"Hurricane Architecture"

Today we had our fall convocation for us, the new students, as well as new faculty and staff. We heard from our President, Dr. Phil Butin, preach on "Hurricane Architecture." He spoke of two entities within the church that were most theological 'chewed-on' at the turn of the 20th Century: the church as Institution and the church as Movement.

The institution side of the church tends to be well-established and grounded, and thus is built to resist change for the sake of continuity. The movement side of the church does better to catch the flow of spiritual change, but can easily wither away without a strong base. Dr. Butin said the two entities, while often seen at odds with each other, do best when working together, as the pendulum of the Holy Spirit might move from one side to the other.

He then likened the building of sky scrapers as an example of how to build a physically robust structure that uses natural designs, such as the golden ratio, to exist with the forces of nature; his "Hurricane Architecture." For much of recent history, humans have built structures to withstand the onslaught of nature, and are proud when their structures are left untouched after a horrendous storm. Most recently, however, architects are now using technology largely derived from nature to have buildings actually move during an earthquake or bend slightly to hurricane winds in an effort to stand with rather than with-stand nature.

I thought it was an excellent example of how to balance two trends, institution and movement, with two goals, continuity and change.