Building Creatively: Joy as a catalyst

This is the third in a series of 5 articles that explore the idea of creating buildings for the church within this time of cultural change.

The sun was rising as I sat on the cottage deck overlooking the lake; the colours, textures, smells and sounds surrounded me.  While I have seen many sunrises, each is unique and I was awed by the wonder of God as our creator.  He is creatively extravagant on something that happens every day.

The Psalmist writes that God’s mercies are new every morning.  Newness; Freshness; Vitality.   Because he is loving, and he is the creator, it is easy to believe that God loves to create.  While God is consistent in his love and character, his creative nature loves originality and change.  His creativity keeps the relationship between His changelessness and the changing nature of this world fresh and alive.  The amazing thing is that God does not keep this creative ability to himself.  God loves to see us create and bring joy to each other through our own inventiveness just as parents love to see their children produce something beautiful.

Erwin McManus appropriately asks the question, “So, why is it that we who worship the God of creativity see so little of it when we come together?”

Of the many church facilities that I have seen in North America, few demonstrate or encourage creativity.  Typically, churches are either ornately crafted monumental buildings that are frozen in time or bland utilitarian boxes that have little aesthetic appeal.  What both of these extremes have in common is that they both exclude the user from being part of the ongoing creative process.  Our facilities should inspire us to be creative, fresh, inquisitive and even daring in our participation with and for God and each other.

In our current cultural context, people want to express their creative natures both individually and collectively.  This is best revealed by the popularity of the “Home Makeover” and similar type shows.  People want to have a creative influence on their surroundings.  Our buildings should allow for and encourage these expressions.   The following are some thoughts on how we can encourage creativity:

1.       Encourage artistic expression: 

Evangelical churches have not been attractive to those in the artistic community because we have typically discounted the aesthetic contribution of a place of worship. Instead, we have practiced reductionism, modernism and employed utilitarian value systems in building our churches.  We have chosen to ignore that:

“In any culture the expression of beauty is a significant shaper of the cultural ethos.  In many ways aesthetics are an expression of what culture holds true through the abstract medium of images and sounds.  Music, poetry, and dance are not simply extraneous expressions of culture.  They are the soul of a culture.  When a culture holds certain values and ideals as true, the expression of those truths goes beyond words.  Art uses a canvas as a medium for communicating the soul of a people.  Dance brings physicality and rhythm to the beliefs and values of a culture.  The musician and the poet are the voices of the culture, and not simply the cultured.”126 Ermin McManus, an Unstoppable Force.

2.       Include Colour and Texture:

God used an incredibly large palette of colour and texture to create life; and so should we.  Institutional Green, Builder’s Beige - these terms have negative connotations for good reason, they do not reflect the many ‘colours’ of life.  Sunshine Yellow, Ocean Mist or any number of colours can have positive impact on our spaces.  We can give our spaces feelings of calm, passion, joy, or quiet, in other words a more alive and expressive facility.

‘[Colour] is light, the source of life; it touches and expresses the soul of [humankind].  There is nowhere that colour does not exist; we are constantly under its influence, whether we know it or not.” 12 Angela Wright, A Beginner’s Guide to Colour Psychology.

3.       Include ’God’ things:

“How many are your works, O LORD!  In wisdom you made them all”  Psalm 104:24
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." Lk 20:38
“… not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these” Lk 12:27

Nature is a result of God’s creativity.  Bring natural building materials into a facility gives us visible reminders of God the ultimate designer.  Not only are plants beautiful visually but they also bring physical benefits such as helping to purify the air.  Incorporating natural lighting and ventilation strategies can be part of environmentally sound building practices. 

4.       Include Symbol / Mystery

A symbol “hints at the visibility of the invisible.”  Symbolism has powerful potential to provide a strong relationship between a facility and its users.  It can evoke the mysteries of our relationship with God since we cannot know all about God or fully know His heart.  Symbols remind us of the wonderful tension in the mystery of God who is so beyond us, yet also so near to us.  Care needs to be taken to keep the symbols fresh and alive so that they don’t become frozen in formality and therefore lose their vitality.  An oversize globe could be a reminder that God is active in the whole world. The baptistery could be a fountain in the centre of the lobby expressing daily the reminder of the life given us in Christ.

Think of the possibilities!  What might it mean for our congregations if we allow our God given creativity the freedom to flourish?  When the artistic mediums of image and sounds are encouraged, colour, texture, nature are embraced and symbolism is explored within a facility design, a fuller expression of creative worship will develop.   Let us make every effort to allow for the expression of God’s creative hand in our midst...

Stephen J Mawdsley is a Partner and Principal Architect of SJMA. If you would like to discuss these concepts in more detail, Stephen can be reached at 519.649.0220 or stephenm@arch-pm.com.