We all depend on tools to be functional. And often, to get the most use of our tools, it’s wise to have a flexible perspective to using them. As psychologist Abraham Maslow said, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
We see church buildings as a tool for your ministry and similarly, problems can arise when you think about them in just one way. If you aren’t careful, your church’s ministries can actually be defined by the shape and size of your building.
Gaining Flexibility with a Multi-Use Church Building
One of the best ways to ensure your church facility is a functional tool for your many ministries is to design it for multiple functions. In addition, multi-use spaces offer a much better return on your significant investment than a series of single-use ones. This is especially true if you’re in the early stages of the growth of your church, or the early phases of enlarging your building campus.
Yes, sometimes single-use spaces can be useful, required or culturally too much of a paradigm shift. But when you make your church building as flexible as possible, you allow multiple ministries to take place over the course of an entire week. That’s a lot better use of your investment than to just let your building sit empty except on Sundays.
Embracing Interdependence for Your Church Groups
Planning your church building space with just one group in mind can really limit your ability to star new ministries in the future. Instead, gather your various group leaders together and talk about what each group needs out of your church remodeling or construction project.
You might find that many of their needs complement each other, and that many of those groups could actually share a space due to their similar requirements. A single meeting space could get used multiple times over the course of each week, yet you would only have one space that needs to be cleaned and maintained each week (and over the years to come).
Being Flexible with Your Church Remodel or New Construction
We’ve worked with a lot of church leaders over our 40-plus years of building churches. Some started out thinking as Maslow talks about—viewing everything as a nail. However, we’ve been able to show them the advantages that come with multi-use buildings, which cost less because you need less overall square footage to meet multiple needs.
In fact, in our i3 webinar series, we talk a lot about the ways in which we share ideas, insight, and innovations (“the three I’s”) with church leaders. We want to help you maximize your investment in your church building, making it the most functional tool possible for ministry.
We invite you to take advantage of our webinars—they’re free, after all—to learn more about maximizing your ministry’s biggest tool—its church building. Simply visit our website and sign up.