How Do You Make Stewardship a Priority with Your Church Design?

There’s some balancing to consider with a new church design or church building remodeling project. While you want your church building to be attractive to guests and to meet the needs of worshippers, you also need to keep your project within reasonable budgeting parameters. The key to maintaining the necessary balance is understanding one of the principles of a solid church design: good stewardship.

One Example of Good Church Building Stewardship

Sometimes the easiest way to understand a principle is with a good example, so let’s begin there. If you’re working on a new church design, you’ll want to maximize the available and usable space within the walls of your new church building. But once you’ve maximized that space, you also need to make sure that every inch of that usable floor space is covered appropriately, with the best materials you can afford within your budget.

Why the best materials? Good stewardship includes the best use of resources. If you’ve ever carpeted your home, you know that there can be a wide range of costs associated with carpeting, depending on the quality and durability of the materials you choose. The same is true in a professional setting and given the large number of people walking on your church building carpets every Sunday, high-quality, professional grade carpets are worth the investment. You might decide good stewardship also means saving money, and be tempted to choose a cheaper option, but if you have to pay to replace all the carpeting every three years, have you really saved any money?

Incorporating Good Stewardship into Your Church Design

Here’s another example: your church building HVAC system. These also come in a range of options with differing cost points. If you invest up front in a more expensive and durable HVAC system, it might last you 20 or 30 years. However, if you purchase a cheaper system, it might not be as efficient, and you might find yourself having to replace it after five or six years. Add in inflation, and it could mean the cost saving now will be offset by installing several systems over 30 years.

Honoring God as an Element of Stewardship

As we’ve talked about before, your church vision will also drive the church design decisions you make. While you want to honor God with your church building, you also need to consider who you’re trying to reach for Him. What is appropriate, in terms of how fancy your church building will be? What church design is going to appeal to the guests you want to attract? You want to make a wise choice on where you spend your resources, especially when items can be expensive.  Stained glass, café’s, children’s theming, technology can be pricy features in your facility so you want to make sure they will help you connect with the people you are trying to reach and not just assume these items are what every church needs.  How can you make the most of your resources so that your church building can be the best tool for your ministries?

As you can see, making the right stewardship choices is not always simple. This is why we share updated free i3 webinars every year. These webinars give you the latest information that can guide you in making the best church design decisions for your particular situation. We encourage you to sign up today for our next i3 webinar.