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.

How It Works
First Presbyterian Church worships in a historic 150-year-old sanctuary in downtown Warsaw, Indiana. Though the building was designed for about 300 people, it can now accommodate about 450 people in two services, largely because of the church's conversion of single-use space to multiple-use space.

Some years ago a task force at the church tried to come up with plans to accommodate growth. Task force members considered moving the church to a larger lot, but the cost of a new building was prohibitive. They considered adding a fellowship hall and a larger sanctuary to the present building, but the price was too high. Also, the church's location didn't offer enough growing room to justify the investment.

When task force members started thinking about making more creative use of existing space in the church, they came up with an affordable alternative that gave the congregation growing room.

Space Sharing
With the help of a consultant, the congregation identified ways to make better use of its existing space. These included changes such as de-emphasizing one educational program that duplicated a similar, more effective one; adding a second session of Sunday school; adding a third worship service; and making several scheduling and programming changes.

The new plan gave Sunday worshipers and Sunday school students space to double in, but the congregation still needed more room for fellowship and recreation. The church found a way to meet those needs by coming up with the following plan.

From Sanctuary to Ministry Center
The old sanctuary of First Presbyterian has high ceilings, an old balcony, and striking stained- glass windows. Uncomfortable, undersized pews (Presbyterians must have been shorter 150 years ago) are bolted to the amphitheater-shaped floor. Columns obstruct the view of the platform for several worshipers.

The biggest problem with the sanctuary isn't comfort or visibility; though, it's inflexibility. Thanks to the pews and sloped floor, the space is usable only a few hours a week.

Converting the sanctuary to a multipurpose ministry center involves a lot of work but will cost far less than building a new sanctuary or multipurpose building.

Paul Spite, an architect from Warsaw, Indiana, says the new plan pleases old as well as new families in church. "Because it can convert this space to multiple use, the church won't have to abandon this historic building, and the concerns of both the old-timers and the newcomers will be cared for," Spite says.

A Better Plan
To convert the sanctuary, a flat floor will be installed on top of the curved floor. Worship chairs will replace pews. The balcony will be remodeled, the sound booth moved, and the height of the risers adjusted to improve line of sight. In the front of the sanctuary, a smaller permanent platform will be supplemented with modular staging (stored under the platform) that can be set up when a larger stage is needed for musical or dramatic productions.

In the remodeled space, line-of-sight problems will be resolved, and seating capacity will increase by about 60 per service. The number of people who can be comfortably seated will increase even more since people in chairs sit closer together than people in pews.

The secret to making the sanctuary work well for multiple functions is active storage - allowing space where hundreds of worship chairs can be stored when they're not in use, and from which tables can be conveniently retrieved when the room is used for a meal or conference. When the room is used for recreation, all the chairs can be set against the back wall under the balcony.

First Presbyterian has no room next to its sanctuary for active storage. But the elevator is nearby, and a room just off the elevator on another level should nicely serve for storage.

Of course, setting up flexible space for various uses requires an active custodial team, but custodial hours cost a small fraction of what it would take to build and maintain single-use space for each church program.

The remodeling of the sanctuary and basement, together with the changes in scheduling and programming, will give First Presbyterian room to grow from 450 to about 900 without adding any more square footage except for new stairways to handle increased traffic flow.

When It's Time to Build
When its worship attendance approaches 900, First Presbyterian will need to add on. Originally, the task force considered two additions for that time: a three-story building with a fellowship hall on the first floor and classrooms on the top two floors; and a new, larger sanctuary.

Through a multipurpose design, the new ministry center can be used for worship, fellowship, recreation, and education. The proposed new sanctuary will not be needed. Furthermore, better use of existing education space will eliminate the necessity of adding two more floors. So, instead of constructing a new three-story building plus a sanctuary, the church will build a one-story ministry center.

The new ministry center will seat 550 to 600 people on upholstered chairs on a flat floor. Movable staging and floor jacks will make it possible to set up a staging and portable sound booth anywhere in the room.

Part of this space will become the recreation area for the church's preschool program. Movable walls will create classrooms or mid-size conference rooms as needed. The adjacent kitchen and active storage will convert the space into the church's primary fellowship hall.

This addition will allow the church to grow to 1,400 with three worship services. With simultaneous Sunday services in the old sanctuary—an approach that is working well elsewhere—First Presbyterian could grow to 2,000 in worship without adding any more space.

Freeing Dollars for Ministry
When the task force at First Presbyterian Church first looked at building a new facility the same size as its present building, the estimated cost was $6.2 million. That amount plus $4 million for interest would have brought the total cost to $10.2 million. Staying put and constructing two additions would have cost $4.2 million plus interest.

The cost of the multipurpose plan the congregation ended up using will be less than $1.7 million. That represents a savings of at least $2.5 million plus interest on the second option; $4.2 million on the first.

Furthermore, with this creative use of space, First Presbyterian doesn't have to worry about being landlocked; it can grow and bloom where planted for decades to come. Even more important, millions of dollars that would have gone into bricks and mortar can be invested in ministry that touches the hearts of people in Warsaw.

That is the real magic of flexible space.

This article originally appeared in Your Church magazine.