Worship Space And Hospitality

Written from a Protestant perspective with the evangelistic church in mind, the following article provides some challenging insights regarding how the very space we use for worship can aid the church's ministry of hospitality. Winston Churchill once said that first we shape our buildings and then our buildings shape us. His observation may have been made with a view to the magnificent and ancient British parliamentary buildings, but it also applies to the church and its buildings. Once we build a building, we surrender a certain amount of leadership to it. For centuries church building concentrated on worship space. Many of the buildings we worship in each Sunday reflect this emphasis: a rectangular sanctuary with row upon row of pews facing the front, which holds the pulpit. The entire building models the concept of worship as dialogue between God and the people. The pastor and the pulpit represent God; the pews and the worshipers represent the people. But often even the notion of…