Most Christian places of worship aren't temples at all.

Temples aren't meant for worshiping in but serve as a dwelling place and focus of divine energy.

Ceremonies tend to take place outside temples because it's the house of the deity and he doesn't like getting his nice carpet ruined by people spilling drinks.

The prime model for most Christian church buildings is a Basilica, basically a Roman meeting house with a stage at one end for announcements and speeches and seating or standing room pointing towards it.

In the Western church it then became a tradition to make the building cruciform and point it so the sun would shine through a window on the feast day of the dedicated saint until the tradition changed to point them to the east.

Eastern Churches tended to have more variety of shapes and geometry to them.

As more Catholic priests were employed and they had to keep saying mass small chapels would be added to large churches to allow for more than one priest to work at the same time.

In large Cathedrals this would be more and more elaborate.

These were usually dedicated to a related saint to the one who was the main focus of the building.

The height was more to do with advances in geometry from studying books and buildings from conquered Muslim states.

The Ogive curve and the flying buttress allowed for supports for the walls to move outside and for more height and glass.

With the reformation most of that was stripped down to form a return to the more plain Meeting House shape.