Fifteen Church Facility Issues

I know the church is not a building. That is not to say, though, that the building is unimportant. A building says something about the congregation that gathers there; so, we need to pay attention to our facilities.

Listed here are fifteen facility issues I and my consulting teams have seen recurrently in churches, including established churches and church plants. Read more

The Journey, in which I am involved, uses rented facilities--the Curris Center on the campus of Murray State University. The rooms and areas that we occupy on Sunday serve other uses during the week. We have flag banners, sandwich board signs, and greeters at the two entrances guests use to enter the building--the main entrance on the first floor and the side entrance on the second floor. We have a children's ministry sign-in center and middle school ministry sign-in center on the first floor and a children's ministry sign-in center and a welcome center on the third floor. Banners and portable signs clearly mark each center, which typically has at least two or more people in attendance. Sandwich board signs on the first and second floors direct guests to the atrium stairs and the main elevator. We do not use paper signs or bulletin boards. We do use computerized announcements on large flat screen TVs, which are kept up-to-date. We have security people at all entrances to the children's areas and the one outside door, while unlocked in a case of a fire, is closely monitored. The doors in the children's areas are glass or have windows in them. We have no clutter. We set up every Sunday morning and put out only what we need. Everything is else kept in its storage totes. We put cover inserts in the electrical outlets in the preschool rooms. We vacuum carpets if they need it. Guest services is responsible for ensuring that restrooms have toilet paper, liquid soap, and paper towel. Guest services puts out hand lotion and sanitary napkins in the women's restrooms and mouthwash and breath mints in the men's bathrooms. We have no control over the lighting in the lobbies, which could be brighter. Guest services also makes sure that there are no overflowing garbage cans in the bathrooms and other public areas. If a mobile church can give this much attention to rented facilities it uses once a week, a church that has its own building can do even more.

Photos: Curris Center, exterior and atrium