The New Rules For Church Buildings [With Futuristic Examples]
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- As church attendance continues to decline, ministries are beginning to confront a glaring problem with how we do church today.
The problem?
Our buildings are extremely expensive, they only get used once or twice per week, and they’re often removed from the everyday life of our communities.
Thankfully, there are churches working to solve this problem in innovative ways.
And by the end of this video, you’ll learn the new rules for church buildings and how your church can begin applying these principles immediately - whether your church is big, small, young, or old.
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I love this!! Our small town Louisiana church (about 500 members) has this vision... We invited a Speech and Occupational Therapy Therapy company to use our facility to serve our community. Monday thru Friday parents who would otherwise have to drive 45 minutes to take their child to therapy now have this service in their own back yard! What a gift to the community!
Love this, Kayla! Sounds like your church is a pioneer 😀
We planted Stonebrooke Church in Waynesville Mo in 2012. We grew quickly and had to begin construction on a building which was completed in August 2016.
We built it as a Community Center that we happen to have church in on the weekends. The sign on the building is Stonebrooke Center...not Church. We have a daycare/preschool,(that is not a "religious" facility) it's rented out for weddings, birthday parties, proms, Chamber of Commerce events, conferences, trade shows, support group meetings, etc.
We also put on our own Community Events...Couples Workshops, Concerts, with plans for Community Movie nights, plays, comedy shows, etc.
There are spaces for teen after school hangouts (we're right next to the High School), fitness classes and many other events that benefit our community, provide a first step for "outsiders" to become comfortable in our facility outside of a "church" event, and provide streams of income to fund our ministry mission.
Churches need to answer the question...If you went out of business tomorrow, would your community miss your organization, or even notice?
Truly groundbreaking and innovative. The task is to get “buy in” from the “Traditional Church” Membership.
I am a Community Outreach Worker at a small church so this is my world! So I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt...this is ON POINT!!! Preach! We’re dealing with an entirely new playing field than what the church in the past has seen, and meeting the needs of that new environment takes new God-led forward thinking ideas like this. We can’t remain passive. God has always been ALL about meeting people where they’re at. If God is all about going to where the people are, we have to be all about that too! Great job guys! Keep it coming!!! 👍
Love it! Thanks for watching K.C.!
You started on this and I immediately thought "third space!" Great thought behind it. Many churches served as the "community center" for hundreds of years.
I served in worship at a church that has a full commercial kitchen and a gym open to local sports teams etc. and opens the space up to the community as much as possible. I'll just say that this philosophy of ministry has it's pros but it certainly has its cons as well.
Thanks for the great video and I look forward to checking out more of your content.
Great thoughts, and thanks for watching!
Hi guys. I loved hearing your thoughts on this....as a full-time facilities planner for workplaces and a volunteer visionary for my church, the facts that you're talking about are the truth. We spend too much time and budget trying to take care of the "edifice" when we should focus more on the people inside. Our church is/has been declining in attendance, and we have a beautiful building...and God's gift to us is that we're situated at a major exit of an Interstate that makes the property valuable in a secular world. We've talked about all of the things that you've touched on, from other purposes for the building and how we can help with the cost of running the building. The other thing that we need to focus on is how we can agree on our vision, and are we in the right place or should we redevelop our property and ourselves to meet today's needs. I love the stained glass windows and we'd love to get the pipe organ installed....but those are visions of our past. Pray for us as we envision how we can continue to serve in a different way.
Dope. My team and I are currently putting together a Church Plant for a small town in Northern Ontario. This has been a major point of discussion for us. Thanks for sharing!
Love this! Excited to see what your team comes up with. 😊
My heart was just stirring about this. I agree.
Perfect timing 😎
Love being part of the Pro Church Nation in the UK, keep up the great work! I know there are cultural differences between the US and the UK, and especially as places are a lot more spread out, but a lot of UK churches have been doing this for a while. My home church (about 400 people) opened up a building for the community over 10 years ago, they now see over 5,000 people through the building each week for various activities that are happening there! This is pretty normal for churches here, particularly in the family of churches we're in. Love that you guys have caught on to this too and I'm sure I, or any of these churches, would answer questions related to anything in the vid.
