A new building is often an important step for a growing church. But before your church scopes out the grocery store that just closed or the old warehouse downtown, you want to be sure it’s the right time. Just because the opportunity presents itself does not mean it’s the best plan or timing for your congregation. There are plenty of ways to tell if you need a new building, but the reasons not to get a new building are equally important.
Here are seven reasons you don’t need a new church building just yet:
1. Most areas only serve one purpose.
When you have lots of space, it is easy to designate every area for a unique purpose. Walk through every space in the building and determine if it is single use, multiuse, or not used during high capacity times. If most parts of your building only have one purpose, that’s probably an indicator that you do not yet have a capacity issue. Also determine if each space is aligned with the mission and vision of the church. This simple exercise can often free up some space for growth.
2. There are only one or two services on Sunday.
If you only have one or two services, you can make room for more growth by adding a service. You should not need to expand until you have three services and your growth trend sees you reaching capacity within two years.
One option is to add a Thursday night service. This helps the committed Sunday morning volunteers get their needed worship time and also provides for folks who must work all weekend. A Thursday night service could be more favored over a Saturday night service, as it is less taxing on both staff and volunteers.
3. Your motto is “If we build it, they will come.”
A new church building is a good way to accommodate growth and capitalize on the momentum you already have, but it should not be seen as a way to create growth. Your current building is only an obstacle to growth if it is too full, unsafe, or poorly located. There are a lot of other factors that affect church growth, and most of them are much easier (and less expensive!) to change.
4. The church is not taking care of the existing building.
Without proper ongoing maintenance and upkeep, your current building will feel outdated, unappealing, or cumbersome. But before you say, “We need a new one,” explore what you can do to improve what you have. Until you have put in the work to recognize what your current building is capable of, you will not know if you are making the right choice—and you will likely wrestle with this problem all over again in the new space.
5. The property does not support additional structures.
It might be tempting to think you can simply add a new structure to fix your space issues, but depending on your property, this might not be an option. Overbuilding on your site can create growth problems down the road, making your investment in new structures a lot less valuable. Parking, road access, building footprints, utility easements, and other factors can limit what you can actually do with your property. Depending on your geographic location, we recommend planning to have one acre of property per 100 people in your church, and we recommend a minimum of ten acres for rural or suburban churches.
If you do not maintain balance between the parking lots, the spaces for worship, and the areas for kids, one of these three, whichever is smallest in capacity, will end up dictating the total site capacity.
6. Your leadership is not on the same page.
If your elders are divided, making a huge financial investment will only exacerbate your problems. Disagreement on its own can be healthy. It is part of being the body of Christ, and it is not an indicator that your leadership as a whole is misaligned. Even disagreements about how your church should live out its mission or who you are called to serve can play a valuable role in shaping the future of your church—especially as you work through decisions such as buying a new building.
However, deep-seated divisions and personal issues can all be symptoms of greater problems you need to address before you take on greater financial debt as a church. If your leadership is divided on a building program, you could lose key members or run the risk of a split. Either would also hurt the church’s ability to fund a mortgage.
7. There are growth inhibitors that can be removed.
More often than not, your church’s growth issues can be managed by other changes. Reconfiguring space will often show you there is still more room to grow in your current building. For example, traffic flow issues can make your space feel more full than it is. Public spaces intended for one purpose years ago have likely changed to a different purpose today, and those spaces can often be modified or moved around to better manage traffic at high capacity times.
Before you make a financial commitment to invest in a new building, prayerfully explore other factors that could be inhibiting your church’s growth. Removing these speed bumps can provide a path for your ministry to prosper.
So is it time to get a new church building?
After evaluating your church in light of this list, if you are still seeing signs that your building is no longer working, it might be time to relocate, renovate, or rebuild. Whatever you decide to do, CDF Capital is here to help.
Let’s journey together.
You don’t need to do ministry alone. You can find opportunities to connect, plus more content and conversations about church administration, at XP Summit: xpsummit.org.
