Vital Worship
Feature stories ... for inspiration, learning, and group discussion

Collection of stories

Church Renovations: Respecting the old, welcoming the new

Text by Joan Huyser-Honig
Photography by Steve Huyser-Honig

The Calvin Theological Seminary chapel renovation took some surprising twists. But churches considering a renovation can glean good ideas from the seminary's process.

“Our chapel was built in 1959. In its time, it was beautiful, the preferred place to get married,” says Duane Kelderman, vice president for administration and professor of preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Forty-five years later, the seminary chapel felt cold in winter, stifling in summer—and always dark, even with all the lights on. The carpet was fraying and the mosaic behind the cross “gave souvenirs.”

In true semper reformans, semper reformanda style (always reformed, always reforming), the seminary renovated its chapel in a way true to its heritage and true to what it has—and may—become.

“Seeing before and after views of the chapel would be a major light bulb moment for many people,” says John Witvliet, a renovation committee member and director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

Choose a “servant” architect

Kelderman's committee worked with an architect who has both church design experience and a servant attitude.

“Many architects try to make their mark, to do something completely different. At Calvin, we see the work already done here as very important. We want to respect our heritage—and also look for what we can improve. I've really enjoyed trying to respectfully update this campus,” says Frank L. Gorman. He owned one of the nation's largest church design firms before becoming the Calvin College and Seminary architect.

Respecting the seminary chapel's heritage meant paying attention to its Frank Lloyd Wright hallmarks. The late William Beye Fyfe, who designed Calvin's master plan, was one of Wright's students.

Gorman helped the renovation committee think through questions that led to keeping some 1959 design elements and changing others.

The old chapel's back is the new chapel's front. The choir loft is gone. But the space's strong horizontal lines still emphasize worshipers' relationship to each other. Its high peaked ceiling and placement of the cross still prompt people to lift their eyes heavenward.

Gorman says, “Bill Fyfe designed the traffic flow similar to what Wright had done in Unity Temple. Wright loved hidden entrances. People are used to entering a sanctuary from the back. But in our 1959 design, they entered through angled walls from the side and front. It felt like interrupting, walking in on something.”

Removing the angled walls widened the floor space without moving exterior walls. It improved traffic flow. It also increased light from the windows overlooking the seminary pond.

Fyfe designed the chapel with an overhang, eight feet above the floor, that wrapped the sanctuary. “That was a classic Wright thing—low entrances. But it came to feel cramped and low,” Gorman says.

Trimming the overhang by four feet retained the horizontal theme—and revealed the band of stained glass windows between the overhang and peaked ceiling. The ceiling was whitewashed. There's now more light inside the chapel, without lights on, than in the old chapel with every bulb blazing.

Match theology and architecture

“Church architecture is not about looks. It's about function and theology. When you build or renovate a church, you're trying to translate your beliefs into something visual that everyone can understand.

“Certain denominations will build a pole barn or metal skin. In their theology, Jesus might be coming back tomorrow, so why pay a lot for anything more?

“We don't think a church should be highly expensive. But it should reflect its character as a place where you participate in a holy relationship with God,” Gorman says.

The old chapel focused on a large two-step platform with a large pulpit placed off-center. The new platform is a moveable six-inch box, which puts the speaker on only a slight level above listeners. It's ramped on both sides, for easy entrance and exit whether you are receiving a diploma or using a wheelchair. Gorman explains that the new design emphasizes that everybody is part of worship.

“The off-center pulpit was a failure to translate the Reformed emphasis on the Word into architecture. The pulpit should be central in a Reformed church,” he adds.

Massive pulpits emphasize the speaker's importance. The new narrower, slightly shorter pulpit minimizes the barrier between speaker and worshipers. “But we didn't go with a Plexiglas pulpit, like you see in some churches,” Gorman says.

Cast your net wide

Before the seminary had money to fund the chapel renovation, Kelderman gathered a committee of students, faculty, and staff to think about the meaning of the space.

“At first, the committee favored replacing pews with all flexible seating. But here's where broad input helped. Faculty representatives accepted the architectural value of keeping historical continuity with the old chapel. Some argued that pews are actually more communal than chairs are.

“My first reaction was ‘Yeah, right.' But there's truth to it. With chairs you have to sit next to a stranger, which can invade someone's space, or sit one chair apart, which can seem unfriendly,” Kelderman says.

As many newer seminaries have done in their chapels, the committee went with a mix of pews and chairs. Kelderman says the reconditioned pews look good yet still have “the nicks and dings of age.”

Placing the pews slightly angled toward the center aisle lets worshipers see each other's faces, adding to the intimate (and Reformed) perception that worship is meant to be corporate, not individual.

Pews cover two-thirds of the sanctuary. Chairs near the front can be easily rearranged for early morning Korean prayer services, lectures, chapel services, convocations, and classes on preaching and administering sacraments.

Kelderman credits a seminarian, Stephen Terpstra, with another major committee decision. When organ pipes were distributed along the west wall, they blocked windows in what is now the chapel front. The committee decided to transfer organ pipes to a case in back and lower the organ from the loft to the floor. But they couldn't decide where on the floor to put the organ.

“We'd thought of sliding it to a corner. That didn't work well for other reasons. Steve is an organist. He recommended we put the organ in back and encase it in a new moveable console,” Kelderman says.

