May "Uglies" Award

So I have been sitting and stewing on this one for awhile, ever since I first saw this church last Fall. As most of you know, I was born and raised in Grand Junction and so I go back there to visit my mom every once in awhile. We were cruising around one day, and my jaw about hit the floor when I saw this particular church.

Now I am not particularly religious in my beliefs (at least not organized religion), but I have always appreciated the beauty of churches, particularly the old fashioned corner churches. I have also appreciated what churches have stood for, a community gathering spot, and landmarks of the neighborhood within which they are located. People are usually proud of their churches, and take pride in the appearance of them. I am also keenly aware that churches (as with most everything in American culture) have gotten bigger over the years, and so it is harder to build them to a neighborhood scale.

But what about this church? It doesn't even look remotely like a church....just a big metal box! Most of the bigger churches today still look like a church, though some people have complained that some look like office buildings. This church in particular doesn't even look like an office building. It looks like a warehouse, and a bad one at that. Where is the pride in this church? It is just a boring box sitting in the middle of a parking lot. There isn't even very much landscaping to soften the building, or screen the parking lot. How does this church relate to the surrounding neighborhood? Heck, how does this one relate to the community at large? To me, this structure looks more like a prison, not a very inviting place to go to for any reason.

What happened to churches being a part of and connected to the neighborhood? What happened to civic structures looking like a landmark? OK, this church might be a landmark, but not a positive one. And why on earth, would a city let a structure like this get built in the first place? Even in today's throwaway society, buildings are usually built to last for decades, so this one will be around for a long time to come. Makes you wonder.