{"id":2888,"date":"2014-08-19T05:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomrainer.wpengine.com?p=2888"},"modified":"2014-08-19T05:00:13","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T10:00:13","slug":"fifteen-church-facility-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/fifteen-church-facility-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifteen Church Facility Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chuck Lawless<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I know the church is not a building. That is not to say, though, that the building is unimportant. A building says something <\/em>about the congregation that gathers there; so, we need to pay attention to our facilities.<\/p>\n

Listed here are fifteen facility issues I and my consulting teams have seen recurrently in churches, including established churches and church plants.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. No obvious main entrance.<\/strong> We have seen this problem in churches with large facilities as well as church plants that meet in rented space. The building has several doors, each that enters the facility in a different location. Only one leads to the main entrance, but guests must guess which door that is.<\/li>\n
  2. An unmarked (or unattended) welcome center<\/strong>. No signage indicates the welcome center, and no greeters direct people there. Brochures and sermon CDs might be available there, but sometimes no one is there to distribute them. Such a location is an information kiosk \u2013 not a welcome center.<\/li>\n
  3. Paper signage<\/strong>. Even in larger churches we\u2019ve seen it: handwritten (or even poorly done computer generated) room signs on a piece of paper taped to a wall. I realize emergency situations necessitate a \u201cquick fix,\u201d but this kind of signage implies a lack of attention to excellence.<\/li>\n
  4. Old information on screens or bulletin boards<\/strong>. I\u2019ve seen bulletin board announcements for events that took place six months ago. Even in churches with computerized announcements, I\u2019ve seen outdated information flashed on the screen.<\/li>\n
  5. Unsecured children\u2019s area<\/strong>. Our \u201csecret shoppers\u201d often report having complete access to children\u2019s areas. In some cases, no security system is in place to protect children. In other cases where security does exist, unmonitored outside doors still allow entrance to this area.<\/li>\n
  6. Windowless doors in the children\u2019s area<\/strong>. Windows in doors cannot eliminate the possibility of child abuse in a church, but they are at least a deterrent. Solid doors are an indication the church has not taken enough steps to protect their children.<\/li>\n
  7. \u201cBig people\u201d furniture in children\u2019s rooms<\/strong>. Perhaps you\u2019ve seen a children\u2019s room where the table is lowered a bit, but the chairs are still adult chairs. The furniture (and often, the teaching method in the class) say to a child, \u201cYour job is to act and learn like an adult in this room.\u201d<\/li>\n
  8. Clutter<\/strong>. The list is long. Old literature on tables. \u201cDonated\u201d toys no one wants. Leftover craft supplies. Jesus pictures. Ugly upright pianos. Last week\u2019s bulletins. Unwashed dishes. Drama costumes. Somehow the church facility has become a gathering place for junk.<\/li>\n
  9. Open outlets in preschool rooms<\/strong>. A preschool room electrical outlet without a cover insert is an invitation to trouble. Toddlers typically have not learned not to stick something in the outlet.<\/li>\n
  10. Dirty carpet<\/strong>. This one surprises me, simply because cleaning a carpet is not that difficult. It may cost a few dollars, but not <\/em>cleaning the carpet says, \u201cWe\u2019re not that concerned about the look of God\u2019s house.\u201d<\/li>\n
  11. Odors<\/strong>. Again, the list is long. The musty smell of water damage. The hangover of dirty diapers in the nursery or spoiled food in the kitchen. An unfixed clogged toilet. What\u2019s hard to believe is that people who attend regularly apparently do not notice the smells.<\/li>\n
  12. Unstocked bathrooms<\/strong>. Sometimes I feel like I\u2019m traveling on a mission trip when I enter a church restroom \u2013 that is, I\u2019m out of luck if I didn\u2019t bring my own toilet paper, soap, and towels. Those issues are only magnified when the bathroom is generally dirty.<\/li>\n
  13. Poor lighting<\/strong>. Dimming the lighting might be an effective device to focus worship, but a service is hardly facilitated if members strain to read their Bibles. I\u2019m especially sensitive to this one as I get older.<\/li>\n
  14. Few garbage cans<\/strong>. Church buildings would be cleaner if our buildings included nicely designed, strategically placed garbage cans inside the building. There is a reason garbage cans in bathrooms and kitchens are often overflowing.<\/li>\n
  15. Faded paint<\/strong>. It\u2019s amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do to a room. It\u2019s also amazing how long some churches wait before adding that fresh coat.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What other facility issues have you seen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n

    Chuck Lawless currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary.<\/em>\u00a0You can connect with Dr. Lawless on both\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \"PhD_ThomRainer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    photo credit: justshootingmemories<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A building says something about the congregation that gathers there; so, we need to pay attention to our church facility.","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFifteen Church Facility Issues | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A building says something about the congregation that gathers there; 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