Bring Back Design
Imagine if God stopped at... eh, it’ll do.
Imagine if the days in Genesis were ended with, and God saw His creation and thought it was good enough. Too many of us, myself included, reflect this in our worship through design.
I spent some time with friends in NYC a few years ago, I cannot remember the name of the cathedral we walked through, but I do remember a conversation I had with my friend. As I was gazing up at the vaulted ceiling, he looks at me and says, "man the one thing they really did well, was communicating how big God really is, through their building."
“Man the one thing they really did well, was communicating how big God really is, through their building. ”
I love old church architecture and any church architecture that gives a nod to it. To all my Protestant friends, this may sting a bit, but I love cathedrals. I love the enormous ceilings that call your eyes heavenward, the pipe organs that rings in your ears, the intricately crafted pews and pulpit, the spectrums of color flooding through the stained glass, the aroma of candles drifting through your nostrils; these buildings seem to engage every sense that we have in one way or another. Beautifully designed to a point of perceived transcendence. Now don’t hear me say the theology taught in these buildings is right nor am I all on board for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a building. But, what I am saying is these buildings are perfect examples of man’s ability to create and design to reflect God in-so-doing.
As a church, I don’t think we do a good job of understanding the importance of or implementing design in our buildings, our homes, and our lives.
Design is more than aesthetics, it is using elements for a purpose. A logo is just a tiny picture if it is not paired with a brand. A beautiful website is just pleasing to the eye until the copy is placed in it. A verse in a song is just short prose until paired with a melody and chorus. Simply to say, design is taking artistic and common elements and applying a purpose to them, to communicate something. Look back at the creation account; nature itself was design for something, a read through Romans 1 reveals how nature has revealed enough about God that all who have existed in it is credited as guilty. Nature is beautiful, but at the end of the day, it is designed to cause us to fear and to stir our affections for God. The creation of man was something even more specific. Man was created in the likeness of God, to reflect Him in all of creation. We are more than a picture, but a functioning purposeful being, created to steward and take dominion of the land.
What would this look like in the local church?
Well, certainly it doesn’t mean that our church buildings should become museums of art or that we should tear down all our ugly buildings and in their stead create cathedrals. No, one of the crucial elements of design is to make what you have work for you. I strongly believe in the sovereignty of God and with that comes the understanding that all of our current context is designed by Him for us to steward. We must take what God has given us and design it to best reflect Him.
We’ve all been given different gifts in different portions, it’s part of God’s design for the local church. You may not be the artistic type, but man can you create a beautiful spreadsheet. You may not be good with computers, but you’ve made every piece of furniture in your house. You may not be able to speak very well, but you can play 10 instruments. You may not have any skills that resemble what I’ve mentioned, but you have some unique gifting that God has given you. It’s time to see these gifts used in the church. The days of good enough should be long gone. Churches, use the gifting of your people in all areas of the church. Worship is more than singing and preaching. Worship is working, creating, crafting, and designing, as well.
Pastors, I’m looking at you for this paragraph.
You may be reading this thinking about how the idea of design in your church is a fairytale. But, did you know that you are probably the most prolific designer your church has? You design your sermons. You craft them in such a way that you feel presents biblical arguments the best. You spend hours understanding the content, planning inflections, focusing attention, changing cadence and volume, moving your hands, and making connections, so that your congregation may leave understanding everything you taught. Don’t shy away from other areas of design! Just because you are not gifted in it, or understand it, doesn’t mean it's unhelpful or unnecessary. In a Trellis and Vine type of approach, utilize the gifting of your church so that every area can be touched and designed by a member worshipping and proclaiming the goodness of God through their design. Bring your members into conversations about how and what they can do to help the design of your church. You are not in this alone.
Pastors, it starts and ends with you! My hope is that at the end of your day, you can look at your church's work and say, "it is good."