Extreme Postmodern Church "Makeovers" Part One - The Physical Makeover

I had a dream the other night. The ABC crew from “Extreme Home Makeover” came to the church I grew up in. You know - the church I referenced in my last BLOG. They began by ripping up that green thin layered carpet. Next to come was the demolition of the wooden pews with the “In Memory of” plaques on the center aisle side. After the remaining interior was gutted, they imploded the entire structure with the steeple falling straight to the ground (like that statue of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War - I’ll get to him later). They began talking about the renovations they were going to make.

One designer conveyed –

“We really want to make full use of the space. Before, you had these high arching ceilings that really served no purpose. We can utilize that space by making the new structure two levels in that area. Now you not only have your worship area, but you also have a coffee room, a multi-media center, and that allows you room to put in a gymnasium and locker rooms in the remaining space. We also wanted to get the most “bang for the buck” in changing out the lighting. The elaborate and ornate lighting used before was really for show and really did not efficiently light this area. So we have gone to strip lights. These take less time to install and cost less, but really provide wonderful lighting. Finally, the stain glass that was used before really did not allow sunlight into the sanctuary. So we opted for a double paned window fixture that would provide warmth but also give a sense of “openness”. To be honest, the old structure (from a landscaping standpoint) really did not fit in very well with the other structures around it. The new structure, however, will blend in more with its surroundings to where you wouldn’t even know this was a church unless you actually attended.”

After the renovations were completed, the parishioners were all brought back from Heritage USA (Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s little resort – it would still have existed back then, besides, it’s my dream). Then all of a sudden, Ty Pennington yelled to the driver of the Bill Gaither Trio bus, “Bus driver, move that bus!” Everyone cheered as the removal of the bus revealed a wonderful multi-functional building. Parishioners interviewed were mostly in tears. One said,” I had always wanted to be able to play basketball at church. I never thought that dream would actually be realized.” Another commented,” You know, sermons can be so depressing sometimes. It’s nice to be able to go to the coffee room or to anywhere else in this new facility where there is no constant reminder of God and sin and get away from the heavy emotions caused by conviction.” Everyone hugged, the renovation crew left, and a year later no one could remember why they were all assembling in the first place so they sold the property to a health club chain, and everyone went home.

I have to confess - I didn’t really have this dream. I made it up. That’s another great thing about BLOGS. You can make stuff up as you go along. But let’s refocus. Now, let’s go from fantasy to history. Think back to one of the only times (if not the only time) in Scripture that you see Christ go absolutely berserk! It was in the Temple (the place of worship) where the “moneychangers” were using the Temple as a place to do business rather than a place of worship. Think of all of the times that Christ potentially could have gotten angry but did not, yet in this instance in the temple, he did. That speaks volumes to me as to what sorts of things God might be most concerned – like exchanging the glory of the temple for something that it was not intended to be! Now certainly I could not be condemning the modern day churches we have which are housed in modern day structures – could I?

Well, let me answer that question by making another observation. It is interesting to me that when you start talking about building a new church to accommodate church grow or expanding your facilities to accommodate church growth, that the second question we ask after “How are we going to pay for this?” Is “Okay, what do we need to cut out so we can meet our “budget”? Then we start making cuts. Do we really need the new kitchen? How critical is additional parking? If we turn the sanctuary this way, then we could save money on additional building materials, etc… After all, isn’t it important to be diligent with the money given to the church? I mean, how critical is the structure we worship in anyway? Isn’t giving money to the poor and giving money to missions more important than the actual structure we worship in?

Hmmmm. I wonder. How would God build a church? Wait a minute! He actually did that. Well, he allowed Solomon do it after David was considered unfit/unclean to build it and although God didn’t really request a temple to be built, I have to assume He had no problem with it since His presence filled it (I Kings 8:10-11). So for argumentative purposes I’ll go ahead and make the quantum leap here that Solomon built it “God’s way” (in fact I think someone actually came out with a book shortly there after called "Building a Temple God's Way"). So Solomon went to the people and began putting a budget together consulting the PBC (Priest Building Committee) and they decided that the altar should certainly stay, but that they might want to reconsider how critical the Urim and Thummim were since most were now converting back to putting out fleeces because it was cheaper (OK, I am showing off here that I know what a Urim and Thummim is/are. They were used for - among other things - divining Yahweh’s will, but it is interesting that one translation of Urim and Thummim is “lights and perfections”. WOW! Could this be an ancient reference to the “perfection of strip lighting in church structures”? Just kidding, I gotta quit “side barring”).

NO, NO, NO….that’s not what happened at all! Solomon could have cared less about expense. Money was no object. Solomon made the temple as big as he could - it was 20 stories high. I mean, how much room could the non-physical supreme Spirit of God need? Solomon used the best stones he could find. He had vast quantities of cedar ordered from the King Hiram of Tyre (I Kings 5:20-25). And he was willing to assume heavy debts to build this Temple. He made it as ornate as he could. He had it overlaid with pure gold. The idea here is that no expense was too great for Yahweh the Living God. Indeed, a temple should be extravagant and worthy of God. There should be no expense spared to build His house and the attention to detail in building God’s house should be a constant reminder of the attention to detail we should give to the worship of that God in His house. The preciousness of the Temple was representative of the preciousness of God (I use that term in its true sense of implicating worth and not in its trite, sappy sense). Now, I am not arguing for throwing caution to the wind and going into debt to build a church. But I see no theological perspective in Solomon that questions whether or not the money he spent would have been better off going toward those needy families in Israel or supporting the missionary effort to evangelize Assyria (they were such rogues). And I see no boycotting of this temple by God since He chose to indwell it. And it seems to me that Solomon was very concerned about the actual structure in which God would reside and in which God would be worshipped.

I am not arguing that modern day multi-functional church buildings are wrong. But I am not arguing that they are right either. And I am most certainly arguing that our postmodern church makeovers have removed tangible, visible elements that represent God's transcendence (and God's presence) in our place of worship that we need to recover. That doesn’t mean going out and buying stain glass windows, but it means something! That is why it is so critical to recover this element in our worship music (see my other BLOG – American Idle, Where Are the Manly Songs – May 1st, 2007), because we have lost this idea of the transcendence of God everywhere else it seems. What in the new postmodern multi-functional churches reminds us of a holy and transcendent God?

I have to confess again – I lied. I won’t get to Saddam Hussein until the next BLOG. But I am not done with this subject quite yet…..

To Be Continued….