steeple

Strange to go back to South Carolina and see that the more successful churches tend towards new buildings that resemble cinemas, or gyms, or even warehouses.

Perhaps this is about money - the most space per dollar - and perhaps about flexibility, too - a simple enclosed volume can accommodate most anything.  And perhaps in some cases this is a religious decision either to eschew ornament or to reserve money for greater perceived needs.

Perhaps, perhaps, and yet it remains strange, and I think a mistake.  A space that looks like a warehouse will feel like a warehouse.  Place me in a lofty cathedral and I will look up.  Put me in a warehouse and I will go hunting for the coffee pot and non-dairy creamer.

The old standard design for baptist churches - pedimented and pillared portico, classical gabled-box proportions - was a relatively economic way to make the building impressive and also harkened back to antiquity.  Supposedly Spurgeon popularized the look on the argument that this was a good thing.  And it probably was.  And probably a baptist church will not want to ape Roman (or Eastern) catholic styles (although they might learn a thing or ten).

It can be done right.  The contemporary interior of Daniel Chapel at Furman University works well, as an inspiring space that palpably belongs to its sect, its time - and to God.  Plenty of other modern spaces work beautifully.  This agnostic would advise Christians to build to awe, if they can afford it.  And if they can't?  At least dignity.  And splendidly spiritual music fills as space with a sense of awe very inexpensively indeed.