Retired Rev Bill Armstrong looks at the impact and importance of church buildings around the world - and the impact that they can have on preaching.

I have no desire to become embroiled in the closure of churches across Scotland issue but I am saddened when a church I have been attached to has fallen foul of the process.

Of themselves, church buildings are lifeless edifices; the true church, the people of God, brings life and fellowship together.

Church buildings, both internally and externally, are signs pointing towards the presence of God both for the worshipping and the wider communities; a marker set in stone but imbued with the Spirit of God.

Among the notable sacred sites we have visited – St Peter’s in Rome and Notre Dame in Paris – each in its own way outstanding examples in construction and history, though Notre Dame suffered a disastrous fire in more recent times. Another sacred space that has remained with us is Sacre Coeur, also in Paris, a building in which an act of worship takes place at Noon every day, as had been the case throughout the Second World War and since.

It would seem that the building has become a popular tourist attraction for that and presumably other reasons; but foremost it is a place of worship. When we arrived at the church, worship was underway. We sat in a pew near the back. My boyhood French was not good enough to pick up much of what was being said; but being there at that time was enough to let us be drawn into a worshipful atmosphere.

Around the worship area there is a walkway, in effect separating the tourist who had come to take in the scene from those who had come to worship God.

As we worship Sunday-by-Sunday in ours or inherited churches, we are more than observers in a building. The building may help create an appropriate atmosphere; words in hymns and prayers can spark spiritual thoughts; occasionally the preacher might say something that draws us into a deeper awareness of God.