THIS is it 👆 Thanks so much for sharing, Jamie.
So great that you guys acknowledged the trend away from physical buildings
Praise the lord brothers
Love this. Great ideas in here. Love the longer video too!
Thanks for watching, Kolby! We're enjoying having more time to take deeper dives 🙂
Great video. As a leader in a downtown church and a 150 year old building, this is a big deal. We are trying to hire a staff person who's job it is to just keep the building filled up with activity.
Amazing, Michael!
The building is not the church, the people are! The building is our tool and the people are the ministry! Great reminder we need to be Community focused. While listening I got to dreaming about what we could do in the outside space around the building. A Shout out to Westwood United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, OH for the outreach they have to the community!
Loved reading this Julie! We love dreaming with churches about how we can bridge the gap between our church communities and our community as a whole. 😊
This is so encouraging as our whole church culture has been shifting to the real culture we want... FOR THE COMMUNITY! Thank you for this, this helps outline a very successful way to portray to others why we are doing what we are doing.
Love reading this Sara!
I was literally talking to my wife about this idea two weeks ago. I love it!
So good 🙌
We were at the mall and we have two kids under 3 so we were at their play area. I watched as this little area was swarmed with people and community was naturally happen in the middle of the mall. I said to my wife, why can’t we create something like this for families. Why does the mall have to be the center of the community? Why can’t our churches? If we want young couples like us, we should create something like that.
Good stuff. So happy to start a church plant in a cafe as we are now.
Amazing step Duane 😊
Awesome segment. Our church is a new plant that has been doing our weekly service at the Let's Talk Studio which is a pretty nice building but it is not configured to support our church vision. We are about to launch our exit90Days Program to locate another building that could facilitate some portion of the vision. Stumbling upon this video was very inspiring because it amplified what we have been discussing in our planning sessions. Thank you
So great! Thanks for watching ☺️
Although I agree with a lot of the ideas mentioned here, every church still needs to seek the Lord Jesus on how to reach the lost and disciple them. Whatever we choose to do should go with the mission God gave us to testify to the gospel of the Grace of God - Acts 20:24. As a Senior Pastor of almost 20 years, I've seen and heard of many strategies to attract people and to grow a church and to serve etc... but our growth has been a little at a time and we finally built our own building and we are in the process of adding a Children's & Youth/Office Wing with an average attendance of 150 people but coming close to 200 sometimes. There so many things I've thought of doing but I am first a Pastor who is supposed to feed the sheep and equip them to minister to the body here and reach the lost. So contrary to most ways of ministry, our people leave Sunday service filled with God's Word and strengthened by His Spirit because I made a decision from the beginning that Sunday was not the day necessarily to reach the lost but to feed and build up the sheep. The sheep can then minister to the lost in their homes or sphere of influence or groups. We also have a Bible School, Grace Life University, to disciple believers to do God's will for their lives so our building is used on Sundays for service, Mondays & Tuesday for Bible School, Wednesdays and Thursdays for Groups, Friday for Youth Night and so we do use our building even though we are not a community center per se. If you spread yourself too thin and try to do too much, you will not be good at anything. So bottom line, find out what God wants you to do as a church and do that in excellence by His grace and love, and if you feel your church is called to do a community center than go ahead and do that....anyway, just some thoughts
@21:00 that story is the story of the University of Connecticut main campus library. It is true and they had to add wings to the building to stop it from sinking.
I love this idea, my hope is to create something like a WeWork and to have popup services there on Sunday’s. One Day 😁
Great idea, Jarmal!
Great thoughts here today. Love the heart behind the motive. As long as we don't lose sight of the purpose that we are about Jesus AND people then this could work extremely well.
