One of the most beautiful aspects of the global Church is that multiple generations can worship together under one unifying purpose: glorifying God. As growing churches look to expand their facilities into new areas, there is growing pressure to address the facility needs and interests of all the generations in a given congregation. How do you engage all the generations in your congregation when considering a new facility?
How Baby Boomers are impacting church facility solutions
The median age of mainline Protestant adults is 52 years old. (Pew Forum) This sets the stage for Baby Boomers to lead the way in influencing a significant amount of building committees and facility decisions for a growing congregation.
It’s no surprise that Baby Boomers are known as the most financially supportive of local church ministry. They have the most resources readily accessible, and that’s more than just financial resources. Baby Boomers also tend to have the most relational and business-related resources due to decades of connecting and contributing to the lives of others.
Baby Boomers also tend to impact church facility decisions through senior leadership in the church. The average age of a senior pastor in the U.S. is 55 years old. (Source) This means your senior pastor is more likely to relate well to the most influential leaders in your congregation, especially when it comes to facility expansion.[1]
How Generation X is influencing church facility expansion
Generation X is made of people born between 1965 and 1980, give or take a year or two. They’re characterized by being very individualistic and wary of large corporations, including churches. (Source) Generation X-ers are the first generation in the U.S. to noticeably walk away from church altogether. This translates to an underrepresented generation with strong opinions and experiences tied to having their voices heard. Many Generation X-ers have children in middle school and high school, a dynamically influential part of local church ministry.
How Millennials are impacting church facilities
The Millennial generation is typically understood as those born in 1980/1981 through 2000, hence the name “Millennial”. The average age of a youth pastor is 33 years old, a statistic towards the older side of the Millennial generation. (Source) Millennials tend to be very environmentally and community-conscious. Millennials also tend to value more traditional worship experiences, such as catechisms, spoken prayers as a congregation, hymns and folk acoustic music, and community-driven environments, like coffee shops and lobby lounges.
If you’re considering a church facility project to fit all the generations represented in your congregation, our Development Advisors team is here to serve you. Development Advisors works with local churches to create strategic facility expansion plans, including multi-site facility expansion. 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.
Development Advisors provides a variety of services, including strategic planning, financial feasibility, site or building selection, capital campaign direction , financing (as owner’s representative), project team selection, project and construction management (also as owner’s representative), FF&E and AVL procurement specialists, and relocation coordination, as needed.
Our Development Advisors team is here to serve you and answer any questions you may have when it comes to both single-site and multisite church facility expansion.
photo credit: FuriousLove12 via photopin