Redesigning Churches: Creating Spaces for Connection and Community - Softcover

Miller, Kim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1426757921 ISBN 13: 9781426757921

Publisher: Abingdon Press, 2013

Synopsis

As campus designer for Ginghamsburg Church, in Tipp City, Ohio, Kim Miller has observed that when a church gets serious about Jesus' call, there is always a design element to be addressed. Kim asserts that physical space transformation is simply a backdrop for authentic people transformation. Change the space and the opportunity and environment to change the world emerges. This comes as a fresh challenge for churches and ministries struggling to present a new look to match their relevant message. An emphasis on spatial design is an incarnation of Jesus' call for new wineskins and is emerging as a key means to create community and the opportunity for transformation for a creative generation. This book is a practical guide for church leaders to transform their physical space into a ministry asset. Filled with pictures, tutorials and stories of spaces and lives transformed, REdesigning Churches offers close-up snapshots of design-on-a-dime style looks, providing readers with usable ideas and how-tos that are supported by stories of real-life change from Ginghamsburg's diverse community and the many congregations with which Kim consults.

About this title

About the Author

Kim Miller serves as Campus Designer at Ginghamsburg Church, in Tipp City Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. Kim creates experiences and environments for worship, events and community life on Ginghamsburg s multiple campuses. Her passion is connecting people to God on multiple levels--visually, artistically and theologically. This passion has fueled Ginghamsburg s signature multisensory worship celebrations, and continues to infuse her role as coach on the worship design team. Kim has ignited a movement to recruit, train and deploy teams of strong (unpaid) artist-builders to create engaging environments on a missional, mud n spit budget. She has crafted a new model for churches seeking to offer guest experiences that are current and meaningful. Many of these makeover projects can be viewed at

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

REdesigning churches

CREATING SPACES FOR CONNECTION AND COMMUNITY

By Kim Miller

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2013 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4267-5792-1

Contents

Acknowledgments............................................................
vii
Introduction...............................................................
ix
Part I Divine Design......................................................
1
Chapter 1: God in the Details..............................................
3
Chapter 2: Jesus on Hospitality............................................
5
Chapter 3: A Ministry of Mud 'n Spit.......................................
11
Part II Makeover Momentum: The Who, What, and How of Nine Makeover 
Projects...................................................................
23
Chapter 4: Ignite Your Community...........................................
25
Chapter 5: Express Your Creativity.........................................
33
Chapter 6: Execute Your Concept............................................
41
Part III Steeples to Starbucks: Reimagining Worship Spaces................
49
Chapter 7: New Church Plants: Simply Welcoming Environments................
51
Chapter 8: Traditional Church Transformations..............................
55
Chapter 9: Coffee-Shop Environments: Reimagining the Table of God..........
61
Part IV Stage Design......................................................
65
Chapter 10: Room with a View...............................................
67
Chapter 11: Courage for the Mission: What Is in Your Hand?.................
79

CHAPTER 1

God in the Details

The fact that we're bastions of boredom rather than bursting with creativity and the release of the artsis such an embarrassment. We should be the place that is known for creativity as we have a directconnection to the Creator.

—Leonard Sweet

Did you know that twelve of the forty chapters of Exodus are devoted to aesthetics, that is, to precise detailsabout altars and oils and offerings and everything in between? God had a wildly creative and multisensory imageof how it was to be there in the holy of holies, and—let's be clear—the details mattered:

Have them make an acacia-wood chest. It should be forty-five inches long, twenty-seven inches wide, andtwenty-seven inches high. Cover it with pure gold, inside and out, and make a gold molding all around it.Cast four gold rings for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other.Make acacia-wood poles and cover them with gold. Then put the poles into the rings on the chest's sidesand use them to carry the chest. The poles should stay in the chest's rings. They shouldn't be taken out ofthem. Put the covenant document that I will give you into the chest. (Exodus 25:10-16)

Some say that 1 percent of what we do makes 99 percent of the difference. Attention to detail is not a newthought. Artists of all disciplines have discovered the difference between mediocre and amazing:

To create something exceptional, your mind-set must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail. (GiorgioArmani, Italian-born fashion designer)

The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail. (Charles R. Swindoll,educator and radio pastor)

God is in the details. (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-born American architect)

And although attention to the details in design, architecture, and basic housekeeping is extremely important,it's really about the potential of what can happen within the walls of these intentionally crafted spaces. Greatdesign—and our subsequent calling—is not to impress our guests with all our dazzling efforts but to prepareplaces where people can experience connection to God and community with others in the best way possible.

I'm happy that the church was expanded by its use of gymnasiums in the 1980s and '90s, but we lost somethingprofound. We lost the sensuality of spirituality and replaced it with song after song in the key of C, metaphoricallyspeaking. I love music, but we've underestimated the power of physical design. Environment is howwe exist on the earth! Not my idea, but God's. You may not feel that you are "into design," but because we arehumans created in God's image, design is wired into us.

Addressing engaging environments, Andy Stanley encourages church leaders to ask, "Is the setting appealing?"and challenges us not to discount the importance of paying close attention to aesthetics:

It could be argued that the very first thing God did in time was to create an appealing environment tailoredfor his prize creation, that portion of creation that would be fashioned in his image, the image of theone who created an irresistible environment. Essentially, that's the story of creation.(Deep & Wide [GrandRapids: Zondervan, 2012], pp. 164–65)

Even as I write this, the absurdity of attempting to convince readers of God's creativity gene is beyond humorous:"In the beginning, God created." Bam. Forming the land, sky, plant and animal life, and subsequently humanbeings was the first recorded act of love that God chose to extend. Our call as humans and Christians—as "littleChrists"—is to carry on the legacy, to not allow our busy, linear, routine-driven little lives to edge out the open,expansive, imaginative, and soul-tending nature of God, and to share that beautiful, authentic, holy "spirit" witha weary world.

(Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1426757921
• ISBN 13: 9781426757921
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176