homes as much as any other aspect of our lives.

After 25 years of architectural practice, attempting in a small way to discover what it means to integrate faith and architecture, I believe that our homes are an expression of our hopes and dreams, core values, and priorities—whether or not we have made a conscious effort to indicate these things.

If we become intentional about integrating our faith into our homes, then how much more so can we make our dwelling places homes with a mission—whether we rent or buy or build new.

Designing a new home, in particular, can be a wonderful opportunity to reconsider, re-evaluate, and refocus our lives on loving and serving God and other people. In sharing my story, I hope to inspire you to look at your home with new eyes.

God Is in the Details
My wife, Karen, and I, along with our four children, had the opportunity to design and build our own home several years ago. After living in several rental units, then renovating two existing homes, we had a pretty good idea about what the integration of family life within a home was like. Before designing our own home, we reflected on what we felt was most important to us as a Christian family. Karen wrote our mission statement on a 3-by-5 card: we wanted our home to provide for and reinforce the nurturing of our family relationships while recognizing each unique family member, to be a welcoming and comfortable place of hospitality, and to allow for God to lead us into other directions or potential ministries.

We tried to design an open, simple, and honest home that reflects our own personalities. The form and materials are simple, direct, mostly natural, fairly inexpensive, and low maintenance, and there is a clear order with respect to room locations and structure.

The following are some of the general principles and specific design ideas that we integrated into our home:

• We found a rolling site in the woods with a small creek, to be closer to God’s creation. It is in the “country” but on the edge of town to minimize our driving time to activities. At the time we built our home, it was important to us to have a haven of rest that was somewhat secluded, where we could refocus on our family after serving many years in pastoral ministry and Christian community. We set the house along natural tree lines and slopes and included many windows to the beauty of God’s ever-changing natural world.

• We allowed for gradual landscaping, as Karen enjoys developing perennial gardens over time, but minimized lawn space to reduce time required in caring for lawns.

• A lower ceiling at the front entry— rather than a high ceiling intended to impress—provides a transition from the busyness of the world outside. We wanted our entry to say “You’re welcome here and part of our family” rather than “Wow.” We placed a saltwater aquarium in the entry, since many studies have shown that aquariums have a calming, therapeutic effect on most people. A sliding, mirrored closet door visually enlarges the space.

• An open kitchen, large enough for our family and another family, is the center of the public space in our home so that we can immediately welcome people with a drink or food. People almost always gather where there is food.

• The family room is the main gathering space and is open to the rest of the home so that all family members can feel a part of the family at all times. A small sitting room with French doors serves as our living room for more intimate conversations. This room could also be used as an enclosed dining room by a future homeowner, or as a main-floor bedroom should one of our parents require more care and someday move in with us.

• The kitchen, dining, and family rooms are incorporated into one continuous space that can be used for fairly large extended family gatherings and prayer meetings with minimal furniture arrangements.

• A music room with French doors is also adjacent to the family room so that musicians can be nearby and be seen but not heard (too loudly anyway). This relatively small room allows for personal worship and for singing and playing instruments as a family.

• We separated the children’s bathroom into three compartments so that all four kids can use it simultaneously. We intentionally provided only two kids’ bedrooms so that our two daughters and two sons would have to share their space and, we hoped, become good friends along the way.

• We asked each child to review the home design and to specify at least one design idea that he or she wanted to incorporate into the home. One son asked for a hand-held showerhead; the other son asked for bunk beds. One daughter asked for windows on two sides of her room, and our youngest daughter asked for a small hideaway space, which we found and enclosed under the stairway.

• Given the full life that God has blessed us with, Karen and I allocate little time to bathe except to shower, so we designed a glass-block walk-in shower without a door for quick and easy access, rather than a large master bath suite with a spa tub—typical of many newer homes—that we would never use.

• Our stairs are carpet-covered open treads, so they are visually more open but allow for the safety of small children who may sometimes take a tumble down the stairs.

• Rather than buying a lot of new furniture or providing built-in furniture, we designed spaces around our existing furniture. This also allows us to take the furniture with us someday when the children are grown and we feel led to downsize our dwelling space.

• We chose to include some higher vertical spaces with sloped ceilings, which give a greater sense of openness and continuity without increasing the floor area.

• We designed the lower level as a home office, with an extra bedroom and bathroom for relatives, married children, and other guests. Now that our architectural office has moved off-site, the kids have turned the lower level into a recreation room, where they can spend time with their teenage friends but with some acoustical separation.

• To make our home more personal and meaningful, we incorporated various forms of artwork by Karen, by our children, by Christian artists we have been blessed to know, and by people from places we have visited.

We have found that the design of our home has truly emphasized our goals and relationships as a specific, unique family. Our home has been a refuge, a place to relax and put up our feet, as well as a space to be involved in ministry.

Designing Your Own Home
In working with a number of people to design a new home, I have found that although many people initially think they want a large “castle,” they would actually be much more comfortable and “at home” in a smaller “cottage.”

The size of a home is much less of a factor than its design in how people experience the spaces as intimate or expansive. More important are the design of the individual spaces and how they relate to other spaces, the alcoves, the human scale, the detailing, and the historical and emotional associations people have. Most people experience cottage designs as more welcoming, livable, relaxing, and comfortable.

If you’re thinking about designing and building a new home, it would be good to first take some time to pray about, reflect on, and re-evaluate the life of your family to date. Compare what you say your priorities and values are with how you actually have been spending your time and resources and relationship opportunities. Be open to hearing the still small voice of God, which may lead you in radically different directions than what you originally had in mind. Write down your insights. Don’t be in a hurry. Look for the peace of confirmation that comes from resting in and doing God’s will.

Spend time researching what is possible and available, including alternatives that you may not have seriously considered before. Seek out the “wisdom of many counselors,” including that of people you trust who have already designed and built homes and have also asked themselves hard questions about expressing their faith through their homes. Talk with Christian builders and architects who have worked with numerous homeowners. Make sure they understand and share your core values and are willing to challenge themselves and you to be intentional Christians—people who reflect biblical values rather than the values of the world.

Finally, step forward with confidence that God has given you a tremendous opportunity, and responsibility, to design a home that will not only reflect God’s character and your own uniqueness as a person or persons created in God’s image, but will also express and encourage God’s love among your family and friends and provide a haven of hospitality, a place of worship, and an oasis of outreach and ministry—a home with a mission.