It’s not enough just to talk about the multi-ministry church design trend, as we did in our last post. Here are some examples of multi-ministry spaces in action that we hope will inspire you. Use them to think creatively about your church building needs and how multi-ministry spaces could be good stewardship in your new or remodeled church building.
Drawing People into Your Worship Space During the Week
One early aspect of the multi-ministry trend is the ability to transform your worship center into an athletics space to draw youth into your church building during the week. Look at this image from Hocking Hills United Methodist Church in Logan, OH. The 500-seat worship center is constructed with a flat floor and movable chairs, allowing the space to be cleared for athletic events, but that’s not all.
This flexibility is an example of good stewardship of space. Rather than just using the worship center on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, this church design also makes it possible to host festive banquets and roundtable conferences. The church design also allows groups to put on theatrical performances, because many of the necessary audiovisual features (professional-level lighting, sound, and recording) are already built in.
Rethinking the Foyer as Multi-Ministry Space in Your Church Building
Another church building area that’s getting a lot of multi-ministry attention these days is the foyer. As these images from Crossview Church show, they folded their children’s church space into the broader foyer, using an operable wall to close it off when it’s time for children’s worship.
Here’s another example: Bethany Wesleyan in Cherryville, Pennsylvania, has a very nice contemporary foyer. At the end, they’ve included a comfy fireside room that doubles as a senior adult classroom. Because the room also uses an operable wall, church leaders can open that area up when they need more space in their foyer for large events.
Maximizing Foyer Flexibility in Your Church Design
Sometimes it’s easier to imagine this flexibility with a schematic plan, so here’s a recent example of a foyer we are designing for a church that has not been built yet. As you can see, the foyer is intentionally designed with all the features pushed off to the side. The café is on the left, the information and welcome center is at the bottom, and the bookstore is on the right. The center portion of this foyer is 7000 square feet. This means it can seat between 400 and 500 people for a dinner.
These examples demonstrate that it’s possible—and important—to think creatively with your church design, especially when new church construction is only getting more expensive these days. This trend in multi-ministry spaces is good stewardship and helps church leaders get the most out of the church building spaces they have.
In our next post, learn about the next in our series of trends in church design today. Meanwhile, sign up for our remaining free i3 webinars for this year to keep up with the latest information on church design and construction.