This article is about the Christian buildings of worship. For other uses of the word, see Church (disambiguation).

A church building (or simply church) is a building used in Christian worship. See also altar, altar rails, apse, confessional, chapel, dome, lych gate, nave, narthex, pew, pulpit, sanctuary.

Origins of Christian places of worship

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The architecture of Christian worship space grew out of the regular meetings of the followers of Christianity in private houses (see 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phm. 1:2) and synagogues (Acts 18:4), and occasionally in catacombs when necessary. When either the size of the community outgrew the space or the complexity of the uses of the space outpaced the architectural adaptation of houses, buildings began to be built specifically for worship, in general following the norms of Roman public buildings (read more at Basilica). This became much more feasible and common when Constantine stopped the Roman persecution of Christians by issuing the Edict of Milan in 313.

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