The Christ Centered "Church"

Posted by Shades Mountain Student Ministries | Posted in , | Posted on Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The church has lost it's beauty. Not exactly "the" church, but church buildings.

This may seems like a stupid "beef" but the more churches I go in, the further and further i see God and Christ in the design.

The church has seemed to mimic the culture of the day.

Starbucks has defined the current meeting place as a location of comfort and relaxation. Cool churches have couches instead of pews or coffee shops instead of lobbies. When you get home or if you missed the sermon you can download the podcast to your iPod. The pastor wears flip flops and speaks from a stool. There are lots of candles.

It seems this was following our entertainment driven culture as more and more churches seemed to have stadium seating with theater chairs, huge projector screens and attractive lighting. After the service you could buy a CD of the sermon to listen to in your car. The pastor dresses metro and uses "hair products." He's very Ryan Seacrest.

Before that was the more business culture. The church service was formal and the pastor stood in the center of the stage at his podium and spoke. You could even check out the library in the back of the lobby and purchase a tape of last week's sermon. The pastor wore his three piece suit and combed over hair.

But rewind much further than all of this. Rewind to a day when the church didn't look like a coffee shop, theater or business meeting but rather was a work of art. Instead of the the cross being nestled off to the side of the stage and the podium in the middle, the church was shaped like a cross, the pastor spoke from the side and the sacraments took center stage. The walls and windows were a constant reminder of our beautiful history as a church and the saints that went before us. The sun shone through their stained glassed depiction and cast it's light on us as if they were telling us to run the race they had started.

I find myself craving to worship in a sanctuary like that. One that carries a sent of history with walls and ceilings permeated with the prayers of previous saints. A church centered on Christ, even down to its blueprint. What a delight that would be.

I saw this video of a pastor and his wife that sing under the name "Welcome Wagon" and it brought me to these thoughts.

I want to be with them, sing with them and worship with them in the shadow of the image of Christ.

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