FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — If every picture tells a story, the stained-glass windows of Broadway Baptist Church tell tales of grace, sacrifice and love.
While the Forth Worth, Texas, church has rested on the same piece of property since 1882, the current, gothic-style building was built in 1952, when Sunday school classes raised money to pay for the ornate windows.
Stained-glass windows hearken back to a time when many worshippers could not read the Bible, but they could look at ornate windows that told them biblical stories. They knew what the symbols meant and what various numbers and colors were supposed to call to mind.
With this rich history in mind, Broadway's building chairman, Bill Henderson, saw the stained-glass windows at Riverside Church in New York City and mentioned his vision when buildings plans were first discussed.
So now, the view over the church's baptistery is of the invitation window, where Christ stands with open hands inviting all to come. The upper windows tell the creation story and the fall of man. The lower windows tell of stalwarts of the Old Testament like Abraham, Moses and David.
Each of the richly colored windows spins numerous tales woven into the tapestry of faith, much like historic churches in New England and in Europe.
If early worshippers saw four panels, they would look for symbols of the four evangelists: a man for Matthew, a lion for Mark, an ox for Luke, and an eagle for John. If they saw objects in groups of five, it made them think of the five wounds Christ endured at his crucifixion.
But while people today do not have such keen insight into the symbols, it in some ways makes the windows more personal in their meaning to each individual, said Claudine Marion, Broadway's minister of hospitality and the arts.
Everyone brings their own story and translates the symbols using that story, she said.
“We're very aware that the colors teach, the symbols teach — and that they inspire,” she said. “People remember what they see and take different things from those colors and symbols. Some may say, ‘Oh, the red is the blood, and the blue is the color for righteousness,' but for someone else it may mean something else totally.”
Other windows in Broadway Baptist show the Sermon on the Mount, the parables of Jesus, the miracles of Christ, Christ as the Good Shepherd, the holy family at Nazareth, Jesus as a boy in the temple, and Jesus with children.
When worshippers turn to leave the sanctuary, they face the large stained-glass window that instructs Christ's disciples to go forth and make disciples.
The windows make for a different worship experience, to be sure.
“When you walk into this building, you are bathed in the light that comes through these windows, and it prepares you to receive the light that God presents to us,” Marion said.
Pastor Brett Younger agreed.
“I've worshipped in rooms that had a variety of purposes,” he said. “That can be a good stewardship of resources, but there is also something indescribably sacred about worshipping in a room that couldn't be anything but a sanctuary. It's clear to worshippers that we have come to give ourselves to God.”
The scenes from the past displayed in such a visual manner also help give a clearer vision of what God can do in the present, Younger said.
“When we're surrounded by the stories of the Bible, the heroes and heroines of our faith, it's obvious that we are there to take our place in the story,” he said.
One of the chief benefits of the windows is in casting a crystal-clear spotlight on what the focus of worship is supposed to be about, he added.
And stained glass is marvelously impractical — but not all things should be practical, he said.
The glass “costs too much, and you can't see through it. But stained glass surrounds us with the stories of impractical saints who chose to follow Christ no matter the cost.”
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— This article is part of a three-part series on church architecture.