For those of us in eastern Pennsylvania, the snowiest winter on record is being followed by what may be the hottest summer on record. On a personal level, I just paid the highest electric bill ever for my home. The current Public Utility Commission cap on electric rates expires at the end of the year, so I may be paying 20% more for electricity next year – unless I can reduce my home and family’s electric consumption. With church budgets already stressed in the weak economy, how will absorbing such increases impact your ministries, programs and services?
While the current heat wave may seem to underscore the dire predictions of global warming prognosticators, economic concerns loom much larger than carbon footprint issues in most people’s minds. Continue Reading »
Posted in Bookstore, Classroom, Environment, Newsletters, Stewardship | No Comments »
'Wings of the Dawn' in Brookgreen Gardens
A thought provoking question was posed to me recently: “what is a distinctly “Christian” garden?” I thought I’d try to answer it in this blog to conclude the subject of gardens over the past month. It is easier to answer “what is a “Buddhist” garden?” than “what is a Christian garden”, since the garden style developed in their monasteries (integral to their meditation practices) is very distinct. The style that is easy to recognize in the raked gravel patterns and surrounding pruned forms of pines, junipers, maples and azaleas. A typical Christian building for worship (what most people refer to as “a church”) is easy to recognize, characterized by steeples with crosses, stained glass, pews, etc. It is the universal recognition of these elements that result in the pronouncement as a Christian church. Though we (Architects for Ministry) use the aforementioned elements infrequently in our designs, and use the term “church” to apply to the congregation rather than the building, it would still be the use of distinctive elements that would create a “Christian” garden or landscape.
Acknowledging that pews, steeples and stained glass are not appropriate to use in a garden, the reasonable question at this point is: “what are appropriate garden design elements to convey a Christian message?” To this I would respond literal, literary, interpretive and symbolic elements. And for all of these elements to make a garden or park-like landscape, there needs to be a theme (design style) that unites them. Continue Reading »
Posted in Classroom, Environment, Inspirations, Playground, Random Thoughts, Site Planning | No Comments »
I’ve heard it said that “prayer began in a garden” (meaning the Garden of Eden), but I don’t think that’s true. In the simplest sense of the word, prayer is people communicating TO God. In Eden, there was two-way communication between God and people, what would be better termed “communion”. Prayer began when face-to-face communion ended, as Adam and Eve were banished from the garden. Since that time, man has done a lot of praying.
As the Bible records it, prayer took place in many places: in open fields, in the wilderness, under the stars, in tents, under trees, from the belly of a big fish, in temples and in gardens. It would be hard to contend that one place was better than another (more acceptable to God, that is) as a place of prayer. However, if Jesus preferred certain types of places to pray while He walked the earth, it can be inferred from scripture that it was mountaintops when in the country and a garden when in the city. Repeatedly the Gospels tell of Him rising early, going to lonely places and mountain tops to pray. In the city (Jerusalem), he apparently had His prayer and fellowship hang-out as well; just outside Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley, at the base of the Mount of Olives in a garden called Gethsemane. How do we know He frequented this place? John tells us that is how Judas knew where to lead the guards to arrest Jesus. (John 18:1) Continue Reading »
Posted in Bookstore, Environment, Inspirations, Playground, Random Thoughts, Worship Center | No Comments »
Gardens are full of rich Biblical significance. There are several different uses of the term ‘garden’ in the Bible. Often it is an agricultural application, referring to vineyards, groves of fruit trees or vegetable plots. (Jeremiah 29:5 , Deuteronomy 11:10 ). In other applications, it is primarily an outdoor environment; a place of beauty for gathering and entertaining (Esther 1:6, Ecclesiastes 2:5). There are also places where God refers to His people as His planting, His garden (Isaiah 5:7, Isaiah 61:3). It was in a garden that God chose to first put His highest creation – people. And gardening was the first occupation given to people (Genesis 2:15).
The location of Eden per the account in Genesis 2 is where several rivers came together, two of them being the Tigris and Euphrates. This would place Eden in modern day Iraq; not what most people today would envision as a garden setting! But the land was not always this way. Continue Reading »
Tags: Environment, Green Design
Posted in Bookstore, Classroom, Environment, Inspirations, Playground, Random Thoughts | No Comments »
For those of us in eastern Pennsylvania, the snowiest winter on record is being followed by what may be the hottest summer on record. On a personal level, I just paid the highest electric bill ever for my home. The current Public Utility Commission cap on electric rates expires at the end of the year, so I may be paying 20% more for electricity next year – unless I can reduce my home and family’s electric consumption. With church budgets already stressed in the weak economy, how will absorbing such increases impact your ministries, programs and services? 
