"Your church is beautiful. I love the prayer room and the coffee shop!"

"I'm impressed with your facilities. All the signs made it really easy to find my way around."

Roger has heard several compliments like these comments from guests since arriving at his church. Even though he's been a pastor for a few years, Roger never considered the importance of the church building. While he knows the true focus of the church should be to make disciples of all people, Roger now views his church facilities as an important "first time impression" that hinders or helps the goal of reaching people for Christ.

Our research team at Rainer Research interviewed over 350 people across the U.S. who are new to a church. We asked them about their perceptions of the facilities. Did it affect their decision to attend the church? What they told us was surprising. Here are some insights we gained from our interviews.

The sanctuary is for worship, the classrooms for Sunday school, the fellowship hall for potlucks, and the gym for recreation. This is how architects have traditionally designed church buildings.

Well, times—and churches—are changing. Most new church buildings now include some flexible space: fellowship halls with movable walls that divide the space into classrooms, or adjoining classrooms with walls that fold back to make bigger rooms. Still, few churches come close to getting maximum use of their facilities because much of their space is designed for single use.

Ray Bowman, church architect and facilities consultant from Larkspur, Colorado, estimates that 90 percent of the churches that contacted him over the past 40 years for building plans didn't need to build. "They had a better alternative, which almost always involved converting single-use space to multiple-use space," Bowman says.

Even if churches must build, designing new space for multiple use may help them get by with at least half as much square footage as conventional construction. So, whether you're remodeling a structure or building a new one, design it so it can be used all week long for a variety of uses.

When devastating floods hit Grand Forks, North Dakota, the basement and parts of the first floor of First Presbyterian Church's 90-year-old brick facility filled with flood water.

After the flood waters receded, church leaders assessed the damage. It soon became clear that the building was no longer usable. The congregation voted to sell the old 25,000 square-foot building and to construct a new 13,500 square-foot facility. In consultation with neighboring environmental groups as well as architects and engineers, First Presbyterian planned a new, energy-efficient church.

The congregation asked the builders to use insulated windows, extra building insulation, a ground-water heat pump to warm the church—even a few passive solar panels. "Any energy-efficient methods you use will save you money," says Pastor Gretchen Daneke-Graf. "But building this way is also a witness to environmental integrity, to stewardship of the environment. The stewardship issue was even more important to us than the cost savings."

Build to Save
If you want your church building to be energy-efficient, you must make that concern known to the builder, engineer, and/or architect that you work with, says Brian Rawlston, church project manager at Morton Buildings. Rawlston suggests that churches work with a builder who is familiar with churches and their unique needs because the energy-use patterns of churches are very different from those of other buildings. While a house or office requires relatively constant energy use during the week, a church's energy use tends to peak on Sundays and lessen dramatically during the rest of the week. A builder who understands this will be better able to design a church that operates at optimal energy efficiency.

As other congregations have discovered, making a church more energy efficient not only helps protect the environment; it also saves money. For example, when Georgetown Gospel Chapel in Seattle made its existing church buildings more energy-efficient, it cut $5,000 a year from its annual budget of $55,000. That money is now used for missions, a Christian camp, and enhanced community outreach (including a community garden).

When Samuel Taylor Coleridge penned "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and those famous words, "Water, water, everywhere," he obviously didn't have a church in mind. But he might as well have.

Water is everywhere. And it's trying to get into your church building, any way it can. Its favorite means are the Big Three—roof leaks, basement leaks, and condensation. And it will stop at nothing.

So, what can you do about it? Here are some practical suggestions for stemming the tide.

Roof Leaks: Moisture from Above
Roof leaks are not limited to a certain kind of roof. Many folks are convinced that a shingle cover over their flat roof will cure all of their problems. Generally, shingle roofs do offer less maintenance than flat roofs, but they too can have problems, particularly if they are not installed properly.

The best insurance against roof leaks is to hire a quality contractor to install your roof. Warranties are nice if the contractor can fix the problem. But if you have a frustrating leak that just won't quit and your building is constantly getting wet (and you have to explain the problem to your board each month, and your congregation begins to make jokes about the flowing baptismal font, and so on), then those warranties just won't impress. A quality contractor should install the right materials in the right manner, which will reduce the chances of developing a leak later on.

Imagine this is the mid-1500s—seventy years after Gutenberg was the first to use movable type to print the Bible. Over 1,000 print shops have opened throughout Europe. Martin Luther has translated the Bible into the German language and is challenging the church's authority over mediated salvation. Western culture is at a tipping point. Luther and other reformers see power in the new technology of printed media, and they organize to take full advantage of it. We could say the rest is history; however, history has a habit of reinventing itself.

