CE: For a church design to be truly community-focused, what elements must it include?
James: A clearly defined entry, and an open lobby or gathering space that offers an atmosphere of transparency. Wayfinding is important, too; we want easy-to-navigate facilities. When someone walks through the front door for the very first time, where do they take their kids? Where is the worship center? The restrooms? All of this came up in my conversation yesterday with the leaders of the Maryland church I mentioned: They’ ve created a lobby space with hightop tables and TVs on the wall broadcasting the service. In effect, this has created an entire community. In conversations with the hospitality team, they’ ve discovered that a lot of these people made the transition from watching online to, now, watching in the lobby. Maybe the next step they’ ll take is inside the worship center. Another key is to find a need in the community and create a space to meet that need. Maybe it’ s providing homeschooling spaces? We have a number of church clients whose children’ s ministry rooms are used by these groups once or twice a week.
CE: Obviously, it’ s easier to incorporate these elements into a new-build project. But what can existing churches do?
James: Again, outdoor spaces are always an option. Ideally, these would be at or near the front door— or otherwise highly visible— to show the community that your church has created places for them to gather. The Church needs to adopt the design approach behind city parks and revitalized downtown areas: What can we do to create community and be inviting to the public? If you’ ve got the land, then sports fields and pickleball courts are easy to do and don’ t require remodeling of your facilities. Beyond this, focus on the front door. Your lobby should disarm visitors and make them feel comfortable. Wood doors and small( or no) windows don’ t communicate that. Dress up your classrooms and invite businesspeople to have meetings there. Invite civic groups to meet at your facility. Every one of those opportunities is likely to bring people through the door who might never walk in any other way.
A WARM RECEPTION
LIVING
STONES CHURCH( Crown Point, Ind.)
“ The Living Stones facility is used seven days a week, and I’ d say 50 % of it, maybe 60 %, is ministry-based. The other 30 % or 40 % is groups from within the community. The church allows homeschool groups to meet in their facility multiple days a week. And they’ re a voting place, a polling place. So, people from the community regularly come through the doors.“ They just hosted a major quasi-ministry event called Flashpoint LIVE. People from all over the community stood in line for hours to be part of it.“ In fact, I got a call from Pastor Ron [ Johnson, Jr.] after the Flashpoint event. He said,‘ I just want to tell you that we had so many comments on our facility. The other thing is that we hit it out of the park in terms of hospitality. It blew people away that they could come to a church and be served like this, be treated like this.’“ So, I think that’ s a great win, because [ Living Stones ] was designed to be more than just church on the weekend.”
— Rodney C. James
GRACED WITH HOSPITALITY
CE: Are there lesser-considered benefits of taking a communityfocused design approach, aside from outreach and discipling?
James: I think we need to remember that God has entrusted us with some great facilities. And many go unused except on the weekends and Wednesdays. As good stewards, we’ ve got to be intentional about looking through the eyes of the community and saying, Where can we meet a need? When we begin to do that and start to open our doors in this way, the community can begin to appreciate what the Church is doing in the way of serving without expecting anything in return. If we’ re good stewards with the God’ s resources, it will bear fruit. I just think that doing the right thing is always the best thing. It means extending an open hand and just loving and serving people, with the realization that in the end, it’ s a building. The lobby is not a‘ sacred space’— it’ s a place where broken people can come and find acceptance and belonging. Then, we leave it up to the Lord to change their hearts and bring them to a place of belief. It all takes effort, right? It means we need people there to open the doors, and we’ ll have to clean the buildings after they’ re used, but that’ s our investment in our communities. It takes a team with the mentality of serving people who are like us. We’ re all broken and imperfect; let’ s leave it in the Lord’ s hands and see what He does.
GRACE
COMMUNITY CHURCH( Bartlesville, Okla.)
“ Grace Community Church is another example of communityfriendly design. We expanded their facility to accommodate many events and activities, and even for just socializing during the week.“ Three months after we built a new gathering space there— connected to the children’ s ministry, the student ministry, the worship center, classroom and kitchen— Pastor Rod Macllvaine called me. He said,‘ The thing that you told me was going to happen has happened: we have people in our lobby almost every day of the week now. Moms gather with their kids. Homeschool groups and other small groups meet up. A handful of men sit and drink coffee together in the mornings. Sometimes it’ s church members bringing other people, but we’ ve also had businessmen hold meetings here.’“ So, this church really has become known in the community as a place where people can come throughout the week.”
— Rodney C. James
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