My parents stopped going to church about the same time they quit driving after dark and going downstairs to the basement. It was about the same time Dad got earphones for the television so Mom could sew in peace without having to listen to John Madden shout explanations of NFL football plays.

My folks used to go to church every time the bell rang. When they became golden-agers, however, that became difficult. Potluck dinners served in the church basement were off limits because of the steep stairs. Children were too loud and the preacher too soft. The dim lighting of evening services made hymnal reading a trial and upped the chances of stumbling and falling. Eventually Mom and Dad just stayed home and watched church on television.

Editor's note: Download the full report on the ministry facilities expansion trends survey for free at YourChurchResources.com.

Churches in the United States spent about $7 billion on church buildings in 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

But did these churches construct new facilities or add to existing ones? Building on their current property or elsewhere? What prompted these projects?

In early 2010, Christianity Today International and Cornerstone Knowledge Network attempted to answer questions like these by co-sponsoring a survey on ministry facilities expansion trends titled, "Does More Space Mean Better Ministry?" The goal of the survey was to better understand how churches view their ministry space and to gauge their feelings about recent ministry space expansion. The study also attempted to identify correlations between the types of expansion, church growth rate, and makeup of growth. For churches that have not expanded, the study explored what elements of their ministry space they would most want to expand if they could.

When I was a newly minted pastor's wife I was puzzled by what appeared to be an unexplainable correlation between long-time members' retirement from their jobs and their retirement from church involvement. Now that I am on the cusp of fitting into the "senior citizen" category, I have discovered at least one reason why retirees sometimes seem to diminish their ministry within the church: lack of accessibility to the sanctuary.

When senior citizens have difficulty participating in sanctuary worship services, the entire ministry of the church can suffer. Ministry comes out of worship, and when mobility and other health issues hinder attendance at worship services, the invaluable spiritual gifts, experience, and wisdom of seniors in the church's ministry can be lost as a result. As the body ages, pain, mobility, and health issues sometimes make just getting up in the morning a chore. If seniors who are struggling to function on a day-to-day basis run into access issues in the church, they can become easily discouraged in their attendance and involvement.

Grace Church is only halfway through its latest building project, but church leaders are already feeling confident that the planning and thinking they have invested is going to reap dividends like never before. This time around, years before the first bulldozer arrived at the work site, the church identified its primary ministry focus—serving the next generation—and aligned its design with that purpose.

Grace is a church that embraces the idea of creating worship and ministry space, rather than just more square footage. To accomplish this feat, a church must balance economics, aesthetics, and utility. Leaders need to be keenly aware of their community and what its people need in new facilities. But before uprooting a single blade of grass, a church needs to ask these baseline questions: What kind of church are we? What kind of church do we want to be?

After serving as an ordained minister for years, John Sammons started selling school furniture and church pews. He often said that somebody ought to build a good chair for churches, and he eventually decided to do it himself.

He designed and built the first model in his garage, and then showed it to his family.

"Do you think people will buy that?" he asked them.

They thought so. And they were right.

Sammons' first chair was among the first to pave the way for flexible seating—sometimes referred to as "stackable chairs"—in churches. More than 40 years later, Church Chair now distributes chairs throughout the United States and to nearly 50 countries. Several other manufacturers, including ChairTex, Irwin Seating Company, and Bertolini, also have established long track records with flexible seating, creating a bona fide niche category serving churches.

"We started building the first chairs in the garage, borrowed a little money, and before we knew it, we had a manufacturing industry," says Dean Sammons, John's son and the current president of Church Chair.

What can you do when your church is tight on space and tighter on finances? If you're not in a position to consider expanding your ministry space, try taking these steps to maximize the space you have.

Step 1: List your space needs. On a floor plan of your building, write down what happens in each room during the various hours of the week. Is the present space adequate? If not, what size and kind of space is needed? Do the same for every church activity that happens away from church.

Project the space needs for each of these ministries—and any being planned—for five years from now. Designate the amount of space needed and any special requirements such as location, accessibility, and acoustics.

Step 2: Match groups to the right-size room. Many churches have at least one small class in a big room and one big class in a little room. Simply moving classes around can relieve space pressure. Perhaps you can change group sizes to fit your rooms. You can divide large classes or combine smaller classes and switch to a team-teaching approach.

Editor's Note: This article is part two of "Avoiding Mixed Messages." In this article, author Lee Dean explores practical ways to align the look of your church facility with the mission and vision of your ministry.

After the preliminary questions are answered, it's time to get to work by concentrating on specific areas and characteristics of your building and grounds.

Create an inviting outward appearance. One of the ways MCC selected to tear down its imaginary walls was through the construction of a real wall. The structure is known as the Nehemiah Wall. But this wall isn't meant to conceal everything behind it. People walking by the church can peek in through cutouts and see a courtyard and fire pit designed to create an outdoor gathering space.

"A lot of people didn't get the wall at first. Now that they see the finished product, they love it," Cassetto says. "You can look through the wall and see life happening in the courtyard, at the fireplace, and with people sitting at tables."

Editor's Note: This article is part one of a two part feature titled, "Avoiding Mixed Messages." In this first article, author Lee Dean looks at how church facilities say something about a church's vision and mission. Is your church sending the right message?

When your church's people tell one story but the building conveys a contradictory message, the result is a construction feature not drawn on the original blueprints: walls that potentially keep visitors away.

"The idea that the environment is setting the stage, if not actually telling your story, is something we miss," says Mel McGowan, founder of Visioneering Studios, a California design firm for churches and ministries. "The idea that storytelling begins at the street is important."

The story your church tells to people who pass by continues when they step onto the property. At its best, the story comes from a vision, and the message is the same whether told by the church's people or by its facilities.

Multi-site has become a proven and effective strategy for launching new and vibrant congregations. Multi-site congregations have a high success rate because of the support and leverage of the sending church. So what does it take to launch a multi-site campus?

You need:

• Prayer to Precede


• Provision to Start


• A Pastor to Lead


• People to Follow


• A Place to Meet

Prayer to Precede
Have you prayed about going multi-site? There are many logical and compelling reasons to go multi-site, but the only one that really matters is God's call. Is this something God is leading your church to do? Is there a profound sense that God is in this initiative? Is there an overwhelming conviction that we have to do this to be obedient and faithful stewards of our resources in order to fulfill God's purpose for our church? This conviction primarily comes as God confirms through prayer.

Hosea 4:6 says a lack of knowledge can be destructive. Ignorance of the risks involved when taking on something as extensive as building or expanding a church site can be equally as damaging. Almost half of all church building projects will suffer delays or setbacks. Yet there's something even worse than temporary snags: building the wrong facility.

If you're like most church leaders, the cultural shifts and changing ministry practices prompt you to wonder what your own ministry should look like in five to ten years. How should these cultural shifts impact a facility design for the future? What will it take to build trust and acceptance of the project from the young adults in the church, many of whom will lead the church into the future?