Broadcast media was equally world changing, but the church did not take the lead in this new era as it did during the Reformation. Still, individuals like Billy Graham and Oral Roberts used this new and powerful tool to bring the Gospel to the world on a scale never before imagined. Bill Hybels, attuned to a generation shaped by mass media, was an early pioneer of using a theater venue for church. Some identify this strategy as "seeker sensitive" or "attractional." The fastest growing and largest churches in America follow some variation of this model. Even churches that are more traditional or critical of the seeker strategy have adopted elements of this model.

If I were new to your community, how many churches would I pass from my house to your church? One, two—ten? What would make me stop at your church instead of the one down the street?

Our culture has changed, and with it our ties to traditional churches have loosened. First impressions count more than ever to people who might be looking for a church. While you can't easily change the exterior of your building, you could transform the impression it makes on passersby by adding a bit more "curb appeal."

Heart Talk
The term curb appeal, which comes out of real estate, describes the impact a piece of property has on a potential buyer who looks at it from the street. "Curb appeal comes from the head and the heart," says Leon Aalberts, a real estate agent who serves as associate pastor of Oswego Presbyterian Church in Illinois. "When people buy houses, their head says that it has to have a certain number of bedrooms and bathrooms and be in a certain price range. Their heart says what it looks like when they drive up and see the picket fence or the geraniums on the front porch."

The same is true for a church. A church can appeal to the intellect by its location or denomination, but its appearance is what will appeal to the heart. The condition of the building, the landscaping, and the signs (or lack thereof) can make the difference between a church that welcomes visitors or gets ignored. Curb appeal is not about tricks; it's about removing barriers that discourage people from coming inside your church where they can experience your true ministry.

We tend to think of a church sign as a simple means of identification—it tells our community who we are and when we meet.

But a church sign can do so much more than identify. An effectively used sign allows the congregation to minister from the roadside with challenging or uplifting messages. A sign also announces important events that your community will be interested in. It is an excellent outreach tool.

While many churches are served well with a non-changeable sign that provides the basic information of church name and worship schedule, an entirely new realm of possibilities opens up with the use of changeable-letter signs. Why? When drivers see a new message each week, or even every day, they must conclude that there's life in that church, that at least one person there cares enough to put a new message on the sign. To the passerby, it is a sign of life within the church!

Key Steps in Selecting a Sign
1.Check with local zoning authorities. This step is crucial. Signs are often restricted by height, overall size, placement, and illumination. Additional restrictions could apply to led message center signs. And don't assume that you can replace an existing sign with a new one in the same location. Know your restrictions before you start shopping.

2. Decide what you want your sign to do for you. Do you want simple identification, or do you want to share messages? If you want to share messages, you'll need to choose between changeable letters or an electronic led message center.

3. Next, choose a sign company to work with. Look for a company that has experienced professionals available to answer questions and assist in the sign selection process. They will ask you questions and use their expertise to narrow the selection. There are literally hundreds of different signs to choose from. A good sign company will help you decide which sign is best for you. Ultimately, though, the choice is yours.

You may be proud of the historic building you worship in. But what that ancient facade may be saying to passersby is that your congregation is too old to have a great youth group.

Likewise, your congregation may be meeting in a shopping mall to improve access to the community. But the location may suggest to some people that your congregation is too unconventional for their tastes.

The point is, the exterior of your church can influence a community's perception of what is inside—not always in the way you intend. That's an important issue, according to Davis Byrd, director of church architecture for the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. "Inevitably, the question is whether it communicates the message accurately or not," Byrd says.

Architectural Signals
A church's exterior can signal a congregation's denominational affiliation. "Stained-glass windows, icons, crosses, and cathedral elements suggest liturgical denominations," says Jerry Maxfield, business administrator of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia. Maxfield, who has a degree in architecture, notes that while the buildings of liturgical and nonliturgical churches both serve the purpose of worship, nonliturgical church exteriors exhibit a "more marketplace approach."

Buildings can send mixed messages. For example, a church built like a stone fortress can suggest a place of security and shelter from the world. "It is a solid, stable place in a time of flux, suggesting the church will be there for a long time," Byrd says. However, the rock-like front can also communicate that the church isn't very receptive to visitors, he says.

In fast-growing metro areas, some churches meet in strip malls. The location is good, and the rent is reasonable. The meeting place suggests that the congregation consists of unpretentious people with limited means and a deep conviction to meet people where they are. However, the storefront can also communicate that what this church offers is of no greater value than anything else in the shopping center. In one stop, you can get your hair cut, buy groceries, and get religion.

If your congregation isn't getting as many visitors as you'd like, perhaps you ought to take a closer look at your church. Are you meeting in an old A-frame building or in another gimmicky design leftover from the 1950s? "It might be communicating a message that is antithetical to what your church really is," says Brewster Ward, an architect in Waynesville, North Carolina.