How do you effectively do ministry in a basilica?

I just got back from a holiday in Europe, including a ten-day trip to Rome.

Needless to say, I saw a lot of churches and ruins.

Among the 900 alleged places of worship, the majority were very old and very large.

While we were there we saw a few church services - a baptism, wedding and an ordinary church service. Unsurprisingly, none packed out the space.

When your in a hundreds-year-old basilica, capable of holding hundreds of people, the churches were sparsely populated.

Frankly, a similar thing could be said about most Sydney churches on any given Sunday.

But I did wonder how modern ministry would happen in an ancient building?

What challenges would you face in a 1500 year basilica?

For an ancient building even logistical elements like electricity or technology availability would be a challenge.

Of course, very few ancient buildings have a space appropriate for youth or children’s activities.

How do you run an effective ministry to the young in a church full of ancient relics?

How do you keep a church ministry legislative compliant when your ministry is running atop a 500-year-old mosaic or the gravestones of deceased saints?

Is there any space where you could play games without endangering heritage relics (no church appeared to have halls attached to their buildings)?

The more I think about it, the more the challenges arise…

How do you conduct services with a continuous stream of gawking tourists? Surely this couldn’t remain child-protection compliant.

How about the challenge of holding a service in such a vast, but primarily empty, space?

I suppose the secret is to leverage the advantages of such a vast, old, church.

You link heavily to the awe-inspiring nature of the space.

You emphasise the links to centuries of history.

While you may not have a space to play basketball inside, there are no churches in my entire country which are as old or large as many of the churches I entered while in Rome.

Maybe those in Rome would be pondering how you could do effective ministry in a place which doesn’t take your breath away when you enter and isn’t centuries old…