Beauty

I ama dyed-in-the-wool Protestant. I am a modernist. I have cultivated a tendency to look forward in my methodology. My preferred "style" of worship is contemporary, emergent...

All of these adjectives and positions are products of my intellect...my reason tells me that in a post-modern society, the church must stay relevant. I understand that the hymns and architecture and art of the past were contemporary and modern and current and relevant in their own time.

But I go to a church that meets in a strip-center. I used to attend a church that met in a huge metal barn and looked for all the world like a big kicker-bar. The apartment building that I live in is more inspiring.

My heart tells me that our places of worship should be uplifting and inspiring. That a place of beauty is more appropriate for worship than a metal barn. Here is sit, looking out my living room window at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, all covered with snow. The sheer wonder of it makes my heart swell with praise for it's Maker. Such wonders in nature speak of the heart of God, who made it all and called it "good." Can we not offer some sort of small token of beauty in our place of worship?


If worship is indeed an act of the heart, should the places where we meet to worship seek to inspire the heart. It just stands to reason to me.

I'm not saying that there's necesarily a Biblical mandate for this. Certainly, the early Church met in homes. There are times when we are placed in circumstances that are so grim that worship must flow from reserves of strength deep in the heart. Paul and Silas worshipped in prison (certainly no place of beauty) and the Holy Spirit moved powerfully. BUT...It is also true that the Tabernacle and the Temple were both places of opulent beauty, dripping with gold and gems and finely finished woods...all at the specific command and inspiration of the Lord.

Obviously, there is a need to find balance between these extremes. I ask the question: What is God telling us about Himself, about His heart, in the instructions to build an opulent Temple?