Church Facility Solutions (CFS) helps churches create or re-purpose existing facilities for future ministry growth.
Congratulations! Your church is growing! Now what?
While this is a tremendous blessing, it can present some new challenges for your facility. After all, you can only add so many services. Redesigning and renovating your existing facility, if even possible, is difficult and disruptive of your current program. Moving to or developing a new church facility is an enormous expense and time consuming. What other options are there?
If your worship center uses pews for seating, there is another option to expand your capacity without major construction renovations – fixed seating. According to design/build experts, pews are considered full at 70% capacity. People will generally leave a lot of space between themselves and their neighbor as well as laying things down between them such as coats, Bibles, purses, etc.
In contrast, fixed seats are considered full at 90% capacity. Consider a worship center with capacity for 1,000 people – fixed seats would allow for an additional 200 attendees!
Additionally, since the average chair takes up 4” less lineal space than a pew user (20” vs. 24” respectively), your facility may be able to increase seating capacity by nearly 20%. (For more information related to spacing/capacity, see http://thomrainer.com/2014/05/pews-chairs-something-else-worship-center/)
Fixed seating does come at a cost – the range is $130 - $250/seat depending on the quality of fabric and accessories (cup holders, seat back pouches, etc.) selected. However, the cost for picking up 20% more attenders per service in your existing facility is far less than a costly remodel or new facility. CFS recently validated this pricing during our fixed seating selection process with the Rock of Southwest church in Littleton, CO ( www.therockrc.com ) (For more information related to pew, chairs or fixed seating costs, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qakE2NVtoqs )
Depending on your facility’s current worship space and storage capacity, another less costly option would be moveable, stackable chairs. This option greatly increases flexibility in the space from pews or fixed chairs, but are generally less comfortable than theater seats. Interlocking, stackable chairs cost in the range of $40 - $70/chair.
If you’re considering these options or looking to expand, our Church Facility Solutions (CFS) team is here to serve you. CFS works with a church to create strategic facility expansion plans. We are a full-service commercial real estate development organization committed to serving churches. This vision aligns with our principals’ personal values as followers of Jesus Christ.
CFS provides A to Z services including strategic planning, financial feasibility, site or building selection, capital campaign, financing (as owner’s representative), project team selection, project and construction management (also as owner’s representative), furniture, fixtures, equipment, audio, visual, light procurement, and relocation coordination.
For more information on Church Facility Solutions, check out us out at https://churchfacilitysolutions.com or contact us at info@churchfacilitysolitions.com.