Space-Feel
This is from Ron Martoia’s book “Morph!” He’s a Lead Pastor in Michigan.
“The “space-feel” of a church may be the most undisccussed, critical indicator of a church’s health. The space-feel in a church - that intangible, tough to put your finger on ambience - is the dominant attraction or repellant of people walking into your church for the first time.”
I think essentially, leaders are architects. We don’t build buildings, but we do design space, atmosphere and environments. These are invisible, but they are felt.
If people entering our churches can instantly “feel” the flavor , temperature, and tenor of the space, then how do we attempt to shape and sculpt that into something that is inviting, expectant and thick with the compelling presence of God? The feel of our churches has always been critical, but our current postmodern location in history makes it even more so.
I’ve heard it said over and over that people decide within the first two to five minutes whether or not to attend a church again. The point? It isn’t message, music or media. It’s atmosphere … It’s space…. It’s environment… pure and simple.
May 20th, 2005 at 10:43 am
Now if you say that people make the decision to come again in the first five minutes, would that also be equivalent to the typical decision of whether you like someone or not within the first moments of meeting them? And if that is the case, this “sixth-sense”, if you will, is often in err. I can think of many times that I haven’t like someone initially, based on that ‘hunch’, but later come to find out how mistaken I was.
So would this tendency be a false reaction of human nature that jumps the gun and makes judgement calls we are unfitted to make?
I would agree that there is often a certain “spirit” about any particular environment (i.e. welcoming, hostile, dark, open, peaceful, etc.), and some may be able to quickly detect that from walking into a church; however, I would suggest that most people make their judgements based on cultural factors which are subjective in nature and possibly based upon preconcieved notions and false expectations.
I dunno, just some more thoughts.
May 20th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
Whether or not the tendency is a “false reaction” or not is probably irrelevant, since it’s a fact of human nature. I know that every “success” book out there talks about the importance of a first-impression. Such first-impressions on a personal-interaction level are usually related to dress, posture, grooming habits, mannerisms, voice quality and body features. Too bad none of those have much to do with your personality or character (although, arguably, they all are a reflection of such).
I wonder at God’s call, though. I ended up in the church I’m at during the height of it’s outward Charismatic approach. I came from a superficial, traditional, reserved church background, and walked in one Sunday to flying banners, twirling dancers, prophetic words, songs about Blood and Brides (good bandname, eh?) and just overall weirdness. But I stuck around for the service to hear the man preach. When I heard our (then) pastor preach, I knew it was where I needed to be. I could endure the other stuff just to be fed by him.
I dunno, was I out of the ordinary, or rare? I’ve heard lots of stories from all walks of life saying, “it’s something I never would have done, but I found myself doing it…” Is that the power of God’s call? To cut through the atmosphere and reach people in spite of it?
May 22nd, 2005 at 9:21 am
I appreciate your guys’ comments.
I think there is a balance to be found in this. We have to do our part… and God has to do His part.
I don’t think we can just “show up” and God moves and lives are changed. It does happen… mostly because God is amazing and His grace far outreaches our ability.
For the everyday, routine, weekly stuff… we definitely have a part to play. We have to prepare like it all depends on us.
There’s a scripture (I Samuel maybe?), referring to David’s anointing as king, that says man looks at the outward things, but God looks at the heart. I think that’s convincing enough. Man looks at the outward things. We have to make sure those outward things are done with excellence.
So I think we need a balance. We have been given a part. We’ve been given 10 talents. We have to use those to the best of our ability. But… even at that, we don’t change lives. Only God changes lives. He has His part, we have our part.