High Church--Low Church (part 6)

 Third Wednesday of Advent

First, thanks to Frances for her comment. I'm glad too.

Church members come in various sorts of two-types. E.g. There are two types of church members: high church and low church. One of the two types is:(1) people who don't want to spend any money on the physical plant of the church, and (2) people who love a beautiful church and are willing to pay for it. I am of the second type.

Sidebar: Of type (1) there are two types: (a) people who want to spend it all on mission, (b) people who don't want to spend anything on anything.

Back to type 1. They tend to be low-church people, often former Baptists. They like things plain and simple. They are uncomfortable when surrounded by beauty. They are not art lovers. They also don't like pastors and staff having nice offices. They think church classrooms should look like school class rooms. They think all church technology should be the cheapest available. 

Sidebar 2: One school of thought is that the expense of a church physical plant should match the socio-economic condition the average church member. Churches with higher income church members expect finer church buildings and have the money to pay for them. Churches with lower income church members are happy with what they can get, from old run-down buildings to storefront in strip malls. Not a few churches whose member have experienced good income increases over the years have decided to remodel sanctuaries and/or add on to their physical plants. Incidentally, I am not of this school of thought.

Now to type 2. They want their sanctuaries to be beautiful. They find that beauty to be inspiring and uplifting. They like high ceilings, permanent pulpits, lecterns, and altars, that look good. They want beautiful paraments, often custom made. They don't want the cheapest thing out of the online Cokesbury catalog. At their best they think in terms of the beauty of the church as glorifying God and enabling the worshippers to glorify God.

 

Rick Warren in his enormously best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, begins with these two sentences. "It's not about you. It's about God." 

 

What does God want? Does God want our cheapest or our best? I'll vote for the latter. My basis for this is Biblical. Read the instructions for the building of the Tabernacle in Exodus 30:1-31:7, or the description of the building of Solomon's Temple in 1Kings 6, or the descriptions of the new Jerusalem come down from heaven in Revelation 21-22.

So here's where we really come down to it--stained glass.

To be continued.

Faithfully,

Christian