Space Matters

Earlier this week I wrote a piece for the Antioch Movement website entitled, "What Is A Missional Community?" The purpose was to bring clarity to why we use words like "missional community" and "worshiping community".

One of the important conversations that pushed back against this concept was in relation to "holy space". Does a building matter? Is there holy ground? What about the Temple?

This is a really important question and I want to be very, very clear: Space matters. Place matters.

This summer I had the opportunity to visit St Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, Hungary. It was overwhelmingly beautiful. I was left in awe of our Creator God. As I wandered around the basilica I desired to worship. From the stained glass windows to the art and the tall ceilings, everything in that place was designed to draw you into worship.

Space matters.

I grew up attending a worshiping community that meets in a historic building. I love hearing the pipe organ boom out the Doxology and Glori Patri. You can feel it in your chest. That building was designed to bring you to a posture of worship.

There is holy ground. Buildings, houses, bushes in the desert can all be holy ground set apart for the purpose of worship. Mundane places set apart for a glorious purpose.

With all of that being said, these places and spaces are not "church". They are chapels, basilicas, and cathedrals but they are not church. The Church is the people of God. Nothing more, nothing less. We must hold on to this theological truth as a proper understanding of it helps us to understand our very identities as followers of Jesus.