House Analogies – Intro

We’ve all heard the building in which the local church worships referred to as the, “House of God”. But whilst it may be a place where an intimate sense of our appreciation of God takes place, most Christians would not see it as God’s residence. It may be a place of special encounter and it may have a number of things in common with a house. By considering what those may be we may achieve some insight into how today’s church might create buildings to better serve the church’s mission today.

So let’s think about a house. It has some kind of presentation to the street which we generally try to make attractive. Its appearance can say something about us who live there that we wish to convey to others. It has a point of entry which is generally easy to find. Does it have the sound of an aggressive dog on the inside or does the person coming to the door appear to be welcoming and friendly? What is the first thing we hear as a visitor or stranger? Have we been able to get a glimpse inside as we approach or is it all boarded up with no way of knowing what is beyond? Once we get over that threshold we would normally expect a warm welcome from people who might show that by adjusting whatever plans they had at the time in order to make us feel at home. It would not be unusual to be

offered a drink of some kind and invited to sit down on a comfortable chair. We would not expect to be left alone to find our own way around the house.

Are we seeing some analogies with the spaces in our church buildings?

Over the next few weeks I would like to take a look at some parallels between our houses and the buildings of our churches today. I’d like to look at:

• Welcome and presentation

• Relationships and socialising

• Taking meals together

• The study and the shed

• Resting and nurturing

In an earlier blog I mentioned the comment by Sandy Miller (now Bishop) of Holy Trinity Brompton who said that, 150 years ago, the average church was much more comfortable than the average house in London. Things have changed considerably today, but this has happened before. In Haggai 1; 3-4, “… the word of theLord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is this is a time for youyourselves to be living in your panelled houses, whilst this houseremains a ruin?””

Since God compares our houses with the places where we worship him, perhaps we can learn by doing so too.

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects

Core Business vs Buildings

Understanding the background business aims of each of our clients is important to the design of each of our buildings. In addition to the list of rooms they need, what overall goal do they hope to achieve? By knowing the answer to this question, our project can contribute to this aim.

The school that is aiming to educate students and to enable them to become responsible future citizens will suggest a building that is much more than just box classrooms. The visitor centre that aims to engage people in the history of the small town, will say much more if it is set inside a heritage building itself, as a living example.

So what does this say for the church? Its mission is not to do with buildings, no matter how old they are. No its core business is, in the words of Jesus:

‘Love the Lord your God with allyour heart and with all your souland with all your mind.’ This is thefirst and greatestcommandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Matt 22 337-39 and later, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matt 2818-20

Jesus said of Peter, “And I tell youthat you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church…” Matt 16 18. He was talking about people, not buildings.So there we have the core business of the church;

• To thoroughly love God

• To love and care for your neighbour

• To go everywhere and make followers of Jesus and

• To teach them to obey the teaching of Jesus

If the Church’s buildings are re-evaluated in terms of how well they enable this, we may see some changes.

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects

Retail Analogies: The Largest Chain with the Gospel As Its Product

This sounds very commercial; however we are speaking analogies – perhaps parables – about breaking down communication barriers.

Let’s look briefly at retail chains to see where they score and connect.

What can we learn?

• Amazon: synonymous with sourcing books online and by mail-order

• eBay: sell anything and buy anything online, new or used.

• McDonald’s: quick and convenient food. Virtually no waiting time and a consistent standard.

• Major banks: safe handling of your money.

• Coles, Woolworths, Aldi: daily food needs sold in a predictable format

What are the key features?

• They know what people want or need.

• They have carefully developed a clear and reliable reputation.

• People know what they will get if they engage with each.

• People go to there to meet a need or to browse to see if anything suits them.

So how does church compare? With 8% of the Australian population attending church compared with 61% calling themselves Christian*, we have a clientele that does not feel the need. However, we in the church know that they have a need of the gospel.

With a number of exceptions the church has a very good track record, much of which is not widely known because good news is not news. People have an impression of what they will get if they engage, but often this is misguided unless they know someone with a changed life.

