Credo
7 April 2025

The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him (Habakkuk 2:20)

One of the more noticeable features of the modern Church – especially its Protestant / Evangelical expressions – is the erosion of the idea of sacred places or spaces.

Architecturally, some modern churches are built to look like shopping malls or commercial buildings, often with only a cross to distinguish them. For practical reasons, some churches have used spaces in malls, commercial buildings and cinemas to conduct Sunday worship services and other activities.

To be sure, such arrangements do not necessarily mean that these churches have lost a sense of sacred space. After all, the early Christians have used homes and even caves as places of worship – for very practical and sometimes dire circumstantial reasons, such as ostracization and persecution.

However, if the modern Church is not careful to preserve the sense of sacred space, it may succumb to the sway of secularism and witness the subtle erosion of this important distinction between the holy and the common.

There are perhaps already disturbing signs of this happening. They are seen most strikingly in how traditional language used to describe such places has been quietly replaced by secular alternatives.

One clear example of such linguistic slippage is the description of the church building as a Christian Centre and the sanctuary – the space where believers gather for Sunday worship – as a worship hall. As many Christian writers have noted, such language denotes the subtle but not inconsequential desacralisation of sacred space, turning the church building and sanctuary into something indistinguishable from other spaces, such as a recreational centre.

Another common instance of this shift in language is the description of the front space of the sanctuary where the altar, the pulpit and the cross are usually placed as a stage or a platform. This insipid choice of words willy-nilly places the Church alongside the theatre, arena and concert hall and its worship as analogous to performance and entertainment.

This is exacerbated by the fact that the sanctuaries of modern churches do resemble more of concert halls, with dim lighting, elaborate ‘stage’ setups, professional sound systems, LED screens, and theatrical gadgets (such as fog machines). In addition, contemporary worship services also often feature bands and elaborate setlists, much like a pop concert.

This shift has undoubtedly profound theological implications, not only eroding the importance of the sacred space but also changing the contemporary church’s understanding of worship. Concert-style worship has shifted the emphasis away from the central goal of worship, namely to glorify God, to personal gratification and entertainment.

It has made worship anthropocentric (centred on man) rather than theocentric (centred on God). It has transformed worship from doxology to therapy.

This shift has also caused some Christians to hold no special regard for the space that is specifically used for Sunday worship. This is seen in the fact that in some churches the sanctuary is treated like a multi-purpose hall that can be used for purposes other than sacred worship. When this is done, the sense that this sacred space where the worship of God is conducted – this space as being special and holy – is lost.

All this can be the devastating rippling effect of substituting the sacred lexicon with a secular one.

For example, the most enduring term which is used to describe the space in the church building where Christians gather to worship is the sanctuary. Derived from the Latin sanctuarium, which means a sacred or holy place, the sanctuary represents the presence of God among his people.

In medieval church architecture, the sanctuary refers to the chancel or the area surrounding the altar which is often separated from the nave by a rood screen or an altar rail. Mirroring the ‘holy of holies’ in the Old Testament temple, the sanctuary is considered the holiest part of the Church, where only the clergy could enter during the celebration of the Eucharist.

The sanctuary therefore signifies the holy place for worship, contemplation, and encountering the divine. This is significantly eroded when it is carelessly described as a stage.

Some readers may think that too much is being made of this. However, it is important to note that language does play an important role in shaping our perception and understanding of reality.

In the context of the Christian faith, the words we use can alter both perception and attitude – it can not only change our understanding of that activity called worship but also its object: God. The shift from the sacred lexicon to a secular one may inadvertently encourage a casualness in our approach and response to God.

The recovery of the sacred lexicon, therefore, can never be seen as merely about semantics. It has to do with theological fidelity. It has to do with preserving a vision of worship that is faithful to Scripture and that appropriately demonstrates due reverence to God.

The use of historic terms such as sanctuary is never merely about preserving a tradition that contemporary society (and even some contemporary churches) has little interest in or care about.

It is about being connected to the Christian story. It is about establishing and deepening our Christian identity as we recognise our place in that story. It is about catechising ourselves and our children.

As Joshua Pauling has put it so well:

Recovering the lexicon and practice of sacred space has a role to play in enabling us ‘to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). Such a lexicon helps sanctify peace for contemplation that births new insights, for silence that brings forth peace, for confession that resolves in forgiveness. We need these places of permanence where our human finitude encounters divine life through water, Word, bread and wine. We need times for transcendence where we are ushered into another world beyond digital evanescence and the everyday grind. So, next Sunday when you arrive at church, be transported into another world – the world of Christ’s kingdom, and start using the terms for sacred space that say so. Terms that communicate more clearly what actually happens when and where we gather in the name of Father, Son and Spirit.

Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor at Trinity Theological College (Singapore) and Theological and Research Advisor of the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity.