"Worship Space" Video Transcription

Video Transcript 1a: Worship Space

Worship space, the place where you worship right now our space at our church, we've moved out of there and we were painting ceiling, we took the ceiling tiles out, we're going to like paint the ceiling black, we're going to do a little video of the for, and then after. So you can see the space and I'm going to talk in our space, why we're doing things we're doing things for sound reason we're doing things for your space will dictate a lot of how you worship together. And so we're going to go over that the physical space where you worship can communicate your church vision, kind of a church vision, to walk with God, to walk with God's people, and to share our God walk with those who do not yet have a walk with God. So that's a common vision. Most churches, you know, they want to worship God, they want to do something together as believers. And then they want to reach out beyond that in our space. And what we do with that space, either can help or hinder our worship together, space in our walk with God, 

number one creation, in Genesis 3:8, than the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden and the cool of the day. And we get this picture that Adam and Eve were actually they actually walked with God in the garden, and the garden was a space, it had all the wonder of God's creation, and the colors and the sights and the sounds. And somehow that space created a good place to have a relationship with God. And so we talked about how do we worship God? You know, on our own, where the walk in the woods and and how does our worship space, reflect creation? 

Number two, holy ground Exodus three, verse five, God said, Take off your sandals for the place, the actual place where you are standing is holy ground. Well, how do you create space that feels like holy ground. 

Number three, the temple, the temple, this is a rendition of Solomon's temple, and the temple had sort of the outer core where anyone could go, and then you came into the main part of the temple. And then there was the Holy of Holies. And that, that, that that space actually dictated the worship, in the outer courts, there's noise and a lot going on. But as you move towards the Holy of Holies, it became the space made you more and more reverent, the very presence of God. So the space actually contributed to the feeling of what kind of worship we're going to do. And then cathedrals, I mean, cathedrals are built many years ago, here's the inside of one, and they were built, tall and very high. And they did that on purpose, because they wanted you to go into this space. And, and you know, back in the day, these these were the tallest buildings in the world, and people would walk in and then be filled with awe and wonder. And it was, it was designed that way. So people would come in and it'd be like, God is big, these expansive and the sound reverberates like nowhere else in creation. And so it's like this unique experience that people could have just going to the cathedral. 

A lot of the cathedrals were built in the shape of a cross if you if you took the airplane view, and they did that on purpose, they wanted the space to reflect the whole belief system and our dependence on price. space in Iraq with God 

Number five, churches, a lot of churches today still have relatively 

high ceilings, maybe not as high as cathedrals, but they are certainly higher than most buildings if you go in your own home. And once in a while someone will have what we call a cathedral ceiling. It may be two storeys high. But generally, churches have maybe three four storey high space and and what are you doing with that space, not like you're living in that space, it just, again lifts your spirits up. The sound is a lot better the higher the ceiling. in churches, 

we have the furniture that sort of contributes some meaning. 

There's the pulpit, a lot of times that's right in the center and and churches are trying to say the word of God is the center. That's their focus. It's not about human beings. It's about what God has to say to us today. 

And then there's that pet baptismal font is usually somewhere up there. It's a reminder of coming in new people coming into the faith.

The Lord's Table is usually somewhere prominent and it's it's symbolically saying we are a body of Christ. And we gather around the Lord's table because of what he has done for us all these things in this space is is communicating to the people there. And it helps us worship better. 

Space in our walk with each other. So all the space somehow helps us in our walk with God. But it also the space helps us walk with each other. In our homes, we have family rooms, and kitchens, and we have tables and all those things in that space helps us do family, we sit at a table, usually it's, it's rounded. And so we can see each other and run a small enough group that everyone can talk to everyone that we don't sit in rows, when we're in our homes, because it's about it's about our relationship. And 

Number one, everything in the home is sort of built to make those relationships go well. Small groups will meet in a space and, and 

Number two, small groups, again, will meet in a circle, you know, 10 12 people in a circle, because we're all we're small enough, we can all contribute. And the expectation is that everyone contributes. No, most churches were our 

Number three, groups of 50 or more, okay, so small groups can still get in the big circle. But when you start having 50 or more people, it's hard to get into a big circle, if you do get into a big circle with 50 people, you really can't talk to the people away across the room. And so you end up talking to two people. And so really, that that space inhibits you. And so what what happened, because the church started out in homes for the first 300 years, and then and then under Charlemagne, When, when, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, then all of a sudden buildings were used, but before that people met in homes, and maybe you can cram 50 60 people in a in a home, but you can still talk to each other. But when it when when when Christianity started getting into buildings, you have 100 people or 200 people, you can't get into a big circle. And so churches tended, because it was easy to build buildings that way, they tended to be in what I would call the portrait orientation. So like a like a piece of paper. It's It's It's It's rectangular, but it's it's the narrow view. So the pulpit in the where the worship leaders stand is that one and and then it's the you know, the people go and rows far back. That was typically the way it was, it was easy to build is easy to set up. And 

Number four, new churches, new churches tend to be built the other way. So the, the landscape orientation. So in a landscape orientation, you've got, you've got the front, and then the chairs and the congregation sort of fan around you so that they're off to the side, they're in front of you, they're off to the side, where's the portrait orientation, you know, here's the front. And then everyone sits in a long ways going back. 

