Evangelical Church Spaces And Design: The Role Of The Architect
(A preliminary discussion of how an architect contributes to excellence in church design to the glory of God)
6/10/03 revision

Jack A. Kremers, AIA

A New York Times article in the early 1990's listed the "four most significant religious architectural church designs in the 20^th century".  They were:  Chapel at Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp, France (Catholic) by Le Corbusier, First Unitarian Church, Rochester, New York by Louis Kahn, Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois by Frank Lloyd Wright and the First Church of Christ Scientist, Berkeley, California by Bernard Maybeck.  From the perspective of an evangelical architect, raised in a tradition where every aspect of life is viewed as sacred and an opportunity to glorify and express the presence of God, the failure of the evangelical community to produce such a meaningful church building and even aspire to do so, is deeply disappointing. In marked contrast is the evangelical cultural and social impact defined by its mission and name and the history of the Christian church throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Christ's commands to honor God above all and our neighbors as ourselves are expressed in the environments we create to serve His community on earth. Christ is alive in His people, relevant to our time and, indeed, the answer to what the world seeks and needs.

It may be argued, and assuredly is by some, that the Christian church does not need nor should it spend resources to create structures that provide for its congregational setting and to express to the world the church's presence in a pluralistic society.  The basis for this position can be based upon the New Testament expression of the work of Jesus Christ, the Apostles and early disciples. Christ identified Himself as without a place to be called home on earth and the early church followed His example as regards to a home for this new institution. As in most cases, this institution had to be clearly established and defined before it created a built environment. A permanent place and built environment do not appear to have a high priority in New Testament times. 

In contrast to this position are both the earlier Old Testament history with the models of the Tabernacle and the Temple and the later historic institutional Christian church that greatly influenced and participated in Western culture.  The Medieval culture was built around the church.   Renaissance cathedrals inspire by their very presence today.  The Protestant Reformation provided an adjustment to the excesses of form and human glorification, which had developed in these institutionalized church forms, as it restored the focus to the Word reinforced by visual images of humanity in the reality of daily life dependent on God's grace.  The Reformation did not negate or minimize the importance of the visual environment in Christian worship and institutions and buildings. It simply sought to create a better balance.

It is the intent of this paper to suggest how the evangelical Christian church can restore historic traditions and fulfill the Biblical mandate to achieve and express excellence through church architecture and, in so doing, fulfill the responsibility of the Christian community to reflect God's image through the creative process, in particular, the built church environment.

Biblical Mandate

The Biblical mandate to provide and support a built environment for the Christian community is found in several passages.  I will consider two individuals.  One is a craftsman, the other a hero and a leader and a very human artistic model of how God works through His chosen people. First, is the example of Bezalel and the design and construction of the Old Testament Tabernacle. This example found in Exodus 35:30-36:2 illustrates that God selects certain individuals within the Christian community to lead in the design, construction and fulfillment of the edifice that will be used to worship Him by the community.  As Gene Veith points out, "The passage indicates that art is within God's will." [1] It is not just the meaning of the Tabernacle that concerns God, but equally important are the form and the details that make up that form.  The form is not uniquely that of the Jewish community but it is developed from the surrounding cultures, in the languages that people of that time would understand. We see that form and style are not unique to the culture of God's chosen people but reflect all cultures. All peoples are created in God's image and express a form of His image. If we seek to find a style or form that is unique to the Christian community, we will not find it. Our search is in the language common to all of those created in His image.

Human culture is of God. Nature is often referenced as clear evidence of God's existence and sustaining arm in this world. Human culture may be viewed in the same way. His common grace extends throughout all cultures and we observe and learn from evidence of His being and work in many places and peoples. Acts 17:26 tells us that "God made every nation of men - and He determined times for them and the exact places where they should live." It is in the context of God's common grace that art finds its proper role and opportunity.

The second thing we can learn from the description of the design and construction of the Tabernacle and Bezalel's role in that process is that the role and vocation of an artist and architect is a calling from God.  This calling is equal to any ministry to which a person may be called.  In God's plan, the process of creating and constructing the built environment is accomplished through an individual or individuals. The desire to build and create the built environment is one of God's great gifts to mankind. We are created in His image and we reflect this as we create.

Third, we learn that the artistic ability to accomplish the built environment is a gift from God.  This ability involves not only skill but also a motivated heart.  As Veith points out, "Bezalel was probably already a skilled craftsman in the normal course of things before he received this divine commission." [2] This training and education would have occurred in Egypt.  God uses all cultures.  Added to the providential preparation of Bezalel was the stirring of a heart led and motivated by the Spirit of God.

A second person to consider is King David. He, too, illustrates the character and nature of an artist, selected and gifted by God.  David is a man who literally does not obey all of God's commands but he is a man "after God's own heart."  Acts 13:22 states  "he will do everything I want him to do."  The Bible presents David as a poet and a musician as well as a leader. Although God did not choose for David to build the Temple, it is clear that David's heart-felt desire was to build to honor and glorify God.  The Greek word for heart is  "karolia".  The lexicon defines "karolia" as "the seat of the desires, feelings, affections, passions, i.e., the heart or mind."  David goes beyond mere obedience to one who is passionate and one whose heart seeks to honor and glorify God in every way.  He loves God and seeks to honor Him in every way. This is the attitude and character of the Christian artist.  This is the person whom God seeks to use in the building of his Kingdom.

Architecture Defined

Having established that architecture is a vocation approved and established by God, a position to which one is called and gifted to perform and that the calling is centered in the heart through a passionate desire to glorify God, we move on to understand how precisely an architect serves the community to which he or she is called.

In western culture, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, generally known as Vitruvius, a Roman architect and engineer who wrote in the first century B.C., produced the oldest and most influential writings in architecture.  His works and writings have been studied and accepted by Bramante, Michelangelo, Palladio, and Vignola and continue today to serve as the most basic definition of what an architect does.

Vitruvius defines architecture very broadly in comparison to today's professional limitations.  He includes not only buildings but also cities, both the elements and the planning of cities, timepieces and the machinery necessary to construct all the elements.  Then he states:

All these must be built with due reference to durability, convenience and beauty.  Durability will be assured when foundations are carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally selected; convenience, when the arrangement of the apartments is faultless and presents no hindrance to use, and when each class of building is assigned to its suitable and appropriate exposure; and beauty, when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and when its members are in due proportion according to correct principles of symmetry. [3]

Although architects today may define the terms "durability", "convenience" and "beauty" in different ways with varying degrees of emphasis, Vitruvius' definition of what defines architecture is generally accepted as being the most basic and encompassing description of architecture as a discipline and field throughout history and in the present time.  Architects are trained and educated to be able to create and understand the built environment so as to provide (1) an overall sense of beauty that inspires and satisfies, reflecting the creative order initiated by God, (2) convenience or functionality that provides for the enjoyable experience of the building occupants while participating in the program for which the building is designated and (3) the opportunity to do these actions within and through an environment that endures or satisfies the laws of nature as to structural stability, provides lasting material performance and provides for the optimum human comfort and performance.

This broad definition of what an architect does encompasses much that goes beyond verbal description as to the essence and elements that compose the goals of architecture. It involves the totality of life and includes aspects that we can only know intuitively, through discovery and by doing. The goal is best described as provision of an environment that provides shalom, an Old Testament term translated as "peace".

In Psalms 4:6b-8 David states, "Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and wine abound. I will lie down in sleep in peace (shalom), for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." This security, this sense of satisfaction and fulfillment is expressed in shalom. It is a substantive wholeness with safety, happiness, and the genuine fellowship of others who provide social fulfillment, acceptance and love. These are our needs as created in God's image. It is the provision of an environment that fulfills these needs that is the goal of architecture.

In the New Testament the concept is communicated as the New Life in Jesus Christ. The incarnation of Jesus is the ultimate reality of what we can only begin to express through the creation of environments that provide shalom for the occupants. It is the mystery of the incarnation that establishes the reality of what architectural design is. It is the incarnation that gives meaning and hope to what we do today.

Vitruvious' three components of the architect's role provide a framework as to how we may do this. Beginning with the last element in the list, "durability", we understand that the architect creates that which encloses and provides protection over time. In accordance with the rules of nature, the architect creates a structure that supports an enclosure that in turn separates and provides for human physical survival and comfort by protection from the natural elements. There is a sense of rightness about enclosure that is expressed in the architecture of the vernacular and primitive structures. The slope of a roof that sheds rain and snow and prevents their penetration of the interior is a classic example. Some openings in the enclosure allow and provide human entry and exit of the interior while other openings provide useful penetration of light and fresh air while at the same time providing a view of the natural environment in which God has placed us. Durable materials and construction provide the filter that intercepts the natural world and encloses an environment that begins to generate shalom. The building envelope establishes an interior and an exterior. The supporting structure has a similar sense of rightness through efficiency in the use of materials, stretched to their fullest load-bearing capacity, expressing clarity, order and rhythm.

