space for "church"

(As the leadership addresses issues regarding the building, I want to take time here to share and discuss issues regarding "space for 'church'" - all these pictures are local churches)

What is "space for church"?

There is a common understanding that the church needs to gather, and to gather there is a need for a space.

We call it church.

We call the space church, as if that is the "ekklesia" sometimes. We pass our church building and say, "There is the church."


Our language, though only language, betrays the subtle influence a building has on us.

There is the church.

But the ekklesia is not a building, of course, and we know that theoretically. It's just the subtle impacts of "space" for our worship are hard to counter.

Buildings really do impact us tremendously in how we function as a Body of Christ. One of the most profound impacts has been the need to gather.


Again, we need to gather. What we do in our gatherings are very impacted by our building. Most people would recognize this. But I want to go deeper than how does the foyer impact our greeting or our programs.

What about simply having a "space" versus not having a "space." A space in flux. In other words, a church without walls or a building.

One impact a building has on us is a subtle implication that people should come. We invite people to come and hear the sermons, come to our studies, come to our programs.

We tell them to come. Fit our building, our programs, our studies. We get them to come but by the way we dress, act, speak, and the way our building shapes us we teach them that to fit in and become a Christian is to do that too.

It's not intentional. But it happens.

It sometimes feels like we think Jesus said, "Now...bring them into your space where you can make disciples and teach them." With that we put this pressure on them to be something.

We tend to forget that we are to go to them...and live with them...and become "all things..."

What about a church with no walls? It still has to meet together. Somewhere.

We just need to know how our space (or lack there-of) impacts us and others into thinking what they have to become to come to Christ. Because we are who we are (human) we will have a "culture of space" and subtly communicate to others that there is a certain way to behave to join us in our space. We want to be as aware as possible of what we do, why we do it, and if we want to continue it or not.

Does it help us gather and be sent out to follow Jesus? Is it effectively used to tell people about Jesus death and resurrection and help us disciple one another?