In the beginning, John tells us, was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We are told other things about the Second Person of the Trinity elsewhere in Scripture—He is the icon of God, He is the wisdom of God, He is the Son of God, He is the …
Simplicity and the Sensate
Cultures pass through aesthetic phases as they rise and fall, and the last phase is the phase of decadence. It is the phase in which sensate spectacle is glorified, and it is a sign, not of glory but of decrepitude. Our generation is in the thick of this last phase. Our culture is attracted to …
Liturgy and Architecture as a Christian Woman
We have already seen that simplicity in worship (and in architecture) cannot be contrasted with beauty, as though it were an alternative to it. Simplicity is an aesthetic trait, and those who think that a building or a liturgy is automatically beautiful because it is complicated, with the maximum number of gold filigrees on it, …
Simplicity Is Beautiful
As we pray and plan concerning our church building, we want to remember that we worship the God of all beauty. We want the beauty of the Lord to rest upon us as we undertake this task. “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: And establish thou the work of …
Nehushstan Memorial
In Scripture we find two kinds of idols. The first is an alternative to the living God from the get-go. When the children of Israel turned aside to Baal or Molech, they were sinning overtly and rebelliously. They were turning from the living God to false gods. The other kind of idol starts out innocently. …
Dressing Up Without Playing Dress Ups
One of the things we need to remember when it comes to church architecture is that a building is corporate clothing. A building is how the whole church dresses. The trick is how to dress up without playing dress ups.
On Not Running Ahead or Lagging Behind
Whenever we are faced with a challenging or daunting task, there are two problems that can ensnare us. One is when we are very aware of our infirmities, and the other is when we are not aware of our infirmities. This is how it works. When we are aware of our infirmities, that tends to …
Architectural Incongruity
God hates a particular kind of incongruity with a passion. He detests the notion that we can create a liturgy, or a worship space, or a tall steeple, that somehow masks or deals with sin. But if such things could deal with sin, then Jesus didn’t have to die. “When ye come to appear before …
A Mind to Work
We are continuing to meditate on the task of building a sanctuary in our new location. As we do this, we want to make sure we identify all the basic principles that are involved. One of them is the nature of work. Nehemiah once had what could be considered an impossible task, rebuilding the walls …
Authority and Power
As the Church worships God, from Lord’s Day to Lord’s Day, we are making an authoritative proclamation. We are telling a dead world to wake up. “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph. 5:14, ESV). Of course, when the Church is full of corpses, we have a …