Happy New Year! We pray that 2016 is off to a good start for you. We’re ready for a New Year with a new lineup of free i3 webinars, so if you haven’t signed up for the first one, which is on January 21, we invite you to register today!
Since a New Year is often a time for reflection, we thought it might be good to go over some of the church design principles we operate by. Every business has its terminology and the church building business is no different. So we want to take an opportunity to go over our mission statement and provide you with more information about four key terms we use in our church design, remodeling and construction ministry.
Our Church Design Mission Statement
The key phrase in our mission statement is “enabling ministries with buildings that work.” To us, a building that works is a tool for ministry, and ministry is about reaching people for Jesus Christ. So our mission is to help our clients by creating buildings they can use to reach their communities for Christ.
Model
Of course, there are many ways churches try to create the perfect church design. One of those ways is to model it after an existing church building. When a church imitates a concept that they have seen somewhere else, they are also copying the other churches ideas for ministries. Many times modeling a building after someone else’s, is a result of not understanding how your God given vision impacts your ministries and how those ministries translate into a functional building design for your church. In essence, when you model your facility after another church you are saying, “Let’s reach people for Christ the way they reach people for Christ.” This ignores how your church is different in culture, demographics, spiritual gifts and leadership.
Principle
On the other hand, a principle is an abstract idea that applies to churches everywhere. An example of a principle is that every church building needs a worship space of some sort. When we speak about principles, we try to take what we’ve learned from our experience working with church buildings all over the United States. We aren’t looking for things to copy—in fact, we try very much not to do that. Instead, we want to see what we can learn from each specific church design and apply it to churches universally.
Ministry
As we mentioned in our mission statement, our job is to facilitate your ministry. Every church design we create has the goal of touching people for Christ by meeting relevant needs in their lives. Each church building is being constructed or remodeled to help congregations better reach their specific communities.
Tool
Of course, the church building itself is a tool. A tool is a device that facilitates work. We believe that, in our work, buildings are tools; they should help you do ministry. They should help you reach people by responding to and meeting their needs. If the church design is nice to look at but does not help you reach people, then what is the point?
So we really believe that all the work we do, in the end, creates a tool for ministry, and our hope for you in 2016 is that your church building will work well in ministering to everyone in your community. And if it doesn’t, give us a call at 800-625-6448 and let’s talk about how some principles for a new church design or remodeling project might support your church’s vision for 2016.