“Light and Darkness” by Dr. Lloyd Stebbins

Church of St. Michael (nave north window), Essex, England, Author Acabashi (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

This eloquent post by Dr. Lloyd Stebbins began life as a comment on an earlier post of mine.  Dr. Stebbins’ insights are always wise and welcome.  Regrettably, I did not give his comment the attention it deserved.  Today’s republication is an effort to correct that oversight. 

Dr. Stebbins is the author of “Wake Up America – Or Die!  YOU Must Save America and the Family”.  He blogs at Dr. Lloyd Stebbins – Deliberate Joy https://lloydstebbins.com/.

“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1: 5).

“It is interesting to notice church windows.  They vary from stained glass to clear, large and small, a lot of windows or just a few—or even no windows at all.  As churches have migrated from traditional Christian music to contemporary Christian music or Christian rock music, there has been a growing trend to build churches without windows.

The church leaders claim that the windowless churches, sanctuaries, or auditoriums enable better control of the lighting, absolute control if the inside walls are black or a dark color.  Indeed, the churches are becoming increasingly theatrical.  Could it be that the increasingly theatrical nature of ‘worship’ services tends to place more emphasis on man and less emphasis on God, despite the very best of intentions and the clearly Christian lyrics of the contemporary or Christian rock music?

The dark-walled, windowless churches provide the pastors and other leaders of the Sunday morning ‘production’ absolute, godlike control of the lighting. Yet, scripture says that, ‘God is light.’  A long time ago, Lucifer wanted to be like God.  It clearly did not work out well for him.  Is it really a good idea to shut out ALL of the light?

By shutting out all of the light are we literally, figuratively, or symbolically, shutting out God?  Is there an affordable architectural compromise that would allow professional control of lighting for Christmas and Easter productions, but allow God’s wonderful physical and spiritual light to shine, at least while the pastor is preaching?

The type, size, and number of windows are largely a matter of personal and congregational preference.  But can zero windows become problematic? The abundance of windows in many older churches suggests a clear intent to let in as much light as possible. What has changed?  What do you think?”

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