Q & A : Selecting the right seating for your church
HERITAGE CHURCH — Lake Zurich , Ill . “ For our new , 1,000-seat worship center project , we looked at several different theater seat companies and several different stacker chair companies . But — when we saw what SERIES ® Seating could provide firsthand — our decision became an easy one . From the outset , it was evident they were not selling , but really educating our team . The differences were easy to see — both in their depth of knowledge and expertise , as well as in the design of their products . Also , they were the only provider to offer a matching loose stacking chair for our lower floor that would harmonize perfectly with the stadium seating .”
— Executive Pastor Jordan Lloyd
Ryan Rollefson Director of Worship Division SERIES ® Seating
Q : What current trends are you seeing that affect seat selection for houses of worship ?
RYAN ROLLEFSON :
MAXIMIZING BUDGET DOLLARS OVER LONG-TERM : Even with higher costs due to inflation in recent years , customers are increasingly focused on value over time , rather than just the singular line item . This has a lot to do with churches that purchased low-end , low-dollar seating products in the past and are now having to replace those chairs with new seating — again — much quicker than they had ever initially anticipated . The expected lifecycle of quality seating should be much greater than 20 years ; but , we are frequently replacing seating that has only been in use for 5 to 7 years .
SAVING SPACE : Because of ever-increasing costs in renovation and new construction , maximizing critical square footage has become a high priority for church leaders . Most seats and chairs currently available on the market take up too much valuable real estate and were not designed to maximize space . However , all SERIES ® products are engineered with a commitment to the value of space efficiency with both our fixed and loose seating options . Space-efficient seating can dramatically reduce the square footage required for a building , while still accomplishing the desired seat capacity — which translates to a dramatically lower overall project construction budget .
• The VERA ™ fixed theater seat folds exceptionally tight with the seat in the up position , saving upwards of six to eight inches of crucial walkway space in and out of the row compared with many other theater seats offered to churches .
• Our MODEL K ™ stacking theater seat , which incorporates a gravity seat lift into a high-density stacking chair , was initially designed for churches that required flexible and stackable seating in a multi-purpose worship venue . This chair model is typically used to replace existing
20 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | JANUARY 2025