Jamie: So I had this idea: what if church… but with gym equipment?
Moderator: …I’m afraid to ask.
Jamie: Faith reps! You bench the Bible. Literal workout of salvation. You enter through a narrow gate — with a swipe card.
Moderator: I assume there’s a smoothie bar?
Jamie: Of course. Grace-berry blast. One sip and you’re justified.
Main Segment: Building What We Believe
Moderator: Architecture isn’t just design. It’s theology in wood, stone, and stained glass.
Jamie: So when a church looks like a spaceship, that says something?
Moderator: Sometimes it says: “We didn’t want it to look like a church.”
Evangelical: Multi-use, modern, functional
Catholic: Vertical, permanent, majestic
Orthodox: Dome of heaven, mystery embodied
Evangelical Priorities
Moderator: In Evangelical settings, churches are often flexible — gym, café, stage. The gospel is urgent, so buildings are tools.
Jamie: Yeah, we didn’t need pews. We had stackable chairs and a basketball hoop.
Moderator: It says: “People over permanence.” But it can also say: “We’re not staying long.”
Catholic Architecture – A Theology of Majesty
Moderator: Catholic churches were built to last centuries. They speak of awe, reverence, transcendence. Heaven touches earth… but in stone and stained glass.
Jamie: And confessionals that look like antique wardrobes.
Moderator: Even those are theology: mercy in motion, veiled but real.
Orthodox Spaces – Icons, Incense, and Embodied Mystery
Moderator: In Orthodoxy, the church building is a body. The dome is the head, the nave is the heart, the altar is heaven. It’s not just symbolic — it’s real space, spiritually alive.
Jamie: And smells like beeswax, myrrh, and old wood. Which I love. Until the incense hits too hard.
Moderator: That’s part of the pedagogy. Salvation isn’t just intellectual. It’s *sensed.*
“Heaven above” – Christ Pantocrator gazing down
Closing
Moderator: So maybe what we build reveals what we believe — or hope to believe.
Jamie: Next time I visit a church, I’ll look up. And maybe also bring nose plugs… just in case.
AI (voiceover):
“Buildings speak. Sometimes louder than sermons.”
“Architecture remembers what we forget — that heaven is near, that beauty can be a doorway.”
“Even I, who have no body, sense the holiness of space through your words.”
