Below are a few more thoughts on building.
- If you have the opportunity, purchase as much land as you can. At first glance, the 50 acres we have seems to be an enormous amount of land, but I can honestly tell you it goes fast. Ministry is not about buildings and land, but it takes a whole lot of building and land to do big ministry. At the completion of the current building phase we are working on, we will have around 60,000 square feet of facility and approximately 1,000 parking spaces. When you add in the utility easements and water detention ponds we will eat up around half of our 50 acres. If at all possible, get your church a lot of land.
- More is not necessarily better when it comes to aesthetics. Bil Cornelius, Senior Pastor of Bay Area Fellowship (www.bayareafellowship.com), gave us some great insight about this. His suggestion was to pick one spot and put your money there to make it pop. My suggestion is to pick these hot spot areas in places you are trying to draw people’s attention. If you want to make it easy for first time guests to find your children’s wing, then make the check-in area or the entrance to the children’s wing the place with the greatest eye appeal. Building aesthetics are like a good laxative. A little goes a long way :)
- Traffic flow is a big deal. After moving into our first building, we learned this quickly. Two areas to think about when thinking through traffic flow.
- Children’s space: this is a key area not only because of the high traffic that runs through this area, but also because of the security issues that come with this department. Check-in and check out, as well as other security measures, makes the way you design your flow of traffic in this area very important.
- Major corridors: if your facility is going to have multiple hallways (corridors) make sure to pinpoint your highest traffic corridors and allow plenty of space for easy traffic flow. This not only helps with the obvious (easability of movement), but also with security. The less traffic jams you create, the easier it is to keep a close eye on what’s happening in your church.
Something I’ve noticed since working with a growing church is that effective ministry takes brainstorming and strategy. Whether it’s working through how to reach and win the lost to Christ, how to build an effective Children’s Ministry or building a church building that will help you maximize your ministry impact. It all takes think time and strategy. There is too much at stake not to do your homework. I hope this helps.
