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?

Discover Your Identity
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism - and an almost unfathomable divergence of local congregations. Most churches will likely be confronted with the need to change their facilities. Churches meet in homes and then grow enough to force the issue of finding new space. Other churches meet in rented facilities and eventually feel the need to build a home of their own. Some longstanding congregations face the choice of patching crumbling historic buildings or constructing new space. A church growing at an explosive rate ponders whether it wants to become a megachurch at one site, go multi-site, or plant daughter churches.

Churches should determine ministry goals before the design of building space. This means multipurpose, utilitarian buildings may not be the best approach.

Brad Eisenmann, vice president and general manager of church design-builders The Aspen Group, compares the process to a family searching for a home. "A family wouldn't say, 'We'll just take any house - we'll move in and make it work,'" he says. "Instead, they search for a home for that family. How many bedrooms do we need? How often will we entertain? What do we like to do? In the same way, churches are unique entities with certain things they do and don't do."

Churches need to discover the kind of ministry they want to carry out and the kinds of people they want to reach. Matt Evans, pastor of Rock Bridge Community Church in Dalton, Georgia, is emphatic about the value of asking these kinds of questions and planning facilities in alignment with the answers. "A lot of times, the tendency is to let the facility dictate the ministry," Evans says. "We just refuse to get pigeonholed into that. We always want to have ministry dictate everything."

Survey The Terrain
The Aspen Group and Cogun, Inc. are founding members of The Cornerstone Knowledge Network, which examines the intersection of ministry, culture, and facilities, and provides resources to help churches become more intentional when they plan building projects. Research by Cornerstone and other thinkers has identified some features of contemporary society that churches should consider:

* A thirst for community. People crave connection, whether it's face-to-face or through websites such as MySpace and Facebook. "We want to observe people's behavior in these areas and try to discern how they will respond to church, ministry, and issues of faith in their lives," says Bill Couchenour, CEO of Cogun.

* The rising tide of technology. A church may want to consider how to best accommodate the expansion of technology, especially new technologies, into everyday life.

* In search of an experience. Ed Bahler, president of The Aspen Group, asks churches to think about restaurants and retail establishments that are succeeding, and why. "The retail establishments that are working are stores that have a clear focus and that do something very, very well," he says. "People respond to spaces that have a good feel and an intentional focus. I'm sitting at a Panera's right now, and I didn't go to Denny's this morning. There's a reason for that."

* Navigating change. What does a church do when it realizes that the rate of change in the world is much faster than the rate of change in the church? The Cornerstone partners are clear that their objective is not to change the message of the gospel. Rather, they urge each church to think about how they need to contextualize the gospel to reach the people God has called them to serve.

Digest Research
These factors and others helped motivate a 2006 research project commissioned by Cornerstone and conducted by the business-consulting firm TAG to try and detect a set of universal principles governing the relationship between church facilities and ministry. The conclusions suggest that a new day may be dawning for church design and construction.

The study identified these characteristics as most important in designing ministry space: well designed; easy to navigate; adequate storage; high quality; high tech; aesthetically pleasing as expressed by phrases such as interesting, lively, beautiful, positive, and fun.

In contrast, the following characteristics did not correlate to ministry success: physical dimensions; flexibility and ease of setup; lighting; outdoor views; the feeling of "sacredness;" denomination; demographic factors of age, gender, and income.

The research suggests that churches should practice reverse engineering - determine ministry goals before the design of building space. This more targeted approach means that multipurpose, utilitarian buildings may not be the best approach. The research also found a possible link between greater ethnic diversity and ministry success. This means that facilities should reflect the diversity of the surrounding community.

Avoid Booby Traps
Even if a local congregation asks the vital first questions, becomes aware of societal and cultural trends, and digs into the latest research, there are still unwise choices that can hobble the building project. One of them is an attitude of "let's build because we need space, and figure out how to use it later." This failure to think strategically can put a church at risk of not getting the desired results for a major investment of resources. It can lead to a sense of buyer's remorse, which could have been avoided if the church had designed a building to intentionally meet well thought-out ministry needs. "You'll end up with a lot of beige walls and cookie-cutter rooms," warns Randy Ongie, executive pastor of Grace Fellowship Church.

