THE WRITINGS of Dr. Gottfried Oosterwal have emphasized the role of the laity and the importance of each church member's recognizing individual mission responsibility.
In parallel with mission activity is the renewing experience of fellowship or a sharing friendship. Everyone has his calling, his gift of the Spirit to develop for the good of the community (mission), the group (fellowship), and, last, for his own good.
This aim for the members could be facilitated by the design of the church building, which may be more than a place of assembly for a few hours each week. It may become a place in which the individual church member actually finds himself or herself participating in mission and fellowship activities.
An opportunity was recently given the writer to develop a concept for a church building along the lines suggested. The client was the building committee of the Gold Coast Seventh-day Adventist church, the geographic location a center for tourism in the temper ate climate of southeastern Queensland, Australia.
An architectural design process must bring together locational and climatic data of a particular site with analyses of human activities. It is important there fore to have an awareness of these in puts in the design concept that follows. Architectural design is essentially a synthesis of all available information built upon the perceptive base of creativity.
In discussing the type of building en visioned by the church building committee, we learned that the public would be invited to come to the building to view exhibitions of the worldwide work and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other exhibitions of general interest. Operating in conjunction with the exhibition would be a film theaterette with a wide range of short-duration films on health, welfare, religion, and general information.
The particular gifts of the Spirit granted to the individual members of the local church dictated evangelistic emphases and methods, and it would be necessary therefore to have adequate facilities planned into the building complex to enable the effective promotion of the range of generally accepted evangelistic activities (including lectures, demonstrations, and the Five-Day Plan to Stop Smoking) and evangelistic methods directly appropriate to the members in their geographic location.
The church wanted to participate in community-sponsored projects and, depending upon resources available, there could be involvement by members in the counseling services of community organizations.
A worship space was to be designed that would promote fellowship and participation. It would be available for meditation at all times that the building complex is open on each day of the week. The importance of the Sabbath school was to be planned into the complex as a whole.
The building committee's design implied the need for careful planning so that the programs outlined above would be capable of being operated by members of the church in cooperation with the pastor. Additional full-time staff might be needed as the work increased, but the accent would be on involvement of members in church and community as a meaningful service for God. The basic requirements for this church building would be:
1. The building(s) should express the belief that Christ is the answer to all problems.
2. The building(s) should reflect the challenge presented in the mission out reach of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
3. In view of the fact that Adventist churches generally present closed doors to the world for the major portion of the week, conventional church solutions needed to be modified to emphasize the willingness of members to witness to the world on the one hand, and to enjoy fellowship as a group of worshipers on the other.
4. The building(s) should create an atmosphere that attracts the world, not repels.
5. Design must relate to the climate of the specific geographic location.
6. Where compatibility of activities is evident, economies of space would be expected.
The activities proposed by the church were summarized in tabular form and then charted as follows:
(Please see pdf for table)
Development of the Design
An "agora" precinct could be developed in a natural way toward an existing pedestrian approach to the site. While this public entry would be paved, the approach of worshipers to their separate entry precinct could be across a small grassed and landscaped park.
In this particular feasibility study, concurrent with an analysis of the site, three-dimensional spaces were allocated to the activities specified and study models prepared to explore relationships of these activities. Plan 2 indicates an openness to the world to invite participation, via a pleasant external space, into a large interior public space. Plan 1 illustrates an entry to a more enclosed church precinct, provided for persons who identify themselves with the worship and fellowship activities of the church.
The particular study model placed a visual importance on the witnessing activities of the church and, for this reason, the concept was accepted as a basis for development. It is recognized that the building differs from a conventional church building with visually dominant sanctuary and often lower level or adjacent hall. Attempts to comply with the basic requirements of the brief have led to the preference of presenting the worship and fellowship activities within the over-all mission activities, rather than providing a traditional church fagade that would be sought only by, and relevant to, individuals from the world already cognizant of a need to identify with the followers of Jesus Christ.
The activity areas are detailed in the plans. The sequence of worshipers from the park setting, via the entry precinct to the foyer, is illustrated in Plan 1. The enclosed "protecting" boundaries to this precinct are provided by low planting. Generally the planting form is low ground cover toward the park, rising to small shrubs adjacent to either the paved area or the building. Planting heightens the emphasis on the entry precinct to encourage worshipers to meet together in this space before and after worship services.
A light-weight folding partition be tween the foyer and worship space is accommodated in brick storage walls when not in use. Open planning gives a flexibility to the space, the seating arrangement indicated being one of several possibilities. Pulpit, organ, choir, and seats are designed for ease of movement so that a range of seating plans would emphasize either preaching (as is indicated, with a diffused light entering the worship space above the pulpit area), communion, discussion, or baptismal activities. The space could be used for meditation at other times.
The main stair adjacent to the foyer leads to Plan 2.
The "agora" public precinct is paved beneath trees selected to provide shade, and provided with outdoor permanent seating. The paving rises slightly as it narrows toward the building. An outdoor paved platform is a little higher and can provide a focal point for music and speech. It is envisaged that certain exhibitions could be set up on particular days beneath the trees of the pedestrian approach.
The enclosed space for viewing exhibitions, listening to music, meeting and conversing, is a natural extension from the exterior space. Around the central activity space the separate lecture, devotional, youth, and commercial activities are plugged in, ready for operation. These activities are enclosed, rather than being part of an open plan, for reasons of sound isolation. The kitchen is linked with the "coffee shop" for combined access to a food store and loading bay.
The commercial interests of the project are contained in one area, to be closed on Sabbath. Some flexibility of use is provided for at other times. It is planned that one person serving in the "coffee shop" could control the sale of books, health foods, and health drinks at times of low public commercial use. Seating associated with the "coffee shop" is provided in both an enclosed location and extend into the exhibition hall.
In all activities the provision of seating to facilitate discussions is a natural consequence of Christ's followers' being the "salt" to permeate and influence the world. The building provides a venue for individual contact, the initial con tact stemming from the single or collective activities as briefed. A quieter area of private discussions is located adjacent to the stairs leading to the worship space, again emphasizing the activity of two individuals, one a church member, leading his friend gradually to worship and fellowship activities.
At the time of the Sabbath school pro gram, children and youth would meet in rooms allocated concurrent with the public use of the building. The evangelistic avenue of the Sabbath school is then facilitated.
The multipurpose youth space is designed to accommodate Pathfinders, Vacation Bible School programs, meetings, film and social functions, at the same time that lectures, cooking demonstrations, Five-Day Plans, or other public activities may be held in the lecture space adjacent to the entry. The primary Sabbath school room may be used as a foyer to the multipurpose youth hall for special occasions, such as a registration area for a Vacation Bible School beginning in the youth hall.
The foregoing is one example of a means by which, within the types of activities included, the building complex can be planned to be sufficiently adaptive so that newer evangelistic methods and experimentation can be reasonably provided for. This adapt ability, together with the various individual gifts of the Spirit granted to a group of worshipers at any given time, enables worship and witnessing to be integrated to a greater degree.
