I’ve been a church architect going on 26 years now, and as the saying goes time flies when you’re having fun.
For me, this profession is a passion and a calling. It’s exciting to know that your work has had a significant impact on the worshipping experience of many different church communities, and to realize what you’ve learned about this specialized architectural field can be applied to enhance peoples’ feelings of connection with God.
At the same time, this work is also humbling. In the final analysis the architect is only one of many contributors who bring a church into being. You can create a space that’s exactly customized to your client’s needs and desires, and capable of evoking profound emotional reactions. Yet without the passionate enthusiasm of the church members, and the committed service of pastors, staff, and administrators, even the most elaborately designed and aesthetically pleasing structures would be devoid of spirit.
Church architects can design and build beautiful churches, but only people can bring them to life. In recent years I’ve been blessed to be involved in the construction of expansive campus projects designed to serve large and growing church communities. On these jobs the idea is to construct church facilities that can comfortably serve thousands of attendees on a single day, yet still offer an intimate and satisfying spiritual experience to the individual worshipper. I’ve also seen and participated in the transformation in church construction that has de-emphasized single-use facilities in favor of multi-purpose buildings, a necessary change as churches strive to stay viable by meeting a broader range of community needs.
The challenges change as church architecture evolves and diversifies. But the essential and timeless elements of the profession remain unaltered, as does the church architect’s primary responsibility. As a church architect you are a facilitator, tasked to turn a church community’s vision for their future into reality. You take your guidance from church leaders and members, and then unleash all the creative powers you have to put together a building plan that will help translate their dreams into reality—whatever those dreams might happen to be.
At its best the church architect’s work represents a true example of God’s inspiration at work in the real world. Knowing that I’m acting as a vessel for such powerful and virtuous forces is a wonderful feeling, and it is one I’ve been fortunate to experience time and time again for the past quarter century.
