The principles of church architecture and construction are in constant evolution. They must embrace and encourage innovation, to stay apace of changing worship practices and help support church-initiated shifts in member recruitment priorities and strategies. Budgetary considerations are always important as well, and increasingly the need to save money upfront and boost profits in the long-term are driving church design and development choices.
Churches want to offer their members an unforgettable and transformative worship experience. That is the primary mandate that architectural firms involved in faith-based construction must follow. But modern churches are also striving to position themselves as valuable community assets, by creating comfortable and inviting multi-purpose spaces suitable for hosting a wide range of events and activities.
As society continues to adjust to the dramatic changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, church planners, designers, and builders are motivated to ask an important question: how will the “new reality” affect church design and construction practices in the years to come?
The Nature of the Challenge
Partly in response to the pandemic, a majority of churches are now either live streaming their services, posting a video recording of them online after services are finished, or both. In a Pew Research Center survey taken in the summer of 2020, 72 percent of regular churchgoers reported attending religious services online, compared to 33 percent who said they’d braved coronavirus restrictions and attended services in-person. Notably, among those who normally did not attend church at all, 17 percent said they had attended virtual services.
Regardless of future restrictions on large gatherings, these practices are shepherding a change in church attendance habits that are likely to have a permanent impact. More than half of churchgoers who’ve experienced this new reality told researchers that they didn’t plan to go back to attending church onsite full-time, but planned to choose online options some or much of the time.
This preference will inevitably impact church construction practices moving forward. For example, lighting, acoustics, and auditorium stage design will need to be suitable for recording and transmitting live video feeds, which will become more essential to a church’s survival. As in-person attendance wanes, churches will need to increase foot traffic and facilitate revenue enhancement in other ways.
It will be incumbent on churches to find additional ways to bring people through their doors or onto church grounds, for meetings, conferences, educational experiences, recreational opportunities, child care services, and any other innovation that can integrate the church more thoroughly into the local community. Consequently, a multi-purpose orientation in design and construction will be more vital than ever.
The Clearest Trend: A Balancing Act
Newly constructed churches must be designed with one eye focused on the present and one eye looking to the future. The final design must be carefully chosen and customized to strike a balance between the expectations of the existing congregation (and church leaders) and the need to be more welcoming and inclusive.
Among those who will be welcomed with open arms are three separate but sometimes overlapping groups: the previously unchurched (a traditional target), those seeking easy access to online religious services, and regular churchgoers who need a new spiritual haven because their old churches have closed.
The latter group could be growing rapidly. The president of the Barna Group, David Kinnaman, estimates that approximately 20 percent of churches will be closing within the next 18 months, pushed over the line into extinction by the lingering effects of the pandemic.
For churches about to launch new construction or renovation projects, the challenge is to make architectural choices that will suit the needs of all three potential constituencies, without alienating current members of the congregation.
Trying to satisfy everyone simultaneously may be a tall order. But church architects can help by creating customized architectural plans based on detailed input from congregations and church leaders. These individuals always have the best interests of the church in mind, and they will have the clearest ideas about what they want their new multi-purpose, community-and-worship-centered structures to accomplish.