Can you imagine if the design of your lobby, sanctuary, and gathering spaces in your church could actually help address the emotional and mental health needs of our culture today? Recent data from Barna underscores a need for churches to bring real solutions to bear on our culture's growing mental health crisis—and the spaces we provide to our congregations and communities can be a powerful tool to help people navigate their anxiety, grief, and depression in order to more deeply connect with others.

Shepherd’s Heart Care Center, located in Chapelstreet Church’s South Street campus in Geneva, Illinois, serves 1400 people in the Tri-City area. When this ministry began in 1999, it was a simple food pantry closet with pre-packed bags, where families in need could get a helping hand, but the small, tucked away space wasn’t sufficient to allow the team to actually build relationship with the people they served. Years later, a new, larger location offered more visibility, and the ministry grew to serve more families. But it wasn’t long before they were again busting at the seams, so they decided to expand again, but they didn’t want to limit their help to food only.

One of the things that makes Aspen Group unique is our integrated Design-Build-Furnish approach. This means our designers, construction teams, project managers, estimating team, and interior designers all collaborate together under one roof to bring the most innovative solutions to our church building projects.

Back in 2005 we worked on an addition for Trinity Lutheran Church, located in Crete, Illinois, and in 2021 they invited us back to refresh their lobby space. We were honored to be welcomed back a second time, to create a space that reflects the heart of the church and the people in the community.

2021 was a busy year of partnering with churches and ministries on new facilities, renovations, and space refreshes! The following five videos feature churches and schools we’ve teamed up with to solve their unique ministry problems, and give their spaces maximum impact so they can ultimately reach more people for Jesus.

We’ve been enjoying the last six weeks of Barna’s ChurchPulse Weekly podcast series, “Making Space,” leading up to some great new research we’re partnering with Barna on called, Making Space for Formation. Aspen’s VP of Design & Integrated Services, Derek DeGroot, spent some time reflecting on each episode in his blog series, “From the Church Architect’s Desk.” In case you missed any of the posts, here's a quick recap from Derek.

Aaron and Michelle Reyes sat down with Carey Nieuwhof this week on Barna’s ChurchPulse Weekly, to talk about making space for difficult conversations as church planters of a multiethnic church. They discussed how they navigate racial and political differences within their congregation, what they have done to meet their community’s needs, and future innovations they dream of for their physical gathering space.

Recent data shows that the Gen Z generation (people born roughly between 1997 to 2010) spends an average of seven hours a day on their phone, but 79% of Gen Z people say they’re lonely. In a reality that’s become increasingly digital, there is still a strong need for physical community.

Throughout the pandemic, the digital experience has been a lifeline for our relationships, but is technology a replacement for interpersonal connection? Jo Saxton, author, speaker, podcast host, and leadership coach, shared on Barna ChurchPulse Weekly how physical space still plays a huge role in building meaningful relationships, and supporting the discipleship journey.

We went pretty deep on the theology of space with Skye Jethani and Kimberly Deckel on this week's ChurchPulse podcast, "The Strengths and Weaknesses of American Church Traditions, Worship and Physical Gatherings." It’s a challenge to broach a topic as controversial and personal as theology when you’re talking to such a broad audience, but I think a lot of what Skye and Kimberly had to say is really important for all churches to think about: if theology is about our understanding of God, what is the theological importance of physical church spaces?