Another pitfall is to consider only local builders and architects for the project. A church may take this approach to achieve financial savings, but this often is not the case, according to Couchenour. When church leaders and the architect fully understand where the church is headed, the architect can develop building solutions that cost even less than those proposed without the detailed knowledge of the church's unique ministry goals. "And even if the dollars are the same," says Couchenour, "the value of space that is a better fit to ministry is incredible when you look at the life of a facility."

A third and common mistake is not starting soon enough. Evans wishes the team at Rock Bridge would have started the entire process earlier, especially to keep ahead of growth and staffing needs. Starting sooner also gives a church the time to ask those key questions of "who are we" and "who do we want to reach."

While it's a great idea to visit other churches and see what's working for them (and what isn't), using a mix-and-match approach to copy favored elements of other buildings is another poor way to design a building. The problem with that approach, says Couchenour, is that this means a church is looking at designs that are (at best) five to seven years old instead of tailoring design toward the future.

Mobilize Collective Intelligence
What then are the steps that will move building projects along, regardless of the setting and situation?

* Recruit the right decision makers. Make sure the senior pastor has a clear leadership and communication role. He or she will be the face of the project both to the congregation and to the rest of the building team. Input from people who will actually conduct ministry in the new facility is more important than input from a committee of people with building experience.

* Plan for future change. Design your facilities to ensure ease of adaptation to the transformations of culture and technology that are sure to appear. For instance, the new facilities at Grace will feature large rooms that can easily be re-tasked, and plenty of extra conduits to accommodate new technology.

* Be diligent in finding architects and designers. The relationship between a church and its architects, designers, and builders should be established with care. "You need to get to know people over several hours of conversation to really understand both the broader issues of ministry and culture and the church's specific issues," says Bahler. "These are both important, and you can't discern them in a 60-minute PowerPoint presentation."

* Consider a design-build approach. Both Evans and Ongie see great advantages to the approach of hiring one firm to handle design and construction. This method offers simplicity of approach and frees the time of staff to focus on the ministry needs that won't go away just because there's a building project. In addition, a design-build firm can provide objective opinions and help prevent a church from falling prey to tunnel vision as it plans. Evans remembers that one of the first questions Cogun representative Brian Miles asked was, "Are there any sacred cows?"

To see these principles in action, we'll look at two very different church projects - one involving new construction, and the other fitting together an existing worship sanctuary and adjacent buildings.

Grace Fellowship Church
Grace Fellowship Church has experienced steady growth since its beginning in 1979. It has progressed from renting space in a school building, to purchasing and renovating another building, to building a 600-seat auditorium on a larger campus in 1993, and then expanding that facility. Now Grace is in another building project, this time using a different approach.

Construction is currently taking place, but the work started five years ago with values clarification and vision casting, says Executive Pastor Randy Ongie. This was the first step in a progression from mission to vision to values that took place before the first spade of earth was turned. "I really think that if leaders move into a building without understanding why they exist, who they are, and what they're seeking to do from a mission, vision, and values standpoint, it will be hard to take the next steps strategically," says Ongie.

The Grace team discovered four "ceilings" that drove their subsequent decision making:

1) Limited parking space.
2) Auditorium too small, making four worship services necessary.
3) Out of space in children's ministry.
4) Difficult process of entering and leaving the facilities.

The alternatives to breaking through these ceilings were:

* Purchase a larger plot of ground at a different location and build an entirely new campus.
* Plant new churches.
* Establish satellite campuses.
* Grow in place.

Only after deciding to grow in place did Grace enter into the nitty-gritty work of designing a new project that would remove the ceilings. The result was a plan to build a two-story structure for youth and children, add a 1,500-seat auditorium, enlarge the lobby area, and create more parking.
"I really think that if leaders move into a building without understanding why they exist, who they are, and what they're seeking to do it will be hard to take the next steps strategically."

When the team began to consider building strategies, one word kept emerging: environment. "We wanted environments that would be conducive to build into people's lives," says Ongie. "We asked, 'What kind of space or environment would best allow certain things to happen?'"

Grace is a seeker-sensitive church, so the facility planners wanted to create space where people would feel comfortable to invite friends, get a cup of coffee, and explore at their own pace. The church is also designed to make the best of the large-group/small-group combination. Large groups (worship services) are designed for believers, but also meant to be attractive to seekers. If the seekers come for a look and are curious, they are then offered the chance to partake in small groups where the lessons can be applied in healthy relationships with other people.

Grace utilized its vision of what kind of church it wanted to be, and involved a wide variety of people to help make that vision come true. Architects and builders met with core ministry teams to come up with the right answers for each particular ministry area.

How did these elements all play out in the final design? While Grace does not mean to exclude any particular group, it designed the new worship space to have particular attraction to males in their early 30s. Grace's leadership believes that if the church cannot connect with these men, the job of building Christian leaders for the next generation will be that much more difficult. So the auditorium will have a flat floor, stadium seating in the rear, state-of-the-art video screens, and lighting system designed to serve a wide variety of worship needs.

The large-group-to-small-group movement is also a part of the design of the new children's space. There will be two large-group rooms (Ongie says details are "top secret") for the initial gatherings. Then kids will move to themed rooms with colored circles on the floor for small-group time with an adult shepherd.

Abundant technology will be included throughout the facilities. There are plenty of "plug-and-go" outlets for computer screens in a variety of applications, such as for screening of announcements, event signup areas, and information tables. A centrally located area will include places for wireless network access to the Internet.

Rock Bridge Community Church
About 200 miles southwest of Grace in Dalton, Georgia, the leadership of Rock Bridge Community Church had a very different project in mind. This congregation started five years ago as a church plant of 40 people. Rock Bridge now has 1,600 people in worship at two sites, the vast majority of whom worship in a remodeled historic theater in downtown Dalton.

"We've got a weird story," says Senior Pastor Matt Evans. "We rented this downtown theater, which looks like a smaller version of the Fox Theater in Atlanta. We eventually bought it and several other buildings on a city block. We wanted to tie all these together into a cohesive, comprehensive campus."

The ministry team at Rock Bridge looked at all its options, which included leaving Dalton to build a new facility on 30 to 40 acres of land. "But we kept feeling that there's something special about downtown," says Evans. "When I was growing up, it was a ghost town. Now it has been brought back to life, and we're part of that in this restored theater that is a community treasure. Then these adjacent buildings all came on the market at the same time three years ago. So we thought we would buy the buildings now and maybe in the future tie them together and support ministry. But how it was going to happen, we didn't have a clue."

Certain eras in church history are associated with specific building designs. What will be the dominant design typology of the future? Will there be a dominant typology at all?

That's when Rock Bridge decided it needed to dip into a pool of expertise and hired Cogun to help guide the process. Before the building program began, the church had made its necessary first decisions about identity by deciding to remain simple in style and organization. Stewardship was also a major priority, especially in turning older buildings into spaces that can be used by multiple ministries at different times.

The new project includes very few changes to the theater. An adjacent furniture warehouse building will be converted into an additional worship space, which will include a caf? and booths around the perimeter, both of which will create intimate spaces. The two rooms will be connected via technology, with video teaching in one space and live teaching in the other. The two spaces combined will raise the capacity for worship from 1,000 to 1,500.

Other than the preschool space and a handful of offices, every area of the new building will have built-in flexibility for multiple uses. The old warehouse can be a worship area, banquet hall, recreation area, or a place to host seminars. Small groups can meet in the booths, which will accommodate from five to 12 people and will include privacy barriers.

"We're even looking at whether we need permanent office space," says Evans. "Why can't a staff member take a laptop, a PDA, and a cell phone and use one of those booths during the day? Maybe the green room in the theater could double as an office Monday through Friday."

A New Design Era
Certain eras in church history are associated with specific building designs. What will be the dominant design typology of the future? Will there be a dominant typology at all?

The bottom line may be that church buildings of the future must have "soul." Author and business consultant Joseph B. Myers suggests that a sense of soul will be critical in the future as people search for belonging, identity, meaning, and hope. Church buildings with soul will be those that have facilities so clearly aligned with their identities that people - both those who are Christ followers and those who are not - will be able to perceive it.

This article originally appeared in Your Church magazine.