Friday, July 20, 2018
Manmade temples
Acts 17:24
God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
These days a lot of efforts is regularly expended trying to remind Christians that they are the church and that the church is not the place where we gather for collective worship, instruction, and fellowship.
The church started out meeting in homes. When Peter was let out of prison miraculously he headed to the home where he knew they were gathered, “So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.” Acts 12:12.
Paul’s itinerant ministry took him from house to house (that would be from church to church today), “I kept back nothing that was helpful but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house,” Acts 20:20. And many times we see reference to the church that is meeting in a house, “The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.” 1 Corinthians 16:19.
Sometimes those homes were in danger, “But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.” Acts 17:5.
Historians and archaeologists tell us that the first purpose-built places for Christian worship were constructed somewhere in the second half of the third century. Between the 11th and 14th centuries, there was an explosion of elaborate church construction across western Europe, including many cathedrals. There were churches built to Roman, Gothic, and Baroque architecture.
Many of these churches were designed like a cross with the long part of the cross forming the centre aisle and the crossbar corresponding the ‘altar.’ They also developed traditions about which direction the altar should face and so on.
Many of these buildings were elaborate and imposing, high steeples designed to direct people’s attention heavenward and stained-glass windows to tell stories and filter the sunlight coming in.
By the time of the Reformation, around the 17th and 18th centuries, church buildings were transformed or constructed to focus on the changes in worship style ushered in by the Reformation. The focus was given to ensuring that there was a pulpit situated so that everyone could hear the sermon rather than like an elaborate theatre to watch the priest perform the mass as in medieval times.
There was a modern wave of church construction after the second world war, buildings that weren’t built according to medieval architectural styles nor according to the styles that emerged right after the Reformation.
Today, especially in the megachurch movement in the United States of America, the building of elaborate buildings for worship is a significant feature of the landscape.
In many places though, there have been other approaches to places of worship as costs and convenience became factors. Churches started using school halls, community centres, cinemas, theatres, converted train stations and the like all for the purpose of worship.
Our church, Living Stones GY, meets in a converted house. By converted we mean that we started meeting in the living room and as the attendance grew we started taking down the wall one room at a time until now there are no more walls that could come down. I am sometimes needlessly uncomfortable about trying to help people find the church. I tend to say that we don’t have a church building yet, look for a house with the sign on it. I need to stop feeling that way.
We put too much emphasis on the buildings and not the church. We try to justify our overemphasis on the building by blaming it on the efforts to attract the right type of people or needing to match what they have at other churches, or at non-church events. While I am not advocating for old houses, there is a point at which the church today has too much ‘building’ too much technology and too little of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The stark nature of this problem was highlighted, long before all of the building eras we summarised, when Paul went to Athens. “Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” Acts 17:22.23.
The buildings that he was observing, of course, were heathen temples but it brought into focus what was really important when it came to the place of worship. It wasn’t, in fact, the place because “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.” Acts 17:24.
Ron Kenoly, in Sing Out, reminded us that we should “Sing out / The Lord is near / Build him a temple here / A palace of praise / A throne of thanksgiving / Made for the King of kings” And this is because “The Lord inhabits the / Song of His saints / And lives in their praises”
Too much performance in our modern buildings full of technology is making those assembled into an audience and not a congregation. That is really the biggest building problem that we have today.
Think on these things:
- How much does the building in which you meet for worship contribute or distract from your ability to worship God?
- Do you really participate in the worship and singing, or do you spend a lot of time watching and listening to the worship team?
- How significant is the church building in your decision about where to worship?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would so praise and worship God together that we would build a temple for His dwelling.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex