By the Way: Sacred ground in the heart of the city

By Scott Raible on May 24, 2025.

In the heart of downtown Medicine Hat, four churches-St. John’s Presbyterian (1902), Fifth Avenue Memorial United (1913), St. Barnabas Anglican (1912), and St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic (1912)-stand as more than just historic buildings. They are sacred spaces, rooted in over a century of worship, prayer, service, and community. Their spires rise above the city as quiet declarations that God is not only present here, but has always been present-generation after generation.

While Scripture teaches that we ourselves are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), honouring sacred spaces like these historic churches reminds us that God often meets His people in tangible places set apart for worship, prayer, and community.

Walking into any one of these churches is like stepping onto holy ground. The scent of aged wood, the flicker of candlelight, the hush of stained-glass-filtered sunlight-all speak to a different rhythm, a sacred rhythm. These are places that were built to direct our hearts upward and outward, where the architecture itself reminds us of the Kingdom of God: not sterile, not stage-like, but living, mysterious, and beautiful.

These churches have held baptisms and funerals, midnight Christmas masses and Easter vigil services. They’ve fed the hungry, welcomed the lost, embraced the lonely. They have been the hands, heart, and feet of Christ to the City of Medicine Hat. They are places where heaven touches earth-not because they are perfect, but because they have been sanctified by prayer, by presence, by love. They reflect what Jacob encountered in Genesis 28 when he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place-and I did not know it… This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

But in our time, many church buildings have begun to look and feel different. The altar has been replaced by a stage, the sanctuary by an auditorium. In some cases, crosses have been removed so as not to offend, and the mystery and sacredness of Christian worship has been traded for performance and polish. These changes may have been well-intentioned-to be more accessible, more modern-but they have also, in some ways, stripped the sacred.

And people are noticing.

A 2023 Pew Research Center study found a growing number of millennials and Gen Z Christians are gravitating toward more traditional, liturgical expressions of faith. Many are leaving contemporary, performance-driven churches and seeking out spaces that feel deeply sacred-where the architecture, the liturgy, and the atmosphere point to something greater than ourselves (Pew Research Center, “Faith Among the Generations: Worship Trends,” 2023). They are not looking for a show; they are looking for God.

What they’re finding in churches like these is not nostalgia-it’s presence. It’s beauty. It’s awe. These churches are not museums. They are living sanctuaries full of the Spirit of God. They remind us that faith is not something we consume, but something we live, breathe, and embody. They draw us into the mystery of Christ and into the heart of community.

In a world that often feels fragmented and fast, these churches offer something deeply grounding: a space to encounter the holy, to remember who we are, and to be reoriented toward the love and peace that is only found in Christ Jesus. They are, quite literally, sacred ground.

Let us not take these sacred places for granted. May we not overlook the gift they are. May we enter them-not only with our feet, but with open hearts and receptive spirits-ready to encounter God anew, and to carry His love and light into every corner of our city and beyond.

Scott Raible has served as an ordained minister in Medicine Hat for the past twenty years, and started Christian radio in Medicine Hat with Alive 99.5 and was an announcer and music director with 93.7 Praise FM. Scott can be reached at scottraible@gmail.com

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