The Swedenborgian Church is an ever-evolving organization. Currently, traditional activities such as worship services, Sunday School programs, doctrinal discussion groups, and lectures are retained and in some programs remain the central focus. There is also, however, an increasing emphasis on the variety of religious experiences, and Swedenborgians are actively pursuing avenues of spiritual development outside the traditional framework of religious worship.
In a symbolic way, this trend toward innovation in inner spiritual growth methods is expressed in several new outward expressions of Swedenborgian architecture. During the rapid growth of the Swedenborgian Church in the middle and late nineteenth-century, large traditional church sanctuaries were built in the major cities of the United States, from Boston and New York to San Francisco and San Diego. Many of the oversized structures of the past have now been sold and more functional facilities acquired. Where the style of choice for Swedenborgian churches in the 1800's was Gothic and Renaissance, in the twentieth century fresh expressions of contemporary places of worship have been built. The best known of Swedenborgian churches is the Wayfarers Chapel, on the Palos Verdes peninsula in southern California. This unique building of redwood and glass, designed by Lloyd Wright, overlooks the Pacific, enabling the many thousands of visitors and regular worshipers to commune with the natural beauty beyond the transparent enclosures. Other structures extensively utilizing the medium of glass were erected in the suburbs of Seattle, St. Louis, and Chicago.
In the two decades beginning in the 1950s, more than a dozen experiments in new forms of church programming were undertaken by newly-forming congregations. Most of these were part of a community-centered concept of ministry and were highly experimental in nature. Virtually all enjoyed early success, but as neighborhoods changed and national trends in religious expression shifted, most of these experiments have continued to evolve and change, while a few of the projects have been simply abandoned.
In the decades of the eighties and nineties, change continued to be the hallmark of the Swedenborgian Church. In many churches, traditional worship was happily reinvigorated. Yet, that trend has not slowed the interest among lay people and ministers in alternative forms of ministry and spiritual development. Training in psychotherapy from a spiritual perspective has been the focus of a large percentage of the clergy in this decade. New ventures in Swedenborgian publishing and scholarship have begun to stimulate dialogue between Swedenborgians and many other spiritual groups, churches, and associations. Interest in meditation, music, healing prayer, and other direct experiences of spirit has consistently flourished up to the present time. And perhaps the most prominent trend is the development of retreat and renewal centers where the setting is conducive to intensive focus on spiritual development.