imaginary church architecture

Last night I dreamt about church again - the church where I work and attend - and as always, it was a completely unfamiliar setting. Each time I dream about church, the building and the rooms are redesigned by imagination -- a different sanctuary, office, meeting rooms, fellowship hall etc -- each dream. I go through several architectual versions per month, and can't recall one dream where the space looked just as it does now, in reality.

In this more recent dream, our prospective Worship & Music director had to give a brief report for the congregation (which was much larger than our current crowd), and in the middle of a sentence she finally decided to take the job and work with us. As if she'd been struck just then with the critical inspiration. So maybe it's more accurate to call this a 'fantasy.'

One interesting commonality among these imaginary churches, is that they are like the real space in that the offices are older and un-beautiful, but the sanctuaries are always gorgeous. Last night the sanctuary looked more modern, with the rounded amphitheater construction and sloping floor, pews deeply cushioned and divided into sections. The room itself wasn't actually so large -- not the sort of space that holds thousands. The pews were painted white, and the walls were light-colored and brightly lit; but the whole space had a very warm and cozy feel in spite of being large. It was filled with people. In an unpleasant dream from more than a year ago the image entailed the sort of vast, Vaticanesque sanctuary I'd never hope to worship in. Garrison Keillor was there for some reason, presiding over an overwrought wedding. Lots of gold paint and ostentatious detail to the architecture. But that was a negative dream overall.

I often dream about other places, homes where I've lived etc, with consistant detail. I'm interested to know how many churches I can invent before those dreams become predictable.