American Sanctuary: Understanding Sacred Spaces

11. Reading Megachurches

11 Reading Megachurches Investigating the Religious and Cultural Work of Church Architecture Jeanne Halgren Kilde Visitors from over seventy zip codes attended the opening services of Grace Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, in 2002, according to congregation sources (Fig. 11.1, 11.2). The new building, consisting of a worship auditorium seating some 4,500 people and containing state-of-the-art audio and video projection technology, backstage and rehearsal spaces for musical and dramatic performances, cafeteria, coffee shop, bookstore, and accompanying Sunday school wing with graded classrooms, constitutes the first building phase of what is projected to be close to a $100 million campus, which will eventually include a new recreation building and seniors’ wing as well.1 The massive new building is located some twenty miles from Minneapolis in exurban Eden Prairie, an area to which this congregation moved from its longtime location in Edina, an older inner suburb of the city. Grace Church is, of course, a megachurch, although the congregation prefers the term regional church, indicating that it draws upon a geographical area even vaster than those of most megachurches. The prototype of the modern megachurch is the well-known Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, located about forty miles from Chicago. The brainchild of evangelical minister Bill Hybels, Willow Creek, erected in 1981, revolutionized church architecture with its huge auditorium seating 4,550 congregants , landscaped campus, and commercial-looking building containing Nelson_AmerSanctuary 11/30/05 2:33 PM Page 225 a food court, bookstore, Sunday school, and meeting rooms (Fig. 11.3, 11.4). The megachurch revolution, embraced by a self-styled populist evangelical movement that rejects denominational ties and claims bringing new people into the church as its primary objective, has resulted in the construction of similar large auditorium- centered buildings throughout the United States and Canada. Such megachurches challenge the way we think about Christian space and architecture. With their impersonal lobbies, long concourses, stadium-like auditoriums , state-of-the-art performance technologies, and general lack of ornament , these churches, so unlike the religious architecture of previous generations , hardly even seem to be churches. As an acquaintance once asked me, “Where is spirituality in these nondenominational churches?” “Can spiritual226 Toward a Method Figure 11.1. Exterior view of Grace Church, Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Photograph by the author. Courtesy Grace Church. Nelson_AmerSanctuary 11/30/05 2:33 PM Page 226 ity and sacredness—a true connection with the divine—exist where there are no Christian images, no inspiring spaces, no Bach, indeed no organ at all?” Sacred Christian architecture, we have all been told, consists of certain elements that connect buildings to specific understandings of the divine. Prominent among these are a liturgical arrangement that facilitates processions and central practices such as communion, baptism, and preaching; a centering focal point, such as an altar or pulpit, which links the earthly and spiritual realms; the symbolic depiction of specific theological and narrative elements of Christianity ; and an uplifting or awe-inspiring aesthetic quality ingrained in the architecture and ornament.2 These elements have appeared in Christian churches for centuries, their most quintessential expression found perhaps in Gothic cathedrals, with their soaring internal vaulting, massive naves, impresReading Megachurches 227 Figure 11.2. Interior view of Grace Church, Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Photograph by the author. Courtesy Grace Church. Nelson_AmerSanctuary 11/30/05 2:33 PM Page 227 sively carved high altar and reredos, stained-glass windows, sculpture, paintings , music, and even their scent of incense and candle wax, which together provide a feast for the senses that can trigger an experience of otherworldliness or communion with the divine. Yet most of these elements are either missing or radically transformed in the architecture of megachurches. Nevertheless, many individuals do claim to have significant spiritual experiences in these churches, apparently not finding traditional liturgical or aesthetic triggers necessary to feel a palpable connection to God. So how are we to understand these buildings? The fact that they accommodate audiences in the thousands indicates their significance to evangelical Christianity—indicates, indeed, that they are meaning-full places. Given their 228 Toward a Method Figure 11.3. Exterior view of Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, Illinois. Photograph by Paul R. Kilde. Courtesy Willow Creek Association. Nelson_AmerSanctuary 11/30/05 2:33 PM Page 228 popularity, one could easily argue that the development of megachurches constitutes the most significant movement in religious...