The advantages of the landscape orientation, so where you have the people sitting more around you, 

number one, the people see each other and feed off from each other. It's like, if you ever been to a football game, whether it's soccer or American football, you go to these big stadiums and they're rounded, and, and you're watching the game at the center. But you're also watching the game all around you that the stadium experiences is quite unique. And you see people when they're cheering. And as they stand up and cheer, you stand up and cheer. And there's often you know, people will do the wave and they'll stand up and it'll go all the way around the stadium. It's like there's almost a game going on in the stadium. And then there's a game going on, on the field. And, and so when people come to church, and they can sort of see each other, and this one over here is singing really, you know, with all the passion that he can, and someone over here sees that and inspires them to sing in the same way. It's like we're in this together. 

Number two, he can still see what is happening on the stage. But the stage isn't everything. You know, in the portrait, you know, the stage is front and center. Everyone is facing the stage and it's like this is what's important. And then people could just as well stay at home and watch it on television, because they're not really engaging with the people around them. 

Number three, the people can be closer to the front of the stage if you have the same number of people coming to your church. If you have the portrait. They're sitting way to the back in the landscape. They're fanned around you. So no one is really that far from whatever's happening on the stage. And people feel like they're more a part of it. The disadvantages of the landscape orientation.

Number one, controlling sound is more difficult, it's easier in a rectangle to just shoot the sound down the rectangle. But when you have sound going all around you, you have something going this way and this way, and this way, and the waves and the sound bounces off the walls, and it's a whole lot harder to control, I think it's worth it. You know, that's, I'll show you some of that with when we finished our, our renovation, because that's what we're doing. On the the the old setup we had was the portrait orientation, where here's the front, and everyone sits like this. And we try to fan it out as best we could, but you just couldn't in in the portrait, way. And so we had two speakers for the people and the sound was reasonably good. But now we're going to go and turn the church this way. And we're going to fan the people out. So now we now we have to put the speakers in the ceiling, they can't be on poles, there's a whole lot more complicated when you do that. And, and, and you have to be aware of that, that that that, you know, if I'm speaking on the stage, I don't just have everyone right in front of me. So I can't just talk, you know, like this, like I'm talking to the camera, the cameras right there, I just talked this direction. But if there were 10 cameras all the way around, I have to make sure that I talk way over there and over here and over there. And I have to walk in that direction at the walk in that direction. So it's it's something that the people on stage have to be aware of. 

Space and the sharing of our walk with God with those who do not yet have a walk. So our vision statements are about our relationship to God so that we create space where we can worship God and helps us worship God. We also create space where, you know, we believers calm and it inspires us to to be together. There's there's something about the body coming together in one place, and the space can help make that happen. But then, okay, so how does the space help us with our outreach? How does it help with new people that are coming to our church? So 

number one, a couple things just to think about. Back rows are for visitors, not church members, typically in churches, for whatever reason, some members want to sit in the back. I, you know, part of it, I think is they want to sit in the back so they can watch who's coming in. And somehow that's a treat, I don't know, my family, we always sat right right in the front. But let new people come to your church. And they don't, they're not sure about this whole thing. And their mindset is okay, I'm going to come. But if I don't like what I see, I want to be able to get out of this, I want to be able to escape and escape easily. So you let them let them feel comfortable, they'll feel comfortable sitting in the back where it feels like they could get out if they have to. But if the church people are sitting there then there's no back rule. 

Number two, create worship space that's inviting if you have worship space, that has all kinds of symbols on the walls and things that they don't understand. And they walk in and they go Okay, what kind of place is this, they don't understand anything that's on the walls, and it just looks like an intimidating space. You know, they'll feel uncomfortable. 

Number three, create virtual space that's not intimidating. And, and have a friendly and warm, have a welcome table when they come in and have someone hand them stuff and tell them, you know, this is what our worship services like. And you know, they could read ahead of time, you know, we sing a few songs, and you can listen if you'd like because you don't know those songs, we're gonna have an offering. But you know, that's really for our members. It's not necessarily for you. You know, you're, you're not committed to this group yet. So it's like, how can we create this space, the color on the walls is inviting, it's not harsh. It's not this weird, strange place. Like I walk in and I'm in another planet that I don't know what these things are. I see some flowers and I see some plants and and it just feels like a garden or It feels like a nice comfortable space. 

So next, we're going to be looking at lighting