High Church--Low Church (part 2)

 First Wednesday of Advent

In the second part of this series on high church--low church we'll get inside the church, but first just one more thing about outside--cemeteries. The fashion now is cremation and columbariums, but older churches in rural and some suburban areas have their own cemeteries. The older the church; the bigger the cemetery. Cemeteries grow; they never shrink. When the cemetery becomes larger than the church, it sends a sub-conscious message, particularly to potentially new church members. To put it strongly, this is a church of death, not of new life. The first church I pastored fullt-time was in Triune, Tennessee, a very small, rural community. The church was founded in 1815. That's a lot of time for a lot of people to die and be buried. The church was surrounded on all four sides by its cemetery. The cemetery was about five times the size of the church and three times the size of the parking lot. Need I say more?

Now, let's go inside a church, inside the sanctuary. First we encounter a narthex (the low church term is vestibule). In most churches this room serves relatively little purpose. In some it's a place to hang coats. It others, it's a place to store stuff. In some, it's a place to close doors at the beginning of the service in order to let latecomers know they are just that. 

Christ UMC Greensboro, in an extensive remodeling and enlargement 15 or so years ago, tremendously expanded its narthex into a gathering space. I would say it's about a fourth to a third the size of the sanctuary (and it's a large sanctuary). There is coffee. There are abundant greeters, convenient restrooms, and much space for socializing between Sunday School and Church. The doors into the sanctuary are glass, as is the entire wall separating it from the sanctuary. This conveys the message of a very open church. Latecomers may know that they are late, but they do not feel unwelcome. In churches with a tiny narthex, socializing tends to take place in the sanctuary itself before the service begins. In some churches the talking goes on throughout the organ prelude. In a church like Christ, Greensboro, the congregation knows to talk in the gathering space and to be silent when they enter the sanctuary. 

The first thing I notice when I go into a church is--where is the pulpit. Divided chancel is high church; center pulpit is low church. The message is clear. In divided chancel, worship is central; the cross in central; communion is central. In center pulpit, the preacher is central, the sermon is central. Center pulpits came in with the Reformed, i.e. Calvinist tradition of the sixteenth century. Anglicans and most Lutherans stayed with divided chancel. Baptists, who in reality, if not history, are Calvinists, have center pulpits. Methodists, as with just about everything else, can go either way. Virtually all United Methodist churches built or remodeled since 1960 have divided chancel. 

The outliers in this discussion are contemporary worship churches and worships spaces. Although there is considerable variation, generally there is no chancel; rather, its a stage. Choirs are often replaced by bands. Organs are verboten. Guitars and drums rule. Congregation (or perhaps I should say "audience") is highly involved, with foot tapping and uplifted hands. The basic model for contemporary worship is the rock concert, not any historical form of worship. This paragraph sounds negative, but actually I rather enjoy contemporary worship, though it would not be a steady diet for me. 

Everything you see in a church sanctuary is important and carries a message. This is a subject we will go into very deeply over the next weeks. As always, I'm grateful for your comments, questions, disagreements, etc. I just hope and pray that it won't be too long before we can get ourselves into church sanctuaries again. 

Faithfully,

Christian