Completely agree! As Paul says, "let the inner movement of your heart always be to love one another." Our drive to reach out into our community hopefully is continually spurred by the good news and love of Jesus Christ that is continually changing us. 😊
I totally thought this was a parody video to begin with 😂
I enjoyed the video. It is a good idea. But there’s one problem. In most churches there’s two groups of people. The elders who have more seniority, respect, and most importantly money to decide how the church should run. And my group the young millennials who don’t always have the best reputation or money. In my church we go to service 3 times a week for 2 hours each day outside of that the building is empty. We used to offer a Saturday youth day called a bistro. I really wish I knew of ways the church could be more active in the community. My church has about 20 regulars but maybe 50-75 irregulars. I know my elders care more about their own lives and watching tv than spending time at church. So many of my members work too much and are in school. They’d call me a fanatic for suggesting to spend more time doing church community outreach.
To not skip over this is essential, but at the same time. People won’t flock there for any other reason than the Changing, Renewing, Empowering, Presence of God.
The focus has so shifted, because what is it worth for people to be coming, if they aren’t being changed, and set free.
Love is the key, via Community, small groups, worship nights. But the focus goes on what can we do. What we can do is focus on creating an atmosphere of love and His presence. Do you know what I mean?
I think I know what you mean Bobby, but what if your building could serve the people in your community who don't believe the same things you do? People will flock there for a preschool, and community garden, and playground, etc., and it's time we start using our resources to meet those needs as well. Jesus often met a physical need before a spiritual one.
What a great way of thinking. I would LOVE the environment they're aiming to create. Give me the coffeeshop! I'll hire Alex as a coffee consult 😂
I'm in! I'm not cheap, though 😉
@@alexandermills2230 wouldn't trust you if you weren't!
Our church allows the community to use the building. Currently we are working with the school system on a 3 year deal where they have classrooms while the schools are remodeled.
Exactly what my Church just launched in December. we now have 4 day cares, a business incubator. Potentially gonna have a cafe. the Bible school and an events management company.
Nestled perfectly by a Primary school near public transport plus a hockey turf is next door.
SO good, Aaron! 🙌
Big fan of the show! If I could make a suggestion, if there was a way to throw some compression/normalization on the audio for future episodes it would definitely help me out! I'm listening at low volume at my tent-maker job, and it would be super helpful to me! You guys rock, keep up the good work!
We're always trying to improve this. Was there a specific part of the show that gave you trouble? That would help us better diagnose any potential problems.
@@prochurchtools Just looking at the 4:20-4:30 between your straight on and turned toward Alex. Not super noticeable unless you're at low volume. Thanks for taking a look!
Where does discipleship come in if community is first and church is second? My belief is the people in the church should be the ones reaching out to the community and driving the outreach. This kind of sounds like another model where the emphasis is still on the church building(s) to bring people to the church. I’m all for reaching out to the community but I struggle with thinking the community should be what we think about first. And I’m also all for a change in how we think about our buildings. I just don’t think I can jump on board with all 4 of the principles. Love the content you guys produce though and have been very blessed and taught by it!
FWIW, these aren't *our* principles, but the principles of the church that is building the specific example we discuss in this episode.
I have worked it a church that, like so many churches today, think that the competition for souls is the "club" or big pop shows so they create their environments that feel like what they think the "club" feels like (although I venture to guess most pastors have never been to a club). We primarily reached 40+-year-olds. Our "target demographic" was 30-year-olds. I lasted 10 months there. Hated it. I saw that the Great Commission strickly commands Disciples of Christ to go and make disciples. For 1500 years the church has been relying on people being attracted to a place. And while I love this idea and support the idea of churches becoming cultural centers for their cities, the focus must always be activating and sending our people. Churches don't love the slow-burn that is disciple-making. It is really hard to watch your church grow maybe by 1 or 2 people every couple of months. But making disciples of people prior to entering the doors or campuses of your church will only create healthier and more mature congregations and followers of Christ Rather than shallow rhyming one-liner sermons and emotional worship.
Interesting thoughts Evan, although I think you're missing the point of our discussion and the vision of Century Church. Century is going to keep discipling people on Sundays like your church is doing, but they have a greater vision for what goes on in-between Sunday services. If our large empty buildings could serve the needs of our communities before they ever consider meeting us on Sunday to encounter Jesus, isn't that a good thing?
