There is an old joke (not very funny) that the thing that destroys churches is not theological controversy or scandal, but the age old question of what color the carpet ought to be. Every pastor knows that aesthetics and decoration can be a very fraught subject, and so we tend to fear it. However, I want to speak directly about these issues.

In particular, I want to prepare you as a congregation here at Evergreen for a few aesthetic changes that you will begin to notice over the coming months. Before I do that, however, please bear with me as I lay out a few important principles that will help us as we think about church buildings and aesthetics.

While Christians can (and do) worship in any location, and in any situation, we also know that God took a special interest in how his temple was decorated, and what it said about himself and humanity’s purpose and destiny. In particular, he intended to communicate something about the purpose of worship to those who entered the space. We ought to take an important lesson from the Old Testament: God believed that architecture communicates something about itself because it is intentionally designed for a certain purpose. Whether people understand it or not, decorations and architecture speak to the heart in a way that is powerful but also nearly always unstated. I’d like to address possible misconceptions that some people have about church buildings.

For starters, we should remember that a church is not a building, it is a people assembled by God. Christians in New England avoided this confusion by calling the building where they worshiped in a “meetinghouse.” We may not call our building a meetinghouse, but we should at least learn the lesson of this practice.

Second, it’s also worth noting that for the Reformers, church buildings are not considered “sacred spaces” as though there could be something sacramental about a building. Simply being in a building that is used for worship does not in itself bless someone. Instead, the Reformers understood that while one might set aside a meeting space for purposes of worship, it was not the building itself that was holy, nor was it the presence of the pulpit, the table, or even various other decorations that had some sort of intrinsic power to make a place “holy.” Instead, the Reformers understood that it was the Word of God proclaimed, the sacraments set forth, and the worship of God according to His word that was rightly seen as holy. God’s people are considered holy. But a physical location itself was not seen as holy simply by virtue of its usage or decoration.

Third, as a consequence of this conviction, Reformed church buildings and sanctuaries tended to historically be characterized by a plainness and an intentional simplicity – especially in comparison to those spaces created by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, which were normally crowded with images and statues, and which demanded the attention of those in attendance. The Reformed tended to keep the decor in their church buildings simple and free from clutter or distraction. The goal was to direct the attention of those in the service away from the room or building itself and toward the preaching of the word. Thus in Reformed churches the pulpit was moved to the center, the table for the Lord’s Supper was moved to the side, and the baptismal font was usually placed somewhere useful but not dominant in the architecture.

Because of the nature of the church meeting place, the Reformers organized and decorated around the purpose of the room. The meeting place wasn’t constructed, designed, or decorated to become, itself, an object of curiosity or admiration. The goal of the room in itself was not beauty, but worship. Instead, the buildings were planned in such a way as to allow light into the building, to allow as many people as possible to participate, and to have the word and sacraments observed. These were the priorities of the Reformed. What this meant is that the worship space was seen as beautiful if and when it was oriented around an understood purpose and stripped of contrary distractions. In the case of God’s people, they are meant to worship and to witness. We worship the unseen God, and we bear witness about Christ to the watching world through the proclamation of His word. This means that the physical worship space ought not to draw our attention to it, but instead to the Creator who has assembled us together. David Gobel suggests this means that “a Reformed church architecture should be, at the outset, supportive of and subordinate to Christian worship.”

This doesn’t mean, however, that churches ought to be dreary, run-down, or unattractive. Nor does it mean that the Reformers have been fairly treated in the past, as though they opposed beauty simply because they put the usage of a space at the center of its aesthetic. A simple space is only lacking in beauty if simplicity is not or cannot be beautiful. There is an argument to be made that cluttered, image-filled, or stage-like modern spaces are themselves gauche, distracting, or demanding of an attention all their own. A Reformed approach to worship spaces, then, means that while a space should be simple and conducive to the dignity and joy of the worship of the living God, the space itself should never demand reverence and undue attention toward itself.

We should remember that the church has two roles: worship and witness. The meeting place for worship itself testifies to what it is for. Every building bears some kind of witness to its own purpose. Churches are no different, and so ought to – if possible – not only point to the Creator whom the church worships in this space, but also to the care and competence with which the Church itself operates. To put it plainly, a run down church building indicates something that may not be true of the Church. A run down building or property communicates without words that a congregation is careless, distracted, or interested in other matters than caring for its place of worship. These may be unfair, but they are a reality and mean that we fail in our public witness when we let a property unnecessarily decline. A cared for property doesn’t only bless the immediate community that uses a building, but also is a blessing to those who live near it, even if they are not immediately using the building. For these reasons, we ought to remember that caring for our building and beautifying it are worthwhile expenses and worth the effort.

With some of these things in mind, the deacons of our church assembled a committee of individuals in our congregation with gifting towards architecture and design, tasked with redesigning and rethinking the aesthetics of our church building. In our own case, we as a congregation are not in a position to altogether design a new building; instead, we have a building that God has already given us, which previous generations purchased and labored hard to build onto, and which gives us pre-existing boundaries within which any current design ideas must be constrained. We honor those generations in our church for the building which they have gifted to us by tending and caring for it. This doesn’t require that it be preserved in a permanent stasis. Instead, it can be kept and yet aesthetically updated. I believe this is what our design committee has done. The design committee has described their recommendations to the deacons as more of a “refresh” than a fundamental change.

While some projects will be done over time and progressively, in the short term the sanctuary and foyer are both being painted a much lighter shade and the banners on the walls, on the table, and on the pulpit are being removed. Congregants will likely be most struck by the simplicity of the cross, and the unadorned wooden pulpit and table.

Eventually the sconces and lighting will likely be replaced and updated. Plans are also being made with regard to the exterior of the building. In particular weather damaged stucco is being repaired, and the exterior (including the ramp behind the building) will itself be painted. Currently the exterior is a creamy off-white color. The new color will be lighter, and the trim will be a light grey. The matte green doors will be painted black.

The goal here is a simplified and dignified public worship space that is intended to focus those present on the invisible God, on his Word, and on his worship. The hope is that a lighter aesthetic will brighten the space in which we meet, and that the simpler aesthetic will direct those present to focus on God and His Word.

It is my own hope that we as a congregation will welcome these changes which the deacons have initiated, planned, and approved. I am also grateful to God and hopeful that these will be changes which are in keeping our church’s mission of worship and witness to God and the Gospel of his Son.