When visitors come to your church for the first time, it’s important to make a great impression. In recent blogs we’ve talked about how cafés, the lobby and other hospitality spaces can do just that.
In this post, we’re focusing on some of the multi-use worship spaces we’ve helped create in order for churches to make a great first impression. This is obviously important because worship is one of the central activities of any church, and you want a worship space that draws visitors in and makes people feel at home.
Brooke Hills Free Methodist Church
Worship spaces need to reflect the worship style of the church community while also suiting the needs of the ministry. The Brooke Hills Free Methodist Church worship space is really a multi-use area, but visitors wouldn’t automatically think that. The chairs fit together seamlessly in rows, giving that worship feel, but they are individual chairs, so it’s easy to rearrange the space to meet the church’s other needs. Brooke Hills can easily bring in round tables for a banquet, arrange the chairs into small groups for a Bible study, or clear the space completely for a children’s activity or youth sleepover.
Crossview Church
Some churches take multi-use even further. Crossview recognized that a great way to connect with youth and reach out to the community is through athletics, so they have a worship space that’s also designed to handle basketball and volleyball. When visitors first enter the space and it’s set up for worship, they’re not likely to notice the multi-use design, because all the chairs are in place and the cross on the wall is highlighted to catch their attention. However, as they look around, they might notice the basketball goals retracted up to the ceiling and realize that the space is used for other purposes. Then they would probably look down at their feet and realize that it’s not standard carpet down there, it’s a multi-use carpet with game lines. If they’ve got kids, chances are you’ve hooked them right there!
Gateway Church of the Nazarene
Lighting is another great way to keep a church building’s worship spaces multifunctional. At Gateway Church of the Nazarene, they also wanted a multi-use space that would accommodate basketball. The space we built for them relies on lighting and ceiling clouds to make a big difference, depending on how the space is being used. With softer lighting and the ceiling clouds 
capturing the attention of visitors who come for worship, they probably won’t even see the basketball goals hidden up against the black ceiling, beyond the ceiling clouds. Yet, as you can see in a different picture, with brighter lights and the basketball goals lowered into position, there’s plenty of light and space for anyone in the community to come enjoy a game.
You also don’t have to start from scratch to create a church building or modern worship space that meets all your needs. Sometimes a renovation will do. To learn more about what’s possible, sign up today for our free i3 webinar series, or contact us to discuss your particular questions. And stay tuned, because next time our blog series will continue with children’s spaces that make a great first impression.