@@alexandermills2230 I get that. And I totally agree with using our physical resources for the benefit of the community. I think you may have missed my point. There is still an element of "attracting" to a place in order to disciple. But that isn't very Biblical. That is still relying on the attraction rather than the calling of people to become disciples. Discipleship doesn't happen post-evangelism, evangelism happens through the context of discipleship. Just look at Jesus Disciples. They did not have faith in Christ when they became disciples, they were brought into faith and largely didn't believe until after the resurrection, when Christ left. It's a re-thinking of discipleship and evangelism. I would ask you, who is doing the disciple-making on Sundays? My point being, is that Christ did call his Disciples to say "Come and see" or "build it and they will come." He said, "Go and make disciples." It requires the activation of our congregations to go out of our doors and make disciples. Just a thought.
@@esava44 I agree 1,000% with what you're saying, however I don't believe what Century Church, based on this video and evidence I've seen from their website and social media, has any intention of slowing down or stopping discipleship training. It looks like they are using a problem they have (needing a larger space to meet) and thinking about a larger picture where the facilities will be used in some way _all the time_ instead of once or twice a week. In _their_ particular situation, being part of a relatively young, small town, they have decided to create a space their whole town can use and that will encourage more of that type of development in the rest of the town while also becoming a greater outreach center themselves. The point of the video was to show just one example of how a church can meet the needs of its community through the physical design of its campus. This exact solution won't work for every church out there, but it will encourage churches who are developing these building programs to think outside the box and consider how to best use their resources to make a space that is useful 7 days a week.
I know often we talk about church attendance, but I wonder if there has been many significant studies on church membership? I feel like at the church I am at, we are not currently growing on Sunday Mornings, but we are growing a lot for during the week activities.
That depends how you're defining what "growth" looks like. If you're measuring it by attendance, then sure. We think churches should track growth of the individual more holistically. Have a look at our Church Growth Calculator! blog.nucleus.church/church-growth/
Great info. My church is in the process of planning for a new building. But quick question... where’d you get that jacket from??
Cristian Martinez H&M!
Yes! Stay with the long format...it feels more authentic.
Love that you're enjoying the longer format!
“not built on good coffee” AYO
Yes, that's why I liked this video. 😂
Love these ideas! Just had a question, what about the ideas of sacred spaces? Spaces separated for the sole purpose of worship or preaching? Do we need these? Is this just something traditional or is there a biblical basis for only using a space for worship or teaching etc
Great question, Alexio. I'm a church history buff and love sacred worship spaces more than most things on this earth, but fundamentally I don't believe there's anything more sacred about one place than another. We're the temples of God, walking on holy ground with every step we take.
Was dropping “the bossman” prefix intentional? :)
Thought the same!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I love this idea, but I don't know that it's as new as this video suggests. I know of several churches in Canada that have operated more like community centres, rather than a centre for Sunday services for years now. For example, there are a couple churches in rural Saskatchewan who fill their church every day of the week by clearing out all the chairs in their sanctuary and running bouncers and indoor playgrounds for families to come and use for free. Or another church in Winnipeg that built a community centre, rather than a church building.
And I think that part of what is missing in the conversation stirred up by the comments so far is the distinction between providing a service, and actually serving your community. Those are two different things. Providing a service is good, but it's through serving people that we see transformation.
You're right about just providing a service, Scott. Although you've heard of several churches practicing this model, it's definitely not as common as it should be.
@@alexandermills2230That's fair. I would love to see more churches functioning this way! And I'm glad to see churches who are innovating. Thanks for bringing more light to it!
This thinking seems to fit well with the emerging church movement.
Agreed!
Sir, any tips on church pioneering and fundraising for the same??
Thanks for the comment! We haven't covered fundraising in specific, but you might find our content on church plants helpful: prochurchtools.com/free-tools/?tab=latest-resources&search=plant#search
It looks like a college campus or a monastery
Had this idea for years. Also, listen to the devil and the deep blue sea. The 930 and sojourn church was doing this and way more in the early 2000’s. Epic.
Put that idea into action, Jordan!
Ba.
