RE-PITCHING THE TENT, a book review
© Richard Giles
Lavishly illustrated with many new colour and black and white photographs, this essential guide will transform the way we regard the interior and exterior of our church buildings, enabling us to see them afresh as a vital part of mission strategy.
Drawing on the experiences of congregations in widely differing local cultures in Britain, North America and Europe, it will inspire creative and imaginative design, and take every reader on an exciting journey of discovery of what is conveyed to the world by the very places in which we encounter and proclaim the mystery and beauty of God."
When I first encountered this book as recommended by an Episcopal mentor in my studies toward preaching and lay ministry, I was quite put off by the idea of spending time studying the physical layout and design (or redesign) of the buildings in which I might labor.
My desires were to learn more about ministry, not about custom designing church buildings. Nevertheless, my mentor was insistent and knowing that I might be spending a night each week for a month or two discussing the book, I proceeded to read.
What I found was theological profundity just below the surface layer of writings on remodeling, re-designing, moving furniture hither and yon and whether or not pulpits and alters need to be at one end of a room or planted in the center. What I found beneath the ideas on redesign intended to reflect a more communal and egalitarian sense of worship is a powerful and deliberate expression of rethinking our approaches to Christian theology.
To quote Giles in his preface, ".... There is little that covers the middle ground where theology and spatial design meet and interact.
This handbook is offered as a "doodler's resource book' for all those - whether clergy, architects, church council members or just good plain honest faithful - who strive to make sense of the church's built inheritance at a time when the world sets out from a different starting point than when these stones were first raised."
The three sections of the book approach the question of re-ordering our church buildings under the headings of the three basic questions, which every community of faith needs to ask itself as we enter the third Christian millennium:
