Oops 2 (of 4): Building Small
Mistake 2: Building Too Small
As I write this post, it is important to share that I hate spending money on buildings! I’m not a big fan of spending tens of millions of dollars on bricks and stones. (That is why we have five or six weekend experiences at most campuses instead of building bigger.)
With that said, I’ve made repeated building mistakes. Whenever I was involved with the design (which isn’t any more), I always thought too small. I cut corners I shouldn’t have cut. By putting a little extra into the first phase, it could have eliminated or postponed a phase two.
When you’re building church buildings, don’t skimp on:
- Parking. (Plan for way more than code so you can do multiple experiences.)
- Hallways. (The extra expense is worth it.)
- Gathering space. (This is huge for building relationships and transitioning experiences.)
- Offices. (Plan for growth!)
- Kids’ space. (Build bigger than you think and add extra class rooms if possible. This is especially true if you’re moving from portable to permanent. For some reason, some families avoid portable church and bring their kids when you have a building.)
- Anything else that’s important to your ministry. (And it could be something as small as having a semi-private bathroom so you don’t have to do your pastoral care with toilets flushing!)
I’ve also learned never to promote a “move-in” date.
I’d love to hear what you have learned from your building experiences.
Visit 
We were discussing this yesterday in one of our meetings…we really didn’t have much “choice” on our first building - we had literally swapped it with another church who had split. That building seats 5000, and we have three services in it.
However, we have noticed a general trend of attendance decline at that campus, where our other campuses which are built smaller (700-1000) are growing. Especially with my generation getting older over the last 5 years, we seem to have this “big church feeling” aversion.
At my former church, the “worship center” sat 500-700 (566 legally I think) and once they moved into their new building (1200) at first attendance skyrocketed, but it has already plateaued within a year and may even be on a small decline.
Other than that area, all of the areas you mention above are SO important - especially office & parking & kids & well, all of them. One church I worked for had one of our worship leaders in a closet behind the stage with no heat/ac! :)
Have a good one,
Anne
I agree. We just finished building a brand new building, and we learned (the hard way) a lot of what you are saying. 1/2 way through we realized that we had a huge fellowship room and not enough kids space (kids ministry is big in our church)…
we also learned the hard way about advertising a move-in date- we changed it 3 different times and then finally gave-up. We thought it would be a great draw to say “join us for our first Sunday…” We ended-up being glad that it didnt work-out though since the first weekend was rough with us trying to learn the new building (new rooms, new sound systems, new lighting and video…)
In retrospect we really wish we paid more attention during the building phase- it is SO important when building (if you are using an outside contractor) to have someone there on-site looking-out for the interests of the church
The most useful thing I’ve learned through our building experiences, is whether or not the building flows well. For the most part this seems to be dependent on the first 3 things you mentioned; parking, hallways, and gathering space. Our second building (first building the church owned) was actually a little smaller than our first (rented space), but the layout flowed much better. The first building we were in was intended to accomodate large numbers of people, but there were a few critical design flaws; mainly in the lobby and entering the auditorium where we consistently had a bottle neck scenario. Too few entraces and exits and/or narrow entrances and exits. However, if you have too many entrances and exits it can become confusing and again not flow well. I think there is definately a happy medium.
The biggest mistake I think we tend to make is designing a building room by room and not for the total experience. Know what people experience from the time they pull on the grounds till the time they leave. We have different staff walk through whole experience regularly, probably not often enough though. One more thing, although the building will require most of your focus, don’t neglect the rest of the property. I’ve experienced having the building “like we like it” but have unfinished parking, half dirt and/or rocks, poor landscaping etc… We tend to spend our time thinking about the building and making a good first impression and forget that many other things influence that.
Our church has a children’s area that was set up to double as a daycare facility. we have 8 small rooms downstairs all set up in pairs with a bathroom connecting them. The rooms simply do not accommodate a large enough crowd, but our hands are pretty tied because of this. Just poor planning.
Craig, it is probably for the best you left building projects to the experts. It goes well with Andy Stanley’s “Do less, accomplish more” philosophy. We all want to have our hand in every pot and give our opinion, though many times we are out of our league.
Brandon
Brandon,
You said it is “probably best you left building projects to the experts…” I hear you and agree with your spirit, but disagree at one point.
The experts don’t know your exact ministry style, preference, or strategy.
We MUST contribute to the process. Some of my biggest mistakes came from listening to the expert architects instead of going with my gut instincts.
(Now, I do leave it to the experts. These are people on staff who do this daily and understand our vision, culture, values, direction, and DNA. Most architects won’t.)
Make sure to clarify your objectives and keep coming back to those objectives as you move forward.
In my limited experience I’ve found there are many groups involved in a building project. You’ve got leadership with one thing in mind, kids ministry, your AV team, IT team etc - all with their unique and important perspectives. Obviously the groups don’t see the project the same way - which can be healthy. Keeping a clear set of objectives, that everyone is aware of from the outset helps keep things flowing in the same direction, govern budgets as well as what and how much is spent on every aspect of the building process.
I am sorry for the confusion. When I said “experts” I meant, for you, your leaders within Lifechurch.tv who share your goals. Again, sorry not being specific.
Very good stuff as always Craig.
I would add adequate and appropriate storage. Unfortunately learned the hard way. Our church was build with no storage on purpose so as not to accumulate junk. Needless to say the children’s ministry has lost 2 class rooms to junk.
Definitely think bigger than where you are. God’s plans supersede ours every time.
I think Craig should be more careful using the term expert when referring to the people on his staff that do this on a regular basis. I can say that because I’m one of them.
I do most of the CAD drafting to produce the blueprints here at LifeChurch. We are constantly learning how to use our resources most efficiently. Every project/campus gives us more insight into how to be the best stewards of what God has given us.
