Churches and Buildings – Part 1

To say I am uniquely qualified to talk about churches, buildings, and related topics is probably a bit of an understatement.

• I work in architecture.  Most of my time is spend designing church buildings.  I have designed fast-growing churches, barely growing churches, traditional churches, contemporary churches, small churches, big churches, worship spaces, children’s spaces, office spaces, big budgets, small budgets . . . If it’s in a church, I am probably at least familiar with it.
• My architectural thesis in college was, (for churches,) “Architecture doesn’t matter inasmuch as it helps or hinders the ministry from taking place.” 
• I was an intern on staff at a church with one of the largest facilities in town.
• I am currently on staff with a church without a building that rents office space and rents a school cafeteria for Sunday worship.
• I am about to drop it all to move to a city where I know few people in order to start a church that doesn’t exist yet, and to do it all with no current facility.
• I am networking with church planters all over the country who are trying to decide how long to rent and when they should purchase either land or a facility.

With all this in mind . . .

Over the next several weeks, I am going to put together a handful of posts with my insights on church facilities.  I will address some issues for older, established churches, but most of my comments will probably be geared for younger churches, since that is where I am at right now.

My first post will deal with my architectural thesis statement above, since it is a bit academic and nebulous on its own.  Understanding this perspective will also set the tone for the rest of the series.

If you have questions you would like me to address, please let me know!

As a disclaimer for legal purposes, I have to state, that while I work full-time in architecture and have an architecture degree, I have not yet completed all the requirements to become a licensed architect.  While this is in process, I must make it clear for this series that I am not licensed at this time.