All of these big mega churches who were probably led by an over ambitious empire building pastor and board, are now crapping themselves at the lack of attendance and people falling away left right and centre. If the idea is to go from a big stage and lights model to a freakin Starbucks type meeting space, than God help us. These two boys need to go into a room and pray, put down their coffee, journal and podcast mic and pray!
We are doing something similar with our next 5 year vision. Rather than thinking that our one location "is" the church, we want to expand church to beyond Sunday morning and to fill our schedule with events. These events aren't going to be in our church building, but around the city and eventually the region. The way I see it, there is nothing new about this idea. It is really the reinvention of the first century church, where pockets of Christianity were everywhere. It wasn't about how many people we can fit into a single building.
Love this vision! It's all about finding ways to be integral, involved members of our community where our relationship with Christ can affect the lives of those around us who might not know him personally. 😊
As a cat person I got a pro tip for you Brady. Brush your cats once a week. It greatly reduces the amount of hair in the house and it's easier to get rid of then when it's on the couch.
Yeah, my wife does that. I brush the dog daily. Roombas on each level of the house. I'm just quite meticulous. Hah.
I don't think this idea is new or completely different than other churches. I think we believe it to be different because you don't hear about it or churches that do this aren't given voices in those spheres of influence. When my grandparents were pastors they made sure the church building was being put to full used 24/7. There were community counseling for people that needed to fill their requirement to the state. But we also ran a Christian School from K-4 to 12th grade and a children's daycare. During the Summer months, we offered a summer camp for kids and 4th July Parades. We also had a continuing biblical education for adults and people would come up to the church all the time to meet friends and hang out for coffee or even family reunions. The church being a community house is not new it's very common in Southern culture.
Very true, in urban settings particularly.
@@miri9646 well not just urban areas. This is a common thing especially in the rural areas too. The church as a community house has been this way I know in America since the beginnings of the nation.
Are you guys teaching and exemplifying what the church (us) should look like to the world. You can build really cool stages, put up all the lights and have a great architectural plan. If WE don’t become the ‘Light’ of the world, the facility’s will become Religious ShowTime at the Apollo with great audiences. We do church by BECOMING more like Christ. That’s what’s missing. The community is looking for REAL Christians.
These campus plans are *literal* plans for churches to become lights in their communities - and have *nothing* to do with lights or stage design.
😂😂😂 you guys are awesome
I want to see a church start a fast food chain.
Come on:
all nations tacos 🌮 or
elevation burritos 🌯
or the well cafe ☕️
- a coffee shop book store attached
- MISSION: pay a persons mortgage each month
There are churches in my small town with coffee shops. They should open them up to the public.
Got another one
Living Water Water Parking
Felicia Moniq heck yeah! We might be helping a Soundwave Community do just that!
I'll take tacos, please 🌮
I’m pretty sure you Canadians don’t know what tacos are… Swing by San Antonio and we’ll show you
@@jjmonty8090 Brady and I both spend a few weeks each year in California. We know tacos 😉
@@alexandermills2230 Nah bro, those are Cali tacos...it doesn't count
Dang, Brady HATES Starbucks...lol
Facts only
More like Star......SUCKS AMIRITE
@@alexandermills2230 honestly it's aight
I'm not against this. But I think a question to be asked about this would be where does being the church stop, and a business starts? I have a friend who has been turned off a bit by our pastor who he thinks runs the church too much "Like a business". I believe serving the community should be our first priority, but what does that look like in 20 years when this church is run by people who weren't there at its birth. Does it look more like a business, or a church? How do you prevent it from looking like a business?
You'd probably need to set up a couple of different legal entities (for-profit and non-profits) to pull this off - I know that's what our church has done.
The church needs to be taught and the "culture" or mission of the church needs to be passed down and the staff needs to be chosen with this in mind. That way, 20 years from now, the values of the church and those running it, remains the same.
@@SouthernAurora I'm sorry you feel that way about your church. God has placed your pastor in authority and given him a vision about the church. You should have a conversation about this with your pastor and offer to lead or facilitate one of those ministries. A lot of times things change because there is no one committed to leading a certain class or ministry.