We do have an amazing construction & design team here at LifeChurch. I work with some people everyday that are experts in the field of architecture. But me….not so much. I have an education in architecture but feel some of my biggest contributions to the design process stem from being a LifeChurch expert.
Craig mentioned the importance of leaving design up to people who understand the vision, culture, values, direction and DNA of the organization. I have been with LifeChurch as a member since we were a church of about 300 people. I’ve only been on staff for a year and a half but I have seen all the changes we’ve been through from the beginning; the growing pains, the successes, the failures, the changes to our vision, etc. Those are the things that I enjoy drawing from as we move into the design. You can’t get that from Joe Architect.
For me it all goes back to our mission-To lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. If we can spend money on design elements that are going to lead more people to Christ, then that’s money that needs to be spent. That could be more parking or more seats or wider hallways so people don’t feel crowded like there’s no room for them. It could be spending money on the outside so the building is inviting, and encourages people to visit. We don’t spend money on stained glass or elaborate hardwood detals or steeples because that’s not part of our vision or who we are.
What’s your vision? Are your building plans reflecting your vision?
Craig,
How’d you learn that it’s a bad idea to promote a “move-in” date?
Brandon,
No apology necessary. I see what you mean. Good point.
Sam,
Yes! How did I overlook storage! Thanks for the addition.
Travis,
I don’t care what you think of yourself, you and your team are “the experts!” :)
Jacob,
With the multiple campuses and different phases at each campus, I’ve probably watched our church do 12-15 major building projects and dozens of smaller ones. Very few hit the target date. The few times I promoted dates, we missed by months!
(Props for our team… In recent projects, our team has been hitting the time marks. Way to go!)
we are experiencing the facility crunch right now. i wish we had bigger faith when we moved into our space - we rent a place and we could of almost doubled our space when we first moved in, but the payments seemed to high. We are morons for not trusting more in God. It seemed like we were thinking big, but we were not. Kinda like what you talked about at Buzz - now time to dream bigger dreams.
One of the best ideas I’ve seen was at church in MN I visited once. They had 4 big rooms in their new building that were unfinished, storage type rooms. No finishing costs (which are the big expense), but flexibility for the future.
We just finished a building program. We have an old school that dates to the 1930’s, and we were able to finish the old hardwood floors in the children’s classrooms.
I learned so much running the project for the church. What you said is right on.
It’s important to weigh every decision down to the smallest details. We found that going with the higher end materials and finishes was well worth it. We also had a professional designer that goes to our church work with our team to develop a color scheme and flow for the entire building.
We were able to avoid a lot of problems by spending a lot of time (two years) on the planning and schematic drawings phases. It’s important to really project ahead to your ministries during the schematic drawing phase.
Thanks for sharing so honestly on your blog. Take care and enjoy your family.
Terry
I’m new to building buildings, but this post reminds me of something related. The other day when I was talking to other Christians I used the expression “He planted a church” and I immediately got corrected “You mean : GOD planted the church. GOD, not ‘he’ - this is biblical language”. I kind of find it a little hinderance.
At your place I think you find it natural to say “I want to plant a church” or “I want to build a church”. At my place I feel I am often expected to say “God wants to build a church”. It is a mentality obstacle I think. But maybe I’m wrong. Do you know what I mean? What do you think?
Thank you.
PLAN WITH GROWTH IN MIND
Just my 2 cents here. While I haven’t been directly involved in any major church facility projects, my father has. One of the things he’s very good at, is designing and building with room to expand. For instance, he recommends building the sanctuary/auditorium of a church in the back corner of the building. If expansion is necessary, it is much easier to knock out a wall and move out another 50 yards than it would be to expand and auditorium in the middle of a structure with classrooms surrounding it.
Craig - Thanks for the initial post. Great insights.
All others - thanks also for your thoughts. I think that a building can sometimes become either a great asset or a great liability for a community of faith.
[...] What are some mistakes in building a structure for a church community? This question is addressed at Swerve in the post Oops 2 (of 4): Building Small as well as in several great comments. [...]
Craig, you use the word hate (a very strong word that we teach our kids not to use in any circumstance) when it comes to spending money on new buildings. You seem to have very strong feelings about this as I’ve heard you share this sentiment on a few occasions. I’m curious then what the plan is for us here in Wellington since there are no existing buildings to move into and we will need to build on our property that has been vacant for many years.
Marcin - I think there’s a difference between the universal Church, and a local church body. If a pastor wants to build a church, he constructs a building for God to build a Church in. Of course, no one but the Holy Spirit can build Christ’s Church, but God puts dreams in our hearts for His purposes - including the dreams in a pastor’s heart to plant a church.
On a more general note, it seems a lot of the comments here have lamented poor planning and dicussed the “DNA” of a local church. Church architecture is different from any other kind. I would beg any local body that is in need of a building project to consult with architectural firms who specialize in church projects, and who are dedicated to getting to know your people and your vision before making any plans. There are groups that do that, and their insight -combined- with your vision is priceless.
[...] Talking about top churches, LifeChurch.TV is seen as the top church in the US. Craig Groeschel is the Pastor and like any relevant Pastor on this planet, he has a blog. He has a series of posts he titles, “oops” where he outlines the biggest stuff up’s in his journey at lifchurch.tv. I love it when Pastors are transparent. The absence of pride gives me great joy! Moving right along, be sure to check out his posts on his 4 biggests “ooops” - 1. Stinginess. 2 Building Small. 3 Let My People Go. 4 My Ministry. Nothing earth shattering at all. But when the Pastor of the US’ top church speaks, I listen! [...]
[...] Don’t build small (link) [...]