CHANGING CHURCHES


12 key questions


1: What is the precise need? This is a statement of what is lacking, or where you have problems, in your current building. Do not jump to solutions at this point. Spend time defining the problem and then state it in just a few words. You may lack space for a growing


congregation, or lack comfort with hard pews in a cold building. But these may simply be presenting problems. Try to work out what the real problem is: it might not be a building issue at all. Then consider options. A better solution for a growing congregation might be to church plant. To solve a lack of comfort you might instead hire a local centre. You will need to show that the cost (in every sense) of building is justified.


2: Who are we seeking to serve? Your default thinking will be yourselves. Think again. Who do you want to benefit from this project? You need to see things from their perspectives, not from yours. The answer might be future members of your church or your local community; it might not be you at all. If so, what you want hardly matters!


But above all else, is God at the centre of everything? Who owns this project? If you see yourselves at the heart of it all, you could be just about to launch into a costly disaster.


for the vision? The church’s leadership clearly needs to be passionate about the idea, even if the details are far from clear. This probably means there are groups of people praying for the project and Sunday sermons are teaching around the


3: How committed are we to praying


JOHN Truscott normally writes articles for us in series but, for a change, is currently contributing some one-offs. So far he has covered ‘Worrying websites’ and ‘Global giving’. This time he gives advice on initial questions to ask when planning a building project.


THESE notes have been prepared for any church that is about to consider a building project. This might be a new £5 million church centre, a £500,000 extension or a £50,000 reordering of the chancel area. Here are the key questions to ask before you choose an architect or start thinking about the details.


The questions are posed as if for a new building. If you are extending or reordering your present site, you should ask the questions about both the specific change you are proposing, but also about the whole site.


concept. The vision should of course be centred on your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ with prayer at its heart.


But the vision must not be a completed building project for buildings are only means to ends. Your prayer should be how the building enables your mission to the world. Try mocking up what your church website might include once the vision is realised, five or ten years from now. You might do this twice: once for your dreams, once for the minimum change to be worthwhile.


4: What spaces do we need? The key point about any building project is not the detail of décor or design but the spaces the building will provide you with. What activities do you need to provide spaces for? How many people doing what in each space? So a coffee shop idea will need spaces for a kitchen, a comfortable area for sitting in, loos, storage, linkage to the church. A new church centre may need spaces for various types of young people’s groups, for gathering and refreshments, for an open plan office for all the staff to work from.


5: What do we want this building to say? Every building communicates a message – so what do you want yours to say (a) when people see it from the road, (b) when people are inside it? How will it feel to its users? The process of deciding on this will prove to be a key learning point.


The new church centre may need to give a message of life, growth and colour, or of peace and stillness. It may need to shout out its existence, or you may want it to fit quietly into its surroundings. One church building can communicate ‘God is other’, whereas another may say ‘Emmanuel – God is with us’. They will be very different buildings even if the spaces are identical.


6: How flexible do we want to be for how long?


If you are investing a large sum of money into a fixed building, you need to have some idea of its expected life. If you plan for group sizes that exist today, the position might be very different in only five years’ time. If you are growing you may need a building constructed in such a way that it can easily be reconfigured, expanded – or sold.


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