Thesis Chapter 2: A Theological Model: Unity of Worship and Education

In thinking about forming a theological model for the postmodern Christian congregation, the typical dichotomy between the two main parts of a body needs to be considered: its large communal worship functions and its typically individually focused education functions. This division is largely due to the perception that large communal activities in the worship center are primary to a congregation’s existence, and therefore higher in spiritual value than what are considered secondary educational operations.[1] This division of congregational life into two arenas sets the agenda for a paradigm of church architecture whose “spiritual spaces,” or large communal gathering areas, completely draw out the talents of designers and artisans while providing unremarkable educational spaces for the seemingly commonplace activities of teaching the Christian life. This usually produces buildings with soaring worship forms connected to secondary building masses that tend to be a mix of residential scale and institutional character, imitating the historical vertical worship spaces and horizontal education spaces of typical American church building forms. American church architecture is, therefore, typically symbolized by awkwardness of both design intent and execution.

One of the ways these two parts of congregational life can be brought into agreement is to wed them by pairing a single congregational mission with a vision focused on the nature of congregational fellowship. This coupling would facilitate a mission of communal worship and the teaching of personal worship, with the vision of intermingling the homogeneous groups of people found in our culture and, hence, in our churches. Utilizing Godly Play, a “worship method”[2] type of curriculum, and Intentional Intergenerational Ministry, a fellowship paradigm, as vehicles for creating harmony between worship and educational goals and activities promotes a continuity of theological aims between the two. A unified theological model for the church that joins worship and discipleship is the result, and this provides a particular method of religious education herein named “worship discipleship.” This theological process of unity unfolds an architectural theology built on the work of architect Ed Sovik, and pastoral educator Rev. Dr. Jerome W. Berryman, and promotes a building that intentionally conceives of itself as an element that enhances postmodern ministry. The ever-evolving organism that results from this interplay is what I call the “intentional church.”

Worship is the overarching mission of the Christian congregation.[3] A communal life of gathering to worship God joined with the teaching of the symbols, meanings, language, and experiences of worship, and its discipleship goals, would sharply define a body’s thrust to honor God in all things it undertakes.

Godly Play enhances this worship mission by providing a learning environment that teaches sacred story, parables, liturgical action, and personal “work,” or spiritual play,[4] among church members, creating a shared religious language. It is a curriculum that can further the goal of fellowship and shared experience within a congregation. What is important to say is that…[this]…approach to religious education…invites children (and adults) to enter sacred story, parable, and liturgical action in a seriously playful way, and so to learn the art of its appropriate use.[5]

As the congregation undertakes the Intentional Intergenerational Ministry vision to help forward the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it moves against the social tide of special interest groups within our culture, for “the general characterization of society as segregated by age still stands.”[6] Intentional Intergenerational Ministry enhances fellowship among members of diverse times of life. As one of the rare facets of our society where all generations have the chance to intermingle as spiritual equals, the congregation has the potential to promote the sharing of spiritual knowledge and experience without peer group separations experienced in everyday life. “The faith community is…the institution best suited to facilitate significant cross-generational life and learning.”[7] Intentional Intergenerational Ministry is such a vision for Christians, and it can be an enlarging experience for a congregation because of the benefits of the cumulative insights, perspectives, and counter balance found in the commingling of all generations.

This kind of harmony between worship and discipleship presents the architect with a new set of design parameters when considering how to accommodate the saints for fellowship with God and each other. Here the concept of “church building” becomes one of furthering and enhancing the proclamation of the Word, the sacraments, the gathering of the people of God, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This approach is different from the emphasis on functionality, visual composition, and artistic appearance found in most religious buildings. Instead, its thrust is to further the movement and vitality of the gospel and the people who are the temple of God, not to create an elaborate “house of God…[for God to indwell].”[8] New Testament life is about God indwelling people through the power of the Holy Spirit, and a congregation’s fellowship paradigm presents the architect with the challenge to articulate the work of the Trinity as it presents itself in the individual identity of a congregation. Beauty is the result of answering this challenge, in contrast to the fundamental pursuit of esthetics usually undertaken by the architect.

In particular, the theological and practical goal of enhancing Intentional Intergenerational Ministry and Godly Play worship education through architecture provides the designer with a basis for architectural programming and design conceptions. Here religious architecture becomes a meeting house whose spaces embrace the large communal and small group educational ministries focused on knowing God through worship, and the Holy Spirit through fellowship. Architectural relationships that express this single theological mission and its supporting vision are modified from the typical church building design concept and, therefore, have the potential to be expressed differently from typical church building forms. This paper is a discussion of the bottom-up, or theology first, process of conceiving such a postmodern, or “intentional church” community.
[1] Atlanta Inter-Seminary Religious Education Faculty Dramatists, “Leading With Hope 1: Identity and Vocation of the Religious Educator.” (Plenary Session at the annual convention of the Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education, Philadelphia, PA., 11/1/2002.)
[2] Godly Play evolved from Maria Montessori’s method of religious education, and is considered a method because its purpose is not to transmit knowledge, but rather to facilitate the theological knowing and experience of God through the shared experience of teacher and disciple within the lessons. This occurs in a worship context.
[3]Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Part 1, Book of Confessions (Louisville: Distribution Management Services, 1994) 201
[4] Jerome W. Berryman, Godly Play: An Imaginative Approach to Religious Education, (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1991) 18
[5] Ibid.
[6] James W. White, Intergenerational Religious Education (Birmingham: Religious Education Press, 1988) 11
[7] Ibid., 13.
[8] Michael S. Rose, Ugly as Sin: Why They Changed Our Churches from Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces—and How We Can Change Them Back Again (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2001) 7.