3 Generations of Church Attenders - Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millenials

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.

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Your First Multisite Facility

Churches around the world are leveraging technology to create multi-site campuses for greater ministry reach. The transition from single site to multi-site can be bumpy at best if not done with careful prayer and planning. What technology do you use to share your weekend experience? How do you find and secure a facility for your new multi-site campus? What type of financing and staff do you need in place to support a new multi-site facility?

Learn from other multi-site churches

Making the switch to multi-site starts with learning from other churches further down the road than you. There are churches across the U.S. who are constantly transforming the multi-site experience on a weekly basis. Check out Outreach Magazine and Multisite Church Revolution to learn more about multi-site ministry from other churches’ experience.

Find the right technology for your multi-site

Your first multi-site experience may not be a physical location, but an online campus. If you’re planning on a physical campus for your multi-site, you need to consider whether you will live-stream your weekend services (strongly recommended), or have a one-week tape-delay for all your campuses. Many multi-site churches begin new campuses with a taped message while the campus works to get other parts of operation and ministry working well, such as children’s ministry, parking teams, guest relations, and live music.

Highly reliable and secure network connections between campuses is a must-have for multi-site churches considering live-stream options. Video broadcast options are also worth researching to continue the mission of reaching others in your community for the Gospel. Whatever options you consider, you should plan on growing with technology to increase your