Sacred Space

Being with God where we have been, where we are, and where we will be

For the past 20 years, The Heart Church has met at Watauga High School. This space has been a gift from God to us, one that has met our needs on Sunday mornings. The low cost of rent has allowed us to channel our finances into various other areas of ministry.

One of the benefits of not owning or renting our own permanent space is that we have been forced to live out the reality that “the church is not the building; it’s the people.” This became an embodied value by necessity as so much of our church life has taken place in homes and out in the community. We have learned to creatively seek God’s presence and “church life” in the everyday spaces our lives.

We’ve had challenges as well. Community outreach has at times been limited by our lack of access to a shared meeting space during the week, and much of our energy on Sunday mornings has gone to simply setting up. Thus, the opportunity to exchange spaces with the Rock and move into the Boone Heights location was an appealing opportunity, knowing there would be mutual blessings for both churches.

But as we make this transition, we want to be sober and mindful that the spaces we inhabit are spiritually formative. How do we take the values we’ve come to embody (by necessity) and transfer them to a new space?

Over the centuries, the Christ’s Church has met in all sorts of locations. After Christ died and resurrected, his followers began to meet in homes to pray, study, and share meals. Roman law precluded Christians from owning property, so a permanent building for the early church wasn’t even an option. There was a time when Christians met in catacombs, both to hide from their persecutors and be close to the martyrs of the faith.

In later years, faith leaders have erected grand cathedrals, spending fortunes on elaborate stained glass and stone carvings. After the second Great Awakening, churches began to outfit old theaters into gathering spaces, as stages helped showcase orator pastors and professional musicians on Sunday mornings.

Across the region of Appalachia, you will find churches who meet in one room chapels, some still heated by wood stoves. You’ll also find churches meeting in storefronts and theaters, and yes, high school cafeterias. While we can debate the merits and advantages of each, we acknowledge that God has been present in all these spaces.

Yet, it is important to recognize that space can become a quagmire of conflict. Churches have been known to split over the color of carpet or the design of stained glass.  Space can become an idol, with the needs of a building taking precedent over the needs of people. It can become a distraction from what matters most, for when we believe God is only present in a “holy sanctuary” (or church building), we can miss God’s presence in our everyday lives.

Space is not everything. But it is also not nothing. God does indeed work among us in place! We experience God in physical spaces. This is why the people of God throughout scripture so often name places and spaces when they are remembering God’s faithfulness:  the burning bush, Jacob’s Well, Mount Sinai, the various altars of Abraham, Solomon’s Temple, the Jordan River, The Pool of Bethesda, the Mount of Olives. We are embodied, physical beings. The spaces we inhabit and where we encounter God matter.

Spaces where we meet to worship and fellowship (so-called “sanctuaries) – be they cathedrals, theaters, storefronts, or chapels - are “sacred” only in so far as they are set apart for a purpose. That purpose is to pay attention to God and to each other. We practice paying attention to God and each other in these spaces on Sunday morning so that we can continue paying attention throughout the week, no matter where we find ourselves. We must all guard against those “sacred spaces” becoming a distraction or point of contention, pulling our attention away from what matters most.

We are moving into the Boone Heights location not because we want to enhance our “performance” on a Sunday morning or because we want to pull all our weekly gatherings into this central hub. We are moving to Boone Heights because we believe a more permanent space with regular weekly access will help us serve the community more effectively. We believe it will help us pay attention to God, pay attention to each other, and pay attention to our community. Together, we will work to ensure this space is “sacred” in the way God wants it to be, that it doesn’t distract us from what matters most, but rather draws our eyes to the heart of what matters, the heart of our Shepherd.