Walk the streets of Disney World, and visitors are transported into a magical world of creativity and inspiration. Mel McGowan, a former Disney Imagineer and now president of Visioneering Studios, a national church architecture firm, brings this same expectation for creativity and inspiration to ministry facilities.

When McGowan speaks at the Cornerstone Knowledge Network conferences, WFX, and other facilities-related events, he shows slides of churches he has designed. Invariably there is murmuring in the crowd: "Those are really neat churches, but they must have cost a fortune." "We could never afford a church like that?"

At first glance, people assume the level of excellence represented in these church designs equates to top-dollar budgets. McGowan is intent on busting this myth. With the right materials and intentional design, he contends, churches can create sacred space that captures their uniqueness within the parameters of their budget. Case in point: Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, California.

"We created Crossroads Christian Church with a steel-frame Butler building—an inexpensive, pre-engineered solution," McGowan explains. For Crossroads, Visioneering Studios used the meaning of the word 'corona'—circle of light—to convey metaphor: the church would serve as light within the community. To that end, McGowan designed Candlewalk, a mixed-use facility that features Crossroads Christian Church as its centerpiece. Walkways meander around the building, which lead pedestrians to surprise findings—a restaurant with a view overlooking the city, a coffee shop, senior housing, and the church. By the church's front entrance, a tall tower stands sentry, projecting a beacon of light up through the tower and lighting the cross atop the structure, which marks the highest point in the city. What isn't immediately evident is that this structure is nothing more than a steel-frame cell phone tower shrouded in clever materials that mask its utilitarian purpose.

When McGowan worked at Disney, he was tasked with the job of designing Downtown Disney, a multi-million dollar, mixed-use site. It was this project that gave expression to McGowan's belief that churches could—should—recapture their place in the center of the city, the place where people gather to connect and "hub" together. This belief shows itself in every church he designs—even Elevation Church, which is a repurposed K-mart store at the end of a strip mall in Matthews, North Carolina, just outside of Charlotte.

Since Day One, Elevation Church has consistently exceeded its seating capacity. In fact, on opening day in April 2009, the church completely filled the shopping center's parking lot and had to turn away more than 150 guests.

Elevation Church has been named one of the fastest-growing churches in America. Before taking up residence in this building, it operated as a portable, multi-site church, setting up shop every Sunday in both a high school and a performing arts center in downtown Charlotte. Based on the vision of the church and a financial feasibility assessment, leaders determined that entering into a long-term lease and repurposing the K-mart was their best strategy for continued growth. While the church will continue to do set-up and tear-down week to week at these other locations, Matthews is its first permanent site and will serve as the church's anchor location for the foreseeable future.

Situated next to an Ashley Furniture distribution center, Elevation's outdoor signage is eye-catching, yet it fits with the other retailers' storefronts. There is little to indicate this space had been a K-mart one year before. Visioneering incorporated frosted glass panels with embedded LED lights to translucently illuminate the church's exterior. Following after the look and vibe of a night club, Elevation is designed to be a "light club," a place where people will discover the light of Christ in a clubby setting—an environment that definitely appeals to the target age demographic of 29-year-old Senior Pastor Steve Furtick's congregation.

Once through the front doors, the music venue theme continues with an open area of cement floors and black-painted, exposed ceilings. Aside from shocks of Elevation's signature orange, which appear on finishes throughout the interior, many of the materials used have a dressed-down, industrial feel, creating the sense that something dynamic and real takes place in this space. With a 20 percent per quarter growth rate (the church went from 50 people to more than 7,000 in just four years), something dynamic surely is taking place at Elevation.

"Elevation's view of facilities is how quickly can we build and not put a lid on what God's doing?" McGowan says. Build quickly they did. This space, measuring about 43,000 square feet, was retrofitted in just four months and for less than $4 million. Although that's a lot of money, it does represent quite a savings compared to what construction costs are around the country. According to a 2008 report, construction costs vary from a low of $131 per square foot in Winston Salem, to a high of $219 per square foot in NYC, with the median falling at about $170 per square foot.

How did Elevation keep costs down and open their doors in record time? Here are a few ways:

—On Sunday mornings, ushers man the doors of the worship center, making sure no one enters until the appointed time. In agreeable weather, the line for the service snakes outside the venue and down the sidewalk of the strip center, creating anticipation for worship—an expectation of rushing the stage. (If the weather is bad, ushers route people around the perimeter of the worship center inside the building.)

—The church even has a "poll and drape" ministry—volunteers who expand and contract the size of the worship space by moving draped sectional structures. When seating is maxed out, they move the poll and drapes to reveal more seating—but only just enough to maintain a standing-room-only experience.

—Creating an experience—therein lies one key to designing space with excellence rather than expense. This is where McGowan's tenure with Disney pays off. He knows how to use space to create a certain mood and experience, just like at Disney. Instead of relying on opulent interior finishes and furnishings to create an energized mood, Elevation invested intention into how the spaces would function. For example, the church dedicates a small percentage of square footage (maybe 200 square feet) at the entry into the worship center to serve as a holding room, similar to the Disney pre-show room, a device to build anticipation before boarding a ride or entering a show. By holding back the crowd outside these doors, the church sets the mood for what's about to take place in the sanctuary. And this is done at very little additional cost.

—The sanctuary itself has the feeling of a hip music venue—black stage, black ceiling, high-end audio, video, lighting and sound equipment. If Elevation blew the bank anywhere, clearly it was on production equipment, which makes sense. This site serves as the production studio for the videos it creates at the Saturday night service and uses to disseminate Steve Furtick's on-fire teaching messages at its other locations on Sunday morning.

—Another impressive, yet inexpensive, detail throughout Elevation Church: environmental graphics. Plain Joe Studio, a multi-disciplinary design firm headed up by McGowan's brother, Peter, helped Elevation create a branding strategy throughout this location that could be carried over to its other portable locations as well. Positioned throughout the building are clusters of words and images that articulate the church's values. Signs and word choices communicate values, too. For example, Elevation's office suite is called the "lab," implying that its leaders' work is experimental, experiential, and evolving.

—Another interesting, inexpensive graphic feature in the church: the sermon series wall. After a preaching series is completed, the church mounts an image of the graphics used to promote the series. These images create a compelling wall of art and a historical review of all the teaching the church has received—a powerful way to help this body of believers remember what they have learned together, and where the Lord has brought them as a community.

—The children's ministry at Elevation is modest and for the most part utilitarian. Other than the Nickelodeonesque color palette—lime green and bright orange—and funky curves and angles of desks and counters, this area of the church focuses on providing useful space—period. Where many churches invest big bucks into themed children's ministry space, Elevation opted for practical. Even the multi-colored carpet is laid in squares, a cost-efficient solution for replacing portions of carpet as needed.

Elevation Church is a great example of how to retool a pre-existing space into a church. With creativity—and a little magic ripped from the Disney playbook—churches can create ministry spaces featuring excellent design without incurring excessive expense.

Visioneering Studios received the Solomon Award for "Best Church Architect" and Cogun, Inc. was named "Best Building Contractor" for their work on Elevation Church.

To see pictures of Elevation Church, go to visioneeringstudios.com and Visioneering Travelogue.

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