{"id":991,"date":"2008-06-26T00:05:50","date_gmt":"2008-06-26T04:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/?p=991"},"modified":"2008-07-07T22:42:28","modified_gmt":"2008-07-08T02:42:28","slug":"love-the-gothic-but-not-the-goth-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/991","title":{"rendered":"Love the Gothic (but not the Goth so much)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m often amused by what church leaders anxious about numbers and attendance assume about non-church-goers. A lot of loopy and unfortunate ideas get foisted on \u201cprospects\u201d in an effort to entice them into the church front doors\u2014especially the 20-somethings and young adults. More often than not, it seems to me, those efforts tend to do their best to make church more palatable,  friendlier, \u201cinviting,\u201d and \u201cless threatening\u201d only resulting in stripping the Church of all the distinctiveness it offers as something \u201cset apart\u201d from culture. I often imagine prospective seekers asking, \u201cIf there\u2019s no difference, then what\u2019s the difference?\u201d Here\u2019s another item from the June 12, 2008 issue of the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christiancentury.org\/\">Christian Century<\/a><\/em>, this one on sacred space and architecture. <!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>OUT WITH THE NEW: By a ratio of almost 2 to 1, unchurched Americans prefer churches that look more like medieval cathedrals than the modern, utilitarian church facilities that currently are being constructed. This preference for the Gothic, found among both unchurched Catholics and unchurched Protestants, is even more pronounced among people between the ages of 25 and 34. \u201cI don\u2019t like modern churches, they seem cold,\u201d said one survey respondent. \u201cI like the smell of candles burning, stained-glass windows [and] an intimacy that\u2019s transcendent\u201d (survey by LifeWay Research) (p. 9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As a self-confessed EpiscoBaptist I could not agree more. While I appreciate the reality that <em>the Church is the people<\/em>, I find no aesthetic pleasure in churches housed in stadiums, auditoriums, or gymnasiums. There\u2019s something about dedicated sacred space that prods the mind and spirit toward the holy and the transcendent. There\u2019s something iconic, intuitive, and archetypal about sacred space&#8212;we recognize it when we see it, and respond accordingly. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.galindoconsultants.com\"><img src='http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/galindobanner5.jpg' alt='galindoconsultants.com' \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m often amused by what church leaders anxious about numbers and attendance assume about non-church-goers. A lot of loopy and unfortunate ideas get foisted on \u201cprospects\u201d in an effort to entice them into the church front doors\u2014especially the 20-somethings and &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/991\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}