We seem more concerned with the amenities of our buildings than the God we have gathered to worship. Instead of thinking about the message of our buildings we focus on HD jumbotrons, a bigger parking lot, an organic coffee shop.

Your church building preaches a gospel whether you know it or not. It portrays a message to all those who see it—those who drive past it on their commute, the first-time visitors, even the couple who have been sitting in the same seat for forty-seven years.

Some churches are like homes, exhorting their guests to find comfort. Some churches look like office towers, promising upward mobility. And still other churches are like a retreat, reminding us of our need to build rest into our busy lives.

Yet, sadly, if you take a look at most modern American church architecture you’ll see more of a statement about consumerism than the gospel.

Before anything else can be said about the consumeristic emphasis in modern church architecture, we should first learn a bit more about the history of church architecture and how each age of the church tried to accomplish something a little different from the previous.

The History of Church Architecture

Christians did not always have set apart spaces for meetings. They began meeting in large spaces out of necessity. They were too many to fit in homes and, before the advent of denominations, they all met together.

Now, some of these Christians started to meet in abandoned pagan temples, repurposed and redeemed. But temple architecture ultimately proved unhelpful. The attention in a Roman pagan temple focused on the front porch of the building where sacrifices were made for the gods to see. The interior was secondary, merely a place for the edifices and statues to be held.

The church needed a place to sing, to pray, to break bread. So, they adopted a well-known structure, the basilica, which not only fit their function, but taught a greater truth. Basilicas were used as courts, royal halls, and government chambers. To use this building for worship pointed to a higher courtroom, a greater throne room, and a better kingdom.

Centuries later, the church form evolved from a single hall into two intersecting halls in the shape of a cross. Ceilings vaulted into the heavens, drawing the worshiper’s eyes upward and dwarfing visitors in scale.

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