Below is a quote from a book I read awhile back entitled Architecture for Worship written in 1973 by an influential Lutheran architect named Edward Sovik. This is a man who made his living designing and building church buildings, and from what I understand, has even wielded a deep influence upon present day designs of Roman (catholic...little "c") Church buildings (i.e. less transcendence, more immanence); and yet, even Sovik acknowledges that to construct an autonomous public building for Christians to gather into is inconsistent with the Bible's teaching of the New Covenant Church. Check it out below.
"Christianity is not a religion like other religions but a "secular" religion; not a category of life but all of life; not an escape from the world but in the world; not esoteric but earthy, God incarnated, Christ the Real Man, God present in the life of Christians and in the world. If one believes this, how can one build a temple, a house of God, a shrine implying that God's presence is attached to the building? People used to say (some still do) that "a church should look like a church", but it is better to say that church should look like a part of the world, not something different, because it is in the world that God meets His children not in some heavenly enclave."
Imagine: Gathering for fellowship around Lord's Supper meals in buildings where people live, eat, sleep, read, laugh, lose tempers, and sing (Christian's actual homes). That's – as Sovik would say – in and looking like a part of the world. We need a little more of that, primarily and presently for us Christians to understand that we're a FAMILY on a mission and not just isolated Jesus followers; but also for unbelievers to see Christ's Bride enjoying and stewarding God's creation and not just waiting to leave it (cause we're coming back anyway).
In my judgement, for one specific group of Christians to erect a building now, in the New Covenant, only for their little (or big) congregation primarily for "worship" is gnostic, and amounts to – despite all presumed godly intentions – nothing more than an attempt to hide away in a "heavenly enclave" once every seven days.
In my judgement, for one specific group of Christians to erect a building now, in the New Covenant, only for their little (or big) congregation primarily for "worship" is gnostic, and amounts to – despite all presumed godly intentions – nothing more than an attempt to hide away in a "heavenly enclave" once every seven days.
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