If, however, that enclosure is all that is created, we do not have architecture. The second ingredient, according to Vitruvious, is convenience or functionality, related to the activities of the occupants of the building. This component addresses the program or description of the activities and the requirements needed to serve those activities, their relationships and physical connections to one another. The floor plan identifies the spaces and their connections. The floor area and volume necessary to accomplish these activities provide for human performance and enjoyment of life's events.

Nikolaus Pevsner in Outline of European Architecture states, "A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture." [4] A good bicycle shed has both durability and convenience. If we simply fulfill Vitruvious' first two components, we still do not have architecture. What is needed is the critical third component, beauty. As the critical third component, beauty is not only necessary; it is the most important component in our effort to create shalom. Beauty is what transforms us from the rigidity of efficiency, utilitarianism and sensibility. It is the transcendental component that expresses that there is something more, that there is mystery beyond the material, the physical and the sensible. It provides satisfaction, a sense of hope, joy, and happiness that is included in shalom.

It cannot do this, however, as architecture, without fulfilling the components of durability and convenience. Beauty is not mere decoration or ornament attached to a bicycle shed. Beauty is, in this case, the ordered, proportioned and appropriate expression of durability and convenience. Architectural beauty is not an aesthetic event unto itself such as sculpture and painting. It is a beautiful expression that identifies the human occupants of an environment as important and critical to the whole experience. People are what the environment is about. In so doing, architecture connects people with God, with nature, and with each other. Transcendence and mystery are created and communicated through beauty. The transformation of nature through the use of physical resources reflects God's creative process. Architecture relates to the natural setting and connects to the cycles of nature. It views nature as the model of creation, as the environment provided by God for us, a beautiful, comprehensive expression of His nature and a gift for human activities and celebration. It is the place for our recreation and the place of shalom.

Beauty in Architecture

Discussion of beauty as a separate component in architecture is a recent event. Before the 18^th century the current split between what we call technology and aesthetics would not have been understood. Alexander Baumgarten introduced the concept of "aesthetics" and opened the door to this fragmentation. Baumgarten defined "aesthetics" as the principals that govern the judgments of taste. Architecture and all the applied arts were greatly impacted by this new approach. Architecture, according to Vitruvious, unlike the fine arts, cannot be just about aesthetics. Durability and firmness are necessary in addition to beauty, or to use Baumgarten's term, aesthetics, to achieve what we know as architecture. Beauty as the object of disinterested satisfaction cannot apply to architecture.

Despite this conflict and difficulty, or perhaps, because of it, the contemporary architectural professional spends much more time and energy discovering and defining the aesthetic component of architecture than he or she does defining the components of durability and firmness. Architectural theory has become a discipline unto itself. A Christian theory of architecture that responds to the climate and character of the current turmoil in architectural theory created by a multiplicity of theories and ideas is badly needed. Joseph Giovannini, writing in the December 2002 issue of Architectural Record states:

Hardly any theoretical structure, paradigm, or model that might form a consistent basis of practice for young architects has been left standing. The architectural landscape in which the emerging generation works now resembles Monument Valley, with various disconnected promontories of thought littered across the plains of practice. There is now no widely shared, coherent vision. Young architects today face the bittersweet position of enjoying great freedom without the benefit of consistent guidance. Released from the straight-and-narrow of any true path, they have to choose and invent their own. These are tentative times - of reassessment, recuperation, rumination, and rebirth - in which architects are absorbing and digesting waves of change.

Siegfried Gideon in Space, Time and Architecture observed that the main task facing contemporary architecture is " the interpretation of a way of life valid for our time." [5] Based upon this definition we can say that architecture that is meaningful and valuable must express the contemporary culture in ways that speak to the community, provide shalom as expressed in the Old Testament and do so through the vocabulary and elements of the culture within which we work.  The Acts 17:26 passage previously mentioned expresses the idea that God has placed us at this time and place and then in verse 27 states: God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.

