Church meeting in school halls

We have just started attending All Saints' English (English congregation of All Saints' Church) and have been there for 3 weeks so far. They meet in a school hall and I think there is something to be said about churches which meet in school halls. The building in which a church meets somehow both reflects and shapes the life of the church.

I grew up in a Chinese Methodist Church in Singapore, typically located in a building with a large sanctuary for church services (usually several in various languages and dialects) and a similarly large "social hall" or "fellowship hall". Throughout each Sunday morning, congregations of various sizes fill up and empty the large sanctuary at the appointed times, and adjourn to the social hall for breakfast or lunch fellowship depending on the time of the day. The fellowship hall is usually a big space with stackable chairs and foldable tables used in different configurations to suit the different needs. There is space for kids to run around, for elderly people to sit in small groups to watch the kids run around, space for young people to gather together and play the guitar, and for adults to huddle and exchange news. So you can imagine the kind of church life in such a place - certainly one with a strong sense of family and community.

I then spent a large part of my young adult life in a conservative evangelical church meeting in a modern building that was still recognizably "church". The sanctuary was the main and central part of the building, with a little corridor and several small rooms upstairs for kids to meet and learn about God during the service. There was a tiny kitchen and a small back hall located at the back of the church that was used for simple food and drink preparation and small meetings which involved coffee and cake. Over the years, there have been efforts to have meals together - trying to squeeze as many people as possible in the back hall, but still having limited space and therefore necessitating sign-up sheets and first come-first served policies. There was strong sense of "established-ness" and importance of the pulpit and preaching of the word as the main work of the church, together with efforts of good Christian people doing good Christian things.

Here and there, I have also attended traditional and "high" services in really old church buildings which should really be called cathedrals rather than churches - traditional evensong in St Paul's Cathedral, Ely Cathedral and King's College Chapel where all the prayers and psalms and sung by a choir comprising only boys and men, as well as modern services held in old cathedral buildings. Many of these cathedrals are typically large stone buildings with beautiful stained glass windows and various little enclosures of wooden pews facing each other, adorned with ornate carvings and candles. When you enter these little enclosures and sit in the pews, there is a strong sense of being in a sacred place which demands quiet meditation and reverent prayer. The spiritual experience of God's presence just cannot be replicated elsewhere and I cannot explain that feeling of having met God at a personal level when I leave the place.

And then there are churches that meet in school halls, of which I have been to two - an Anglican church plant in London for 6 months when I was working there, and now an English congregation of an Anglican church for 3 weeks (so far). When you strip away the obligatory big cross on the front wall, the stained glass (whether one modern stained glass strip or the innumerable stained glass depictions of biblical scenes and saintly people), take away the pews and the altar up at the front... you are left with God's people meeting to worship God together. And when you meet God and God's people in that environment, you experience something that is undoubtedly real rather than constructed. There is something fresh and honest about the encounter with God and fellowship with God's people.

Different church buildings are suited to different churches, and different churches are suited to different people. There are also different seasons in life that we all go through, during which a different church environment may be more conducive for spiritual renewal and growth. In the end, what matters is a space which facilities our communion with God and God's people and building of those relationships, wherever that place may be.