So what part do the public interfaces play? Retail has welcoming access, whether online or in buildings. The product is clear and obtaining it is easy. Is our product clear? Do people know they have a need? Billy Graham used to always start by establishing the need. Are our buildings a distraction? Historically the stained-glass windows were the visual aids to tell a story, mostly about transformed lives. How can we do that today?

This week I heard of a church in Oxford that has plans to transform some of its buildings to highlight to tourists the Christian heritage of the city and its university. This will be a means of clarifying the reputation of Christianity’s long track record. Years ago, George Carey established the coffee shop at St Nick’s in Durham, UK with clear visual images on the walls of the steps to faith. There are many more good examples; we need to engage and be clear about our product. Our buildings should be the support for the task.

* McCrindle Research from ABS

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects

Retail Analogies – Managing the Threshold

Every church has a physical threshold. If the approach can be either like the castle with the drawbridge up or the barrier free shopping centre entry point, then the threshold might be your portcullis or your open doors. It is the point of entry which, when you step over it, you are on church territory.

Consider a new building that you have entered recently. What attracted you over the threshold? Was it some need to access the services that were being offered on the other side? Were you clear about what was on offer and that it was something you needed? Were you invited by someone else? Now think of all those things in the context of the church building with which you are familiar.

In their book, Buildings for Mission, Nigel Walter and Andrew Mottram remind us that,“shops traditionally make themselves approachable by using their shop window to display on the outside something of what you can expect to find inside—not only the product, but (when skilfully done) also something of the other supposedly “lifestyle benefits you will attain” if you purchase. “Successful retail space minimises the initial threshold.” Once you’re across it you are free to look around and won’t be asked to make a decision until you’re ready.”

So how much of a barrier is your physical threshold at your church? What would people see as they step across? Remember the words of Jesus, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13: 34-35)

I suggest that seeing people enjoying each other’s company, concerned for one another’s needs and being in relationship might be visible across our threshold. The foyer café is a good start in making this openly visible from the street if you have a street frontage.

If you are creating a new building, where should the threshold be located? if most people will arrive by car do we simply locate the building and its entry point behind the car park which separates the building from the street? The retail analogy here is of an out-of-town or “homemaker style” retail centre which lures people to its doors by giant signage and advertised reputation. The cars are parked in the equivalent of the castle moat if you are someone passing by. You can’t see in without the commitment of driving in and parking.

Given the opportunity it is better to have a threshold which is visible from the street together with another entry point conveniently located for people coming from the car park. The foyer might connect these two entrances. The open and transparent Street entry is principally there to offer a sense of welcome to strangers.

Another means of managing the threshold is to provide access to other activities in addition to those of church. Goodlife in Budrim, Qld and Door Of Hope in Launceston, Tas have a gymnasium and other facilities on the church site. Promotion works both ways for church and other activities. Coming across the threshold is natural and has resulted in many in the wider community finding faith.

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects

Retail Analogies; High street locations

The High Street or shopping strip, once thought to be doomed with all the business and retail heading for the shopping mall, is alive and well in many cities and suburbs. Cafés and specialist shops have created life and activity during the day. Parents meet having dropped kids off at school, office staff pour out onto the pavements at lunchtime, business people meet over coffee and students use the Wi-Fi with their laptops and tablets. Hairdressers, travel agents, gyms and many other businesses are used by people who might be working part-time or flexible hours.

In many of those shopping strips sits a traditional church building. In the past they may have had more property which has been sold to provide income. This has become retail/apartments/offices and has brought many people much closer to the churches buildings. This increased nearby activity may be seen by some in the church as a threat as it is encroached upon by society around it. On the other hand, I consider it to be a great opportunity.

We often have potentially the most interesting building in the street and we have a message for the people. We can use its architecture to leverage our message and connect with them. We need to do this at times people are around, not just early on a Sunday morning. Many people don’t see inside our lovely buildings because they’re closed off. If they do get in, the seating is cramped and uncomfortable, that beautiful lofty roof structure can’t be seen because it’s too dark and people feel like intruders on the premises of a private religious society.

We could be offering hospitality and refreshment, welcoming people to rest awhile in comfortable seats and check their social media, we could provide good lighting and pleasant background music. We could have an information leaflet about the building that encourages some heritage detective work which itself describes the principles of faith illustrated by stained-glass windows or artefacts. If the church’s office was within or at the side of the building, security could be provided by a normal staff member.

Our shopping strip locations could be really valuable assets in the work of the church. They could be attractive and inviting. Architecture has a part to play alongside ministry in achieving this.

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects

Retail Analogies; The Church in the High Street

So you enter a high-street shop. You can’t see what is being sold from the outside but you know the shop is been there for a very long time. However not many people seem to shop there anymore. In fact you are lucky to catch them open, they are nearly always closed. If you’re fortunate somebody hands you a book or a piece of cardboard and this apparently tells you what to do in the shop. Do you have time to read all instructions before you venture on in?

The interior design must have been fashionable a very long time ago and it looks a bit dusty around the edges. You can’t see any sign of the product that is being offered in the shop but there are a number of symbols around the place. Perhaps they are selling benches. There are lots of those and most of them are empty. They don’t appear to have done much with the lighting but it’s a neat idea to have coloured pictures on the windows.

No sooner do you take a seat than the other people all stand up and everyone but you seems to know what to do next. You start to look through the instruction book you’ve been given and eventually find something you recognise whilst the other people are saying something out loud altogether. Just as you thought you’d found the place in the book and caught up you see other people turning over several pages and then the music starts. There seems to be an expectation that you join in using your best falsetto voice. Partway through the song you realise that it’s the other book that they are all using and you feel that the other shoppers are all looking at you.

We now live in a Western world where very many people are completely unfamiliar with church; its buildings, its purpose, its rituals, its people and its gospel message. These people see the church through their other experiences in life like shopping.

The Church’s buildings contribute to this experience. There are a number of areas in which the church’s buildings can attract or repel. The retail world has long known this and has been creating buildings to attract people inside, welcoming them and making them feel at ease.

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects

21st-Century Church: Better in a New Building or Heritage Building? Epilogue

St Aldates heritage building interior refurbishment was Stage 1 and the new entrance building together with landscaping, Stage 2. Stage 3 will eventually take back the church’s coffee shop and to link this back through the new entry building to the church, creating direct access to 4 floors of seminar rooms and offices.

Queuing to enter an evening event at St Aldates

A number of repairs to walls and roof took place at the same time including the installation of nonblocking stormwater baskets to make maintenance easier.

St Alfred’s small site has been maxed out with little opportunity to develop further. Limited car parking is available on site and the nearby school provides additional spaces. Growth has been accommodated by having three services each Sunday at present. During the week it is busy, often with several rooms used concurrently.

A maintenance regime is in place and members of the original project team remain actively involved in running the building.

Conclusion

So how does a thoroughly refurbished heritage building compare with a brand-new building in its service of the church’s mission? The answer, I believe, is that both can serve the specific mission calling of each church equally well providing the scheme is designed well and church leaders have the vision to carry out the project thoroughly and to a high standard, respecting the quality of the original.

There is a need to consider both new and heritage buildings as facilities. As such they must facilitate the occupant’s purposes. If a heritage church building becomes redundant it will be demolished or changed radically. Better to allow the church to change it radically, keeping the cultural significance of retaining the original user—the church—as its ongoing occupier. Preserving heritage buildings is not core business of the church; its mission is. Nevertheless, a heritage interior can be enriched with colour and lighting; it is the floor that often needs to be changed to achieve flexible use.

St Alfred’s worship auditorium (Photo Aaron Pocock)

St Aldates is considered an exemplary UK church reordering and St Alfred’s is highly valued by the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, being pictured in many of its communication materials. But let’s be clear, the buildings just play a supporting role in the ministry. The church is the people.

