Unsplash.com; Sutrisno Illahwi
Have you ever noticed how contemporary worship spaces prompt people to behave?
Most assume podium-based thinking. There is no subtlety in where the focus should be. When you walk into most modern worship spaces, all seats are oriented to face a single presentation position. To use theatre design terminology: there is a clear stage and there is an audience area and the position of command in the room is obvious.
It cues passivity.
Worshippers walking into many of these spaces are cued into where the “important” location is. They settle into their seats and wait for the main event to begin. Then they are told when to sit and when to stand. Everything is nicely under control.
It cues passivity.
The challenge is that our current communication models are not passive. While many of us grew up in a broadcast culture and are used to receiving one-way communication, our hyperlink-driven, participatory digital world is increasingly inconducive to linear power point slides and a passive experience.
What happens in our worship spaces when there is an increasing desire for engagement?
Moving from consumption to engagement.
Zach Allee, a stadium designer at Populous, shares that there is a desire for social connection that drives human behavior. He believes human engagement is the whole reason that large event spaces like stadia and arenas exist. But architects who work in this world are morphing designs quickly to match the shift from passive to active audiences and fan bases.
In many sports, entertainment and performing arts venues, the boundaries of the venue have dissolved. The experience starts in your hand on your phone from the moment you purchase a ticket. Development has moved to total entertainment zones with plazas that are part of the experience. There are wearable technologies and feedback loops. Sometimes fans become the screen using LED’s distributed throughout the seating areas.
Most of all, the engagement and connection isn’t just the main event. There are hundreds of ways that people can connect based on their interests. It’s not just a stage and audience.
I’m not promoting that churches need to copy sports, entertainment and performance venues in order to compete with them. On the contrary, I think that entering a competition mode is very ineffective for a church. However, we can learn from others to inform church future venue designs.
None of this is about bigger tech. It’s about connection.
The world’s most progressive venues are centered on creating spaces of connection and engagement.
The 1,000-seat Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon provides a design where no audience member is further than 45-feet away from the performer. And no one is more than 65-feet from any other audience member. The experience in the room is electric. Almost no church design leverages these well-established theatre design techniques.
Cirque du Soleil theatres bring the stage into the room. What is stage and what is audience is undefined as communication comes from all sides.
Cirque du Soleil theatres bring the stage into the room. What is stage and what is audience is undefined as communication comes from all sides. No one in any given seat has the same experience and this is part of the magic of these shows. Conversely, churches often strive to deliver a single experience to everyone in the room. Good or bad? You decide.
Venue designers are watching with interest for news on the planned 18,000 seat MSG Sphere Las Vegas. While much of the press on the project covers the digital skin of the building, high resolution displays, and an adaptive acoustic system, the real innovation of the venue is in the spherical design of the venue itself, creating connection and immersion in the very layout. A truly shared experience.
The design of these spaces is focused on engagement and a sense of being part of what is happening.
The powerful role of designers.
Many churches are experimenting with ways to create this engagement. Audience polling systems, apps that can be accessed during the service, and live-mic services where people are invited to share, all invite engagement.
And the pressure is on to meet this demand.
After all, congregations used to have a certain tolerance for the portions of a gathering that didn’t specifically engage them. Now, people just leave without ever getting out of their seat. They check their messages. They shop Amazon. They scroll Facebook.
When active minds come up against passive experience, they check out.
... as church designers, we all get to influence the level of success of engagement and connection in the church buildings that we design.
Technology is not going to solve the engagement issue—even though it has been the catalyst for the shift in the demand from passive to active.
Sparking engagement has to be done within the very design of the space. Church designers are in the strongest position to lead this transformation. The thing is that powerful cues can be found from outside of the type of church architecture that has been dominant for the past 50 years.
We can look for what has worked in historical influences like cathedrals, concert halls, and great theatres. Commercial influences like co-working spaces, hackathons, and mixed-use developments. Entertainment venues like next-generation arenas, amphitheatres and esports settings.
Here’s the thing: as church designers, we all get to influence the level of success of engagement and connection in the church buildings that we design. We get to make a difference.