The pipes for the reconditioned organ are now in a box high on the back wall. Organists have more flexibility in using the instrument's softer ranges.

Embrace tensions

“Churches will be better off the more they include the entire community in the collaboration and decision process. Instead of cutting off tensions, find ways to embrace competing ideas and tensions,” Kelderman advises.

“For example, we wanted worship space that is 21st century, reflecting the best of historical Christian worship and also functional for a whole variety of worship styles. We considered many possibilities for making the technology work without imposing,” he says.

The committee didn't want to make a screen the central focus, especially because it would block the cross. Gorman proposed lining the brick sanctuary front with wood and creating two wooden visual arts panels. Panel hooks hold large and small banners and installations. A screen slides down each panel when necessary, but remains hidden under wood trim when not in use.

“The solution for the screen is the best I've seen. The organic wood creates a warm feeling, especially because the way they're angled gives a ‘big hug feel' to the front of the sanctuary,” Witvliet says.

Gorman says that by having wood wrap from one visual arts panel to the other, it “doesn't just look like two walls we stuck up there for screens.” The panels also provide stage entrances for dramas.

Choosing floor coverings raised other tensions. The committee considered a wood-floored platform with ceramic tile in the center, both for beauty and acoustics. Members had different acoustical priorities. Organs need hang time for reverberation. Singing resounds in a space with wood ceilings and glass and brick walls. But too much reverberation obscures speakers' voices. Theologically, hearing the word is most important. After lots of discussion, the committee chose to carpet the sanctuary.

The result, according to Witvliet, is ”maximal reverberation for singing…and speech that can be heard clearly and distinctly.”

Seize new opportunities

Buildings can't generate revival. But they can reveal new possibilities.

“We've formed a new subcommittee to attend to technology and visual arts. These new details are a blessing. We can use more of the gifts and talents of those in our seminary community so that, together, we may glorify God,” says Jana Bos-Vander Laan, who helps plan twice-weekly seminary chapels.

A self-described “organist who loves to sing,” Bos-Vander Laan has been a church musician in several congregations. “The front of the chapel is much more spacious and flexible. The chapel now models a Reformed understanding of musical leadership, with the organ supporting the congregational singing from the back,” she says.

Meanwhile, Witvliet dreams of people arranging themselves in facing rows of chairs, and then praying the psalms aloud—alternating verses as some traditions have done for centuries.

“The pews are far enough apart for people to kneel. All the chairs have grooves so we could put in kneelers. In this place, may we learn how to use our bodies more fully in penitence as well as in joy,” he says.

Update: The new chapel was the subject of the Spring '05 issue of the Calvin Seminary Forum.

LEARN MORE

Why reinvent the wheel? Contact your denominational office or local ministerial association to find nearby churches that have built or renovated in the last few years. Organize a tour, ask their architect or building committee chair to speak to your group, or find some other way to learn from their experiences. Also ask your architect to help you think through these questions.

If you'd like to create a class or seminar on how church architecture reflects theology, you might begin with these simple resources on Lutheran, Orthodox, Catholic, and Presbyterian church building considerations.

Good background reading suggestions include:

• Faith & Form: Journal on Religion, Art and Architecture
• Christianity Today's archive of articles on church architecture and pre-engineered buildings
• Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantium to Berkeley
• Houses of Worship: An Identification Guide to the History and Style of American Religious Architecture
• Building from Belief: Advance, Retreat, and Compromise in the Remaking of Catholic Church Architecture
• When Not to Build: An Architect's Unconventional Wisdom for the Growing Church

Listen to two lectures by theologian Jeremy Begbie on why theology and the arts need each other. (Scroll down to January 10, 2004.)

During your church renovation process, are people debating how or whether to use organ music in worship? You can read a summary of Randall Engle's speech on the Dutch Reformed Church, John Calvin, and organ use. (Scroll down to “Music Wars…”)

In just four before and after slides of the Old St. Joseph Church at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, see what John Witvliet calls “the history of post-Vatican worship.”

START A DISCUSSION

Feel free to print and distribute these stories at your church council, worship, or building committee meeting. These questions will get members talking:

• How are your services different now than when your sanctuary was dedicated? What challenges does your space create?
• What untapped potentials do you see in your worship space?
• What are your biggest challenges in maintaining your church's distinctive architectural features?
• How would you explain your church's theological character? In what ways does—or doesn't—your church architecture reflect your theology?
• What messages do your church exterior and interiors send? What kinds of people are most and least likely to feel comfortable in your church, given its design?

SHARE YOUR WISDOM

What is the best way you've found to get broad input before and during a church renovation? 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:

• In gathering broad input about your church building project, did you make discoveries that might help other congregations imitate your process? How many and what types of meetings, surveys, or other methods worked best?
• Have you found effective guides to help parishioners think through the inevitable conflicts between what you could build and what you can or should spend?
• What new worship practices did your new worship space inspire? Did you start holding prayer services for each country represented in your church or by your missionaries? Start including kneeling in some services? Restore a type of singing common decades ago in your church or denomination?

CICW web story reprint policy:
You have permission to reprint this article (or other stories in this collection) in its entirety, in print or online. Before the title of the article, please reprint the following permission statement. If you are reprinting online, please link to the website listed.

This article was first published by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship,
http://www.calvin.edu/worship/.

See collection of stories.