Research published this week showed that people in the UK are spending more money than ever on carpets and furniture. That’s good news for retailers, I’m sure, but it made me think about what we give priority to, and why.

Perhaps, at a time of financial restraint, people are choosing to concentrate on making their homes comfortable and smart rather than moving house. Perhaps it’s because the world feels like a threatening place at present, so we’re looking inwards and ‘nesting’, making somewhere safe and secure that we can retreat to. Or perhaps we’re just swayed by endless advertising and house makeover television programmes.

Of course for far too many people in the world – including here in the UK – having a home at all is the crucial issue, rather than what it looks like.

My Christian faith can often seem ambivalent about homes and buildings.

Jesus spent his ministry moving from place to place, relying on the hospitality of friends and strangers, and famously said that ‘foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’.

His disciples too were asked to give up their homes and their families in order to follow him, trusting that their mission to tell people about God's love was more important than their own security or shelter.

Yet at the same time, the Church has often given value to buildings in which Christian communities can gather for worship, and has made many of these into places of great beauty and significance. Churches have been built with great care as gifts to God – the best for the best. Some are very splendid, containing lovely things, and others are powerful examples of simplicity. In Oxford, we are lucky to have many beautiful church buildings, from our cathedral at Christ Church, full of carved stonework and stained glass, to the newly-built chapel at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, which has been nominated for the prestigious Stirling prize for its elegant use of space and light.

Two very different churches, but with a common desire to provide somewhere which inspires worshippers with a sense of wonder and awe, helping them to draw closer to God in worship and prayer.

Church buildings, like our homes, can be beautiful and inspirational. At their best, they are places that help us to rest and grow – as D H Lawrence says, places that enable us to feel: The presence of the living God like a great reassurance a deep calm in the heart a presence as of the master sitting at the board in his own and greater being, in the house of life.

But the Church is more than a church building, and God cannot be kept inside four walls. The Church is the whole people of God, journeying together in faith and hope. And for many Christians throughout history, it's the journey towards and alongside God that matters rather than where it takes place. And whatever the decor.

The Rev Dr Amanda Bloor, Diocese of Oxford diocesan adviser in women’s ministry.