In the book of Acts it said people met in the temple courts daily so I see certain parts as being good.
But i think you need to be careful belittling prayer time for a pastor and worship is to be participated in, not listened to.
The idea shouldn't be to conform to the world, but to change the world.
What you seem to be suggesting is a new spin on fog and lights.
Will people be transformed by the campus' facilities or the church body participating in this type of format be transformed by the world instead?
Would the theater put on shows that glorify God only? Or will would it allow another message to go out?
Community is what the church body is about, so we should make it that. But careful in what is done to do that.
immigrationrsrch Let me ask you this question...when you say “transform the world” - what particularly do you mean? Give me specifics.
@@prochurchtools What I mean by transform the world is to bring those that don't know God to Christ and to mature people in their faith.
And that whatever money is raised by the church should be used only in service to glorifying God and not be gained by hosting something in a community theater or other venue where someone may share something that may be contrary to God's word.
I will say that the church should definitely create a community and I like that you opened a discussion on it. I feel I was a bit hasty in writing my response and the tone was not exactly what I was aiming for. And a community is a great place to build relationships and show God rather than speaking about it.
I just wanted to point out that we need to be careful in the message we send by allowing certain things on church grounds and that we be careful stewards with God's provision for doing his work.
Thanks for all you do and for taking the time to reply to me.
Thankfully Jesus calls souls to himself, not campuses and coffee!
He does! But the living stones that make up his Church happen to like coffee and likely need a central location to meet in 😏
People are not attending because of youth sports, particularly baseball and soccer tournaments pull families away.
Just curious but are these statistics about church attendance decline the same across all races/nationalities? Or is this just a mostly white person thing?
Hey Anthony - it's across America that these statistics apply. You can find out more about the specifics here: churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/139575-7-startling-facts-an-up-close-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html/5
I'm the 666th view!? 😲 First time watching too.
😈
Thats cute, but if we could personify Jesus instead, we wouldn’t need the walls of a building to do it. People can only be entertained for so long. Ppl lack a real relationship with God, cuz we entertain them with other things. That’s the problem with Church today, the community is spoiled by everything we give them. But they don’t know how to seek God face for 10 mins.
Communities often need a place to gather, Miguel. Whether it's a house, a school gym, or a building you own, the people who make up the Church are going to gather and meet somewhere. As far as personifying Jesus is concerned, that seems to be the fundamental motive for Century Church. We quoted them in this episode saying, "We will strive to design a new kind of church that gives itself away sacrificially, demonstrating the sacrificial love Jesus has for each of us. Our buildings will never be for us, they will be for them who have yet to experience the abundant life only offered through Jesus."
Alexander Mills You guys are doing a great thing, love your channel, it makes me meditate on great ideas because im just like you guys :) also, im 27. I just been think about that, churches today have EVERYTHING! And there is still a decline? Why? Is the fix really in adding more stuff? as modern churches, we prioritize the wrong things, Tho i am for everything you guys mention( i have em all), i don’t think “heaven come” is a utopia we can create for the community so ppl “feel good enough” to stay at church and beat the Church attendance decline problem, which im not against! I would live at church if i could! But Identity is the biggest problem in Church today. This is the order of things; Know God -> know your self -> know where you belong. Love you guys!! Great subject lol Id like to know what u think.
No power = no attendence
Church Growth isn't actually about us.... Jesus adds to his church not us. We are called to be people of influence through the choices we make, the attitude we carry.
Aaron Cash then the question that we should be asking ourselves is why is God not adding to our church any longer? This episode is about serving community. Being more effective about serving others. Not growth. Go back and listen to it again. I think you missed it.
Th Church is entirely about us...it IS us. We're living stones, the temples of God.
PALY
Community first, Church second, God last?
This is just glorified pragmatic communitarianism
I appreciate you wanting to put God first. I do also. What does that look like for you in the context of a local church?
@@prochurchtools
This model you are presenting is just the latests megachurch gimmick. Spend 100s of thousands trying to attract people by providing substandard social services instead of preaching the Gospel, worshiping God and administering the sacraments. The Church is not a community center...