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aefenglommong's thoughts on his spiritual life have made me recall many of the same situations, if not quite so spiritually.
I think it was at Lynnville/Spurgeon that he first put forth the theory that you could tell what a church is like by the way the sanctuary is designed.
Lynnville's sanctuary is rather as if somebody had just moved everything into a Fellowship Hall and people had added stuff here and there that seemed to be what was needed at the time. It has a whole section of pews that could be curtained off, and a small group of people who only sat in that section. I don't know what they would have done if it'd ever actually been curtained off during a service. The whole place had a kind of aggregated feel. Things just accumulated there, and nobody really took the time to sort them out properly.
Spurgeon has a double altar rail, two semi-circles seperating the congregation from the altar and choir and preacher. It looked like it was designed to withstand sieges.
Aurora's sanctuary is a great big box. At one end of the box, there's a big set of steps leading up to the pipe organ, and on either side of the organ, elevated, are the places for the choir and pastor and any lay leaders. There's even a rail on either side, probably to keep people from falling off the edge. It's a very white sanctuary, too. Its size and bigness means that all that white just overwhelms most bits of color.
Tanner Valley's sanctuary is roughly clamshell shaped. It has two aisles seperating three sections of pews (drives wedding planners NUTS), with everything comfortably oriented a little beyond the altar. It all pretty much points to about where the lecterns are. It has a lot of natural wood and often feels a little smaller than it really is. Of these four examples, I'd say Tanner Valley resembles a campfire ring (the kind you perform in) the most.
Of course, the interpretations of what this all means usually waits until you've gone a few Sundays. At some point, though, the personality of the people and the personality of the place click in your head and you go, "oh". I don't know how many people actually intend the effects these set ups have, but you have to wonder sometimes.
aefenglommong's thoughts on his spiritual life have made me recall many of the same situations, if not quite so spiritually.I think it was at Lynnville/Spurgeon that he first put forth the theory that you could tell what a church is like by the way the sanctuary is designed.
Lynnville's sanctuary is rather as if somebody had just moved everything into a Fellowship Hall and people had added stuff here and there that seemed to be what was needed at the time. It has a whole section of pews that could be curtained off, and a small group of people who only sat in that section. I don't know what they would have done if it'd ever actually been curtained off during a service. The whole place had a kind of aggregated feel. Things just accumulated there, and nobody really took the time to sort them out properly.
Spurgeon has a double altar rail, two semi-circles seperating the congregation from the altar and choir and preacher. It looked like it was designed to withstand sieges.
Aurora's sanctuary is a great big box. At one end of the box, there's a big set of steps leading up to the pipe organ, and on either side of the organ, elevated, are the places for the choir and pastor and any lay leaders. There's even a rail on either side, probably to keep people from falling off the edge. It's a very white sanctuary, too. Its size and bigness means that all that white just overwhelms most bits of color.
Tanner Valley's sanctuary is roughly clamshell shaped. It has two aisles seperating three sections of pews (drives wedding planners NUTS), with everything comfortably oriented a little beyond the altar. It all pretty much points to about where the lecterns are. It has a lot of natural wood and often feels a little smaller than it really is. Of these four examples, I'd say Tanner Valley resembles a campfire ring (the kind you perform in) the most.
Of course, the interpretations of what this all means usually waits until you've gone a few Sundays. At some point, though, the personality of the people and the personality of the place click in your head and you go, "oh". I don't know how many people actually intend the effects these set ups have, but you have to wonder sometimes.
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Date: 2006-03-23 03:03 am (UTC)At Odon, the big, wide, sanctuary with cathedral ceiling was like big arms enfolding you and saying, "there, there." One member said it was the most restful sanctuary he ever saw.
The Christian Church in Odon was a cube, with the communion table on the floor level, a huge, built-up pulpit hovering directly over it, and the baptistry up in the corner above that.