Karsten Harries in The Ethical Function of Architecture sets out to investigate Gideon's proposition by asking the questions (1) in what way can architecture be understood as interpretation and (2) how do we measure the validity of an interpretation of a way of life as valid for our time? Harries, as well as many contemporary architectural critics, does not provide a hopeful vision that might provide a clear direction for the young architects that Giovannini describes. The current world has lost its center, shared values and a common aesthetic language as a way of interpreting modern architecture.

Beauty is today considered to be important but it is not the highest value of our time. It must often struggle if in any way beauty compromises durability and convenience. Harries states: "But if art has thus gained a new freedom, the price of such emancipation has been its peripheral placement in a world ruled by the economic imperative." [6]

The questions become, what is it that is beautiful and how may art regain its necessary role as the expression of what we deem most important? Wherein previous periods in history had a God-centered reality, we now have a new center of individual freedom and self-defined rightness has emerged. With this new freedom, individual expression has emerged with no need nor desire to communicate beyond self and we have a nomadic lifestyle with no place to call home. Where previous periods developed a universal language within which to communicate and achieve a mutually accepted sense of what was beautiful, we now have frames of reference that are self-defined and not concerned with the viewer and user.

In this vacuum technology has gained control. The gods of efficiency and economic imperative have replaced the center of previous periods. Harries states:

No longer do we look to art, let alone architecture, to gather individuals once more into genuine community. The ethical function that art once had today has been replaced by reason. Unfortunately, reason has proved unequal to the assumed task. - pure reason has shown itself incapable of discovering the true ends of human actions. Such discovery requires the aid of myth. - the mythopoeic function of art remains indispensable. [7]

Christian Response

The Christian response must be to examine what it is that is in the center and reclaim it for Jesus Christ and to discover how this may be expressed in our time to fulfill the provision of shalom for the people of our time. The central truth is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. He is here and He is alive in our lives and seeks to bring everyone into His kingdom. The truth of that fact does not demand a place nor does it demand a common language. It demands love and recognition that God exists and He is alive and active in the world today. Our security is found in Him. Our passion for God is found in expressing His beauty and character. He provides our sustenance.

Here is where we part ways with Harries. He states:

Temple and church provide obvious paradigms, but paradigms that have lost their authority and belong to the part; the question then becomes whether to occupy the place once occupied by sacred architecture and, if so, how? -Today, the very thought of architecture as an expression of the "profoundest interests of mankind' and "the spiritual truths of widest range" appears at odds with the spirit of the age, as does the attribution of an ethical function to architecture. [8]

Georg Hegel goes further in his declaration of Christianity's failure to include art in its experience:

Christian religion can never be tied to art as it recognized that the spiritual dwells not in nature but within the individual. Such inwardness prevents Christian art from linking the sacred as intimately to the visible as does the Greek. The spirit refuses full incarnation. The incarnated God must die, so that humanity can advance from God as such to the devotion of the community, that is, to God as He is alive and present in the subjective consciousness. [9]

The Bible and Christian tradition clearly demonstrate that Christianity is tied to art. The examples of Bezalel and David show how God does use individuals for communal benefit. Jesus Christ became incarnate. Our home is in heaven but today God claims a home in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. The activity of art is expressed through technology in the way that God relates to nature. The resulting cultural expression is God's plan. Through the hearts of His people, God calls individuals and communities to express His presence. As individuals, we have the responsibility to use our gifts passionately to God's glory and the service of the community. The community is called to claim the vision as God's plan. The community must dream and support those who actualize that dream.

The forms of that vision and dream are not limited by style or language. The vocabulary is the gifts of nature that God provides. Technology is the clearest expression of our time transforming nature into architecture. The architectural creative process reflects men and women created in God's image. The process of Genesis 1 provides an architectural model. Space, light and materiality in a unified whole give us a glimpse of what is great architecture. Beauty connects durability and convenience in one grand concept.

Ronchamp, First Unitarian Church, Unity Temple and the First Church of Christ Scientist can provide wonderful evangelical church spaces. In these churches, space, light, materiality and unity reflect God's image. The evangelical community must claim these as parts of God's kingdom. They would have great impact upon the communities they serve and they would send clear messages as to the essence of their being to the world.