1% vision, 99% measurement

It was Edison who said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. You can easily adapt that to great buildings:

Great architecture is 1% vision, 99% measurement.

I'm struck by the importance given to measurement when the architecture of the House of God is mentioned in Scripture. For example, during the construction of the Second Temple in 520BC, as construction was underway, Zechariah saw a vision of a man with a measuring line in his hand. This got me to thinking about the many ways good measurements are needed in both physical and spiritual construction:

1. Fixing the site. Contours of the land must be surveyed, not to mention test borings taken to determine the ability of the land to hold the foundations. How about the metes and bounds of the property? In building the house of God, we need to know the spiritual boundaries, and the ability of the congregation to bear weight.

2. Giving form to vision. Non-architects don't appreciate this too much: But the key in "visioning" a great design is translating that vision into measured drawings. I would say 95% of all design ideas are lost when you try to draw them to scale. It looks great in your mind. It looks terrible on paper. In building the house of God, great ideas are a dime a dozen. But did you know that Mrs. Jones doesn't have grocery money to get through the month?

3. Setting the WP. Every construction is measured off of a working point, or WP. The measurements for an entire shopping complex, for example, may be traceable back to a fixed metal plate, or equivalent, somewhere on the site. When it comes to spiritual construction, the Church is grounded on the teachings of the apostles and the prophets. Otherwise you just have free floating good intentions.

4. Setting internal relationships. For example in the design of a nursing home, if you know the number of beds, I can tell you the square footage of the entire building. That's because nursing homes are so regulated by functional demands that many internal measurements are prescribed before you even have your bright design idea. In church life, we often have no idea how to relate to people we've been meeting with for years. Or we pick and choose who to relate to. Just because you go to church, don't assume any actual building is going on in the eyes of God.

5. Plumbs. Measuring lines horizontally turn into plumb lines vertically. If a wall is not plumb, you can't frame into it correctly, and the building may be structurally compromised. Plus it just looks ugly. Think of the preaching of the Word of God as a plumb line: it should set you straight. But we often assess sermons (how did he do? how was his technique? was he humorous? etc) like they are decorative ribbons rather than plumb lines.

6. Inventory. One of the most memorable tasks I had in an architect's office is doing the inventory of the hardware for all the doors of a major hospital. If you leave out a kick plate for a particular kind of door -- and there are hundreds of those doors throughout the hospital -- the budget can be off thousands of dollars.

7. Scheduling is also an important kind of measurement. These days I worry about architecture students who click a mouse on the computer and an entire wall appears on the screen. In my day you drew the wall in the order of the trades who build the wall. For example, if your drywall is already up when the electrician comes to put in the wires, you've got a problem.

Church construction: 1% vision, 99% measurement.

Ok, maybe 5% vision, 95% measurement.

Logos2Go

Zechariah 1.1-2 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. So I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see what [is] its width and what [is] its length."

1 Corinthians 3.10 (Paul speaking): ... According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.

Luke 14.28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has [enough] to finish [it]--lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see [it] begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'

Ephesians 2.20-21 Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows up in the a holy temple in the Lord ...