Church: Redesigned?

Look at the picture above you. Now back at the text. What do you see? Why, its a typical church auditorium, isn’t it? This picture, and the sanctuaries of so many churches I’ve been in have me thinking. Is it time to redesign church?

Now I’m not advocating a radical change in the way church is done. Nor am I the kind of guy who bucks tradition. I simply believe that every now and then, after doing something a certain way for a long period time, we need to examine why we’re doing it that way, and is there a better way to be doing things.

Church is a community. It is a gathering of people bonded by a common purpose. We’re supposed to want to be at church. Yet so many church buildings are stale, cut out of the same cloth. We should want to be at church. Yet more often then not, the building does really nothing to make you want to be there. (I am not saying the building is more important then the Gospel. Just keep that in mind)

Look at these pictures. They are all pictures of the interior of buildings for companies that I want to be in. I look at them and think, ‘I want to be there.’ The first one is Chipotle, then Panera, then Starbucks.

Don’t these places just look comfortable? Don’t they make you want to be there? How come our churches aren’t like that?

Its high time we consider why our churches all look the same. Why not some more comfortable chairs, instead of the cheap, uncomfortable ones we use? Why not cozy nooks and crannies with some tables? It would be nice to be able to take notes comfortably for a change. Why not more vibrant colors instead of drab, uniform, all around the room colors like white and beige?

I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I want to change this. I want to help make the church a gathering place for the community, a nice place to be and even hang out at during the week. I want to help the church regain its place as the community center. Staying in the same style of the past hundred years doesn’t cut it.

Try it. Try brighter colors, better lights, more comfortable chairs. Have someone who knows what their doing redesign the interior. Just because you can make your living room look good doesn’t mean you can do the same for an entire church building. And having a design-ee frame of mind planted in the last decade would help, too.

Culture has changed. People have changed. Design taste has changed.

Maybe its time for the church to make a change.