In this post, Jennifer Snider continues sharing her ideas for your church building projects. Jennifer is our interior designer and recently posted some tips on creating children’s spaces with appropriate color and themes. But what about youth areas in your church building? No worries, here Jennifer answers that church interior design question with some helpful illustrations.
Helping Youth Feel Welcome and Valued in Your Church Building
Youth today see so many options from society for how to live their lives, and need to know they really belong in the church. This is why it’s so important to have specific youth areas in your church building.
Young people know they are welcome, and their presence matters, when you set aside youth spaces in your church. Youth tend to want social spaces, so it’s helpful to have a café with some tables where they can gather, hang out, and talk.
They also need the freedom to worship in their own way, so we recommend a dedicated worship space for them as well.
Finally, if space and budget considerations allow it, include a small group breakout area dedicated just for the youth as well.
Including Youth Zones in Your Church Interior Design
Here at Gateway Church of the Nazarene, you can see an example of a single room that includes a coffee bar and a worship space, both just for young people. The tables between the coffee bar and the worship space provide a small group gathering area for discussion, or just to hang out.
You can see the worship space in the background. Notice that it includes trendy paint colors and that the two zones are delineated by a transition from a stained concrete floor in the café area to carpet in the worship area.
Giving Old Spaces New Life for Young People
If you’re remodeling an existing church building, you can sometimes repurpose old spaces for new uses with creative church interior design.
In this image, you can see the lobby of the youth space at Westerville Christian Church. This youth zone was their old chapel, and you can see how we’ve been able to make the space work well for young people. There’s a coffee bar as you enter, the worship space is in the back, and there is room for groups to gather behind the wall to the right, where the tables are located.
Following Your Vision
Just as you want children to feel at home in your church building, you also want to include youth in your church interior design plans, whether you’re starting from scratch on a new church or undertaking a renovation project. As always, we recommend that you keep your church vision in mind when considering your interior church design options.
To learn more about integrating people of all ages into your church building, sign up for our i3 webinar series. These webinars are free, and their goal is to provide you with ideas, insight, and innovations for designing and constructing a church building that fulfills your vision. Simply visit our website to sign up.