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects

21st-Century Church: Better in a New Building or Heritage Building? Part 4 of 4: Wise Stewards

St Aldates was already a significant community in the city with a strong Christian tradition and it might have been expected that it could rest on its laurels, unchanged. But when the church tried to use the building for events midweek, it proved to be difficult and uncomfortable. Even though some refurbishment had taken place in 1981, it was felt that there was still significant untapped potential in the building that could be released.

The church’s other meeting space was limited to around 130 people and leaders decided that the main church building was valuable floor area that was underused. Apart from the changes allowing the church to host more activities, the re-ordered building is made available to others for approved activities, providing income and sustainably sharing the property. The real wisdom was in accepting the need to carry out a thorough refurbishment project, rather than small improvements. This included heating, lighting, creating a new level floor, AV installation, reorientation, new furniture, redecoration, new entry building and completely renewed hard and soft landscaping.

St Alfred’s had a relatively small site which incorporated a tennis court. Alongside the site were public tennis courts so the inevitable decision was easy. The church had declined invitations to amalgamate with others. The first difficult task was to pay off the outstanding debt on the existing church foyer before revealing the design solution to demolish it. This was handled wisely and graciously.

The new design, retained the existing church hall complex and was presented to the members on several occasions, responding to feedback at each stage. The eventual building is based upon sustainable design principles at every level and received a sustainable design award.

Rev Peter MacPherson, senior minister at St Alfred’s said, “Fred’s (Studio B’s) flexible design has allowed us to do so much more ministry than before. People comment that the place has “a lovely feel.” How you create a “feel” is a mystery but good design is certainly part of it.”

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects

21st-Century Church: Better in a New Building or Heritage Building? Part 3 of 4: Offering Hospitality

St Aldates used to have its main entrance “around the back”, off a dead-end street, but the new entry building was built in the opposite corner, providing direct access from the main city street. In front of the entrance new wide paving connects to the main city street with a public lawn and seating. The frameless glazing and open arches to the interior give a glimpse in as you approach the doors, encouraging curiosity. When the adjoining coffee shop is eventually linked, hospitality will be obvious.

The fully glazed main entry doors to St Alfred’s face diagonally across the road junction to the shopping centre. The footpath passes close to the doors, shortcutting from the pedestrian lights to the bus stop, bringing the public as close as possible to the entry. The welcome desk is immediately inside the doors and people are often seen having coffee inside.

There is an openness about the entry to both churches, inviting entry to what lies beyond. During a Marriage Course event at St Aldates, 3 couples came in off the street, thinking it was a heritage restaurant they each asked if they could book a table!

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects

21st-Century Church: Better in a New Building or Heritage Building? Part 2 of 4: Encouraging Relationships

At St Aldates Oxford, the character of the heritage walls and roof have been made more apparent with lighting and paint, while the fully accessible new level floor is partly stone tiled and partly carpeted. Translucent blinds control the sunlight in front of the stained glass windows allowing the colour to be projected onto the blinds. These have improved the appreciation of the building’s heritage enhanced the sense of transcendence for worshipers.

The arrangement of chairs allow people to see one another’s faces across the room as they worship and the individual chairs seem to encourage people to stay and chat after the services. Some gather in the new entrance area and some in the garden outside. Connecting to the church’s coffee shop alongside the entrance is the next stage of the project. The parish centre located in the nearby street has a basement youth centre and group meeting venues, offices and commercial kitchen.

St Alfred’s main foyer opens off the main entry doors and is large enough for people to stop and talk. This is the main location for refreshments after church with its servery from the commercial kitchen and doors out to the barbecue area. Again the seating is in the round and the focus is towards the platform with a naturally back-lit cross above it set against a warm rammed earth wall.

Both encourage relationships through the character of the space, the furniture and the sequence of the rooms. They achieve it in different ways and have consciously been created to do so.

This theme is developed in my new book, “Making Property Serve Mission – Rethinking the Church’s buildings for the 21st Century”

Available worldwide in paperback, Kindle and iBook.

By Fred Batterton, Director Studio B Architects