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 What does it say when a sanctuary’s focal points include a baptism font and communion table? |
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How Church Architecture Affects Lord’s Supper Practices
Does your church visually convey a message that contradicts your theology of communion or mass? Mark A. Torgerson explains how church architecture and sanctuary design can inhibit or enhance a more full and communal Eucharist celebration.
Let down and a little lonely. If that’s how you feel after communion, it’s possible that other worshipers in your church might also wonder after the Eucharist, “Is that all there is?”
Before you blame yourself or decide that communion is meaningless, consider how church architecture or sanctuary design affects your congregation’s experience of the Lord’s Supper.
“I wonder if our culture predisposes us to a more individualized sense of celebrating communion. We’re so focused on ‘me and Jesus.’ We need to recapture that sense of the communal.
“All of us together constitute the body of Christ. Each one is important—but it’s together, around this common table, that something new is formed. That promise should bring us joy,” says Mark A. Torgerson, author of An Architecture of Immanence: Architecture for Worship and Ministry Today. He is ordained in the Evangelical Covenant Church and teaches worship arts at Judson College in Elgin, Illinois.
Torgerson notes that church architecture can inhibit or enhance the Lord’s Supper as a communal celebration of God’s work. Use his insights to discuss what you might want to change now…and what you might want to do in your next building or renovation project.
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Check your Eucharist assumptions
Before Torgerson consults with churches on how their sanctuary design works for or against communion, he runs through a set of theological assumptions about the Lord’s Supper.
First, he explains, the Eucharist is a central celebration in the Christian church, because Christ commanded it.
Second, the Lord’s Supper celebrates the past, present, and future work of the triune God. Christ came to earth as God in human form to sacrificially redeem humanity and the cosmos. During communion, Torgerson says, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are present in our midst as the people who constitute the church. We anticipate the return of Christ, when he will bring the redemptive work of God to fullness, celebrating the Supper of the Lamb in the kingdom to come.”
Finally, in communion we receive and renew our faith, are cleansed from sin and sanctified in life, encounter gospel truth, and are empowered for ministry.
In many churches the architecture reinforces a single focus on individuals remembering and repenting their sins. Torgerson lists features of churches where he’s experienced communion as not all that celebrative:
- New England meetinghouses with narrow aisles, fixed rows of pews, and minimal legroom
- Neo-Gothic spaces that bury the table in a deep screened chancel
- Auditorium churches with raked theatre seating where people are more or less locked in
“Eucharistic practices in these spaces tend to focus on the individual and their unworthiness to approach the table,” he says. “We need to recover the promise and joy of this communal celebration.”
 Before designing a new sanctuary, Unity Christian Reformed Church in Prinsburg, Minnesota, studied how church architecture conveys theology. |
Out of sight, out of mind
Your congregation’s or denomination’s written theology may put a high value on communion as a sacrament, ordinance, or practice. But do you visually affirm this value by making the communion table a focal point? Is it paired with a focus on the Word, whether with a reading lectern, pulpit, or platform Bible?
Torgerson says that throughout Christian history, the communion table has helped people remember truths celebrated during the Lord’s Supper. Seeing the table helps worshipers identify themselves as a family, whether or not they celebrate communion on a given Sunday.
“Many churches remove the communion table from the worship space when not in use or have eliminated it altogether. But taking the table out is like removing a common table for meals from our homes.
“In our homes, the table represents coming together. It helps us build relationships. It helps us remember experiences we’ve had around that common table. Imagine the unintended ramifications of having no central eating place to gather around as a church family,” he says.
Torgerson recommends designing worship space so that everyone has a clear sight line to the table. “The table may need to be elevated slightly, but not so much as to give a sense of limited access,” he says.
Before designing a new sanctuary, Unity Christian Reformed Church in Prinsburg, Minnesota, studied how church architecture “speaks.” Jeff Fisher, pastor of teaching and spiritual formation, explains that their current platform is small. So, on most Sundays, the communion table was pushed behind the organ bench.
“We learned that hiding our communion table non-verbally communicated (though maybe only subconsciously for many) that we did not value the Lord’s Supper. It looked like Jesus’ institution of the sacrament had no place in our worship, except on the Sundays we actually took communion,” Fisher says.
Studying worship space and worship furniture convinced Unity that it was “quite odd” to cover their wooden communion table with a cloth. It was just as odd to use the communion table as a shelf for other visuals…and then set up a folding table to hold trays of cups and bread on Communion Sundays.
“Our new worship space will have enough room for the table. Every week, whether or not we partake, we’ll have that visual reminder of the death, resurrection, and return of Jesus. For now, we often have the table on the floor in front of the platform. This communicates ‘God with us’ and ‘God among us,’ ” Fisher says.
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Celebrate in every sense
Accenting the holy meal’s communal nature is easier when churches make space for worshipers to gather around the table. “Celebrating Christ in our midst and anticipating the feast in heaven increases people’s desire to move—to pray, sing, lie prostrate, kneel, stand, hold hands, or dance in community,” Torgerson says.
The Eucharist feels less cerebral when people see festive banners and paraments, hear the words of institution, smell the wine or grape juice, pull off and taste a bite of bread from a large loaf, and sing together.
Torgerson has celebrated communion on four continents but says his most profound experience happened on Christmas Day in an Evangelical Covenant congregation in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“This is a free church tradition with a very low liturgy. We danced communion. We danced the offering. The offering took 45 minutes and communion was way longer. It was like sliding into a timeless realm, kingdom time. There was movement and singing and celebrating. It was so much fun. I think it’s how God intended communion to be,” he says.
The story continues... Design Worship Spaces to Enchance Communion
 Worshipers go to altar rails for prayer, anointing, and receiving a blessing, as well as to receive communion. |
Text by Joan Huyser-Honig
Photography by Steve Huyser-Honig
Listen to audio excerpts of an interview with Mark Torgerson:
- Historical perspectives on liturgical focal points (5:29)
- Practices that obscure the meaning of the communion table (1:24)
- Trends with communion altar rails ( 8:48)
Read and discuss Mark Torgerson’s book, An Architecture of Immanence: Architecture for Worship and Ministry Today. Listen to his Calvin Symposium on Worship 2007 talk on maximizing worship environments.
Listen to or download Mike Cosper’s worship music.
“Steal” these worship service plans to prepare for communion and celebrate communion. Experiment with different ways to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Consider celebrating communion every Sunday.
Some churches hardly mention communion on their websites. What message does your church website give about the importance of the Eucharist?
Get church architecture and sanctuary design ideas from:
- Architecture for the Gods by Michael J. Crosbie
- Architecture in Communion: Implementing the Second Vatican Council Through Liturgy and Architecture by Steven J. Schloeder
- Houses of God: Religious Architecture for a New Millennium by Michael J. Crosbie
- Religious Art and Architecture Awards sponsored each year by Faith & Form Magazine and the Interfaith Forum for Religious Art and Architecture
Watch or listen to broadcasts on church architecture and the meaning of communion.
Browse related stories about baptism and church architecture, Lord’s Supper practices in the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, rejoicing at the Lord’s Supper, and renovations that build community.
Feel free to print and distribute these stories at your staff, council, worship, or building committee meeting. These questions will get members talking about communion and architecture:
- Why does or doesn’t your congregation display a communion table? What message does its size, location, and use convey?
- After reading Mark Torgerson’s insights on visibility, proximity, and access, what changes might you like to make in your Lord’s Supper celebrations? What can you change right now…and what requires an architectural change and capital expense?
- Describe Eucharists you’ve attended in other churches. Compared to your congregation’s communion practices, did those Eucharists feel more individualistic or more communal?
- Do you see any disadvantages or losses in making the Lord’s Supper more communal or finding ways to experience it more fully?
What is the best way you’ve found to deepen your congregation’s communion experience? Please write to us so we can identify trends and share your great ideas. Whether you do these or any other things, we’d love to learn what works for you:
- Did you create a workshop or class to help worshipers “read” a worship space and learn about liturgical furniture? If so, will you share your materials with us?
- Asking a congregation to change its communion practice can be uncomfortable. What has worked best as you’ve experimented with different Lord’s Supper distribution methods? Pinpoint why some things worked better than others in your congregational context.
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This story was originally posted on August 17, 2007. External links were operative at the time the story was posted, but may have expired since then.
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This article was first published by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, http://www.calvin.edu/worship/stories/.