Church Design

When churches embark on a building project, the focus of the building committee is typically on getting the most amount of square footage at the cheapest price. Spending money on architecture and interior design often seems frivolous, a poor use of ministry resources. Churches want to spend money on missional activities, like serving the community, and every dollar that goes toward a building robs the church of resources for ministry impact. Or so the thinking goes.

Community Christian Church, a dynamic, growing faith community whose mission is “helping people find their way back to God,” launched a new multisite location—Community Christian Church Plainfield—in 2016. Recognizing the need for an innovative space where people could connect and the community could embrace its love for athletics, Community Christian Church Plainfield, the location for the upcoming Alignment Conference, embarked on a complete renovation of a former manufacturing plant with the help of Aspen Group, an integrated design-build-furnish company for churches.

Are you ready to launch your next church? What are the questions you should be asking as you consider this venture? When I was 22, I was completely overwhelmed with pastoring a small church in a tough neighborhood. It looked bleak. My salary was $8,000 a year with no insurance. The church had 18 people and no worship band. I was living in my one-room office with a mattress on the floor and mouse traps all around. I thought, "Wow, we're supposed to be this dynamic ‘change the world’ church and we're just this small, feeble group...the toothless, the broken, the homeless and those with prison sentences."

Orland Park Christian Reformed Church (OPCRC) in Orland Park, Illinois, was built in 1970, and over the past three decades, the church building has undergone three major additions (see Facility History image).

Your church building is one of the most powerful billboards you have for communicating your presence and purpose to your community. Are you leveraging this asset to its fullest potential? Are you communicating that you’re a church both in and for the community?

The primary purpose of a church building is to provide a place for two things to happen: an opportunity for people to encounter God, and the chance to build meaningful relationships with others. These two needs for reverent space and relational space can be met through the physical layout and design of the building. In this post, we'll look at how to maximize your lobby to create relational space.  

In our consulting work at Multisite Solutions, we get weekly calls from churches asking two questions: So, why should a church merge? Should we do this or not? When I meet with the two involved parties, usually two senior pastors or a senior pastor and a board member, we talk about the following questions they should also be exploring:

Your church has decided it’s ready to renovate or build a new facility. Your next big decision will be to determine who you’ll hire as your church building partner. Many church bylaws and rules of governance dictate a due diligence process that includes soliciting multiple firms with a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) or a Request for Proposal (RFP) as a primary means for comparing building partners.

Church building projects often grow out of a need for more space, or a desire to adapt existing space to better suit a church’s ministry goals. Leaders will often call Aspen Group with pressing questions—questions that relate to tactical aspects of adding on space, such as how much square footage to build, or how many seats to add in the sanctuary to accommodate growth.

Children are a key factor in selecting a church home. But children’s programs, teaching, and activities aren’t the only aspects we take into consideration when deciding on a church. In recognition of Father’s Day, we’ve assembled a list of six ways that churches can create a dad-friendly experience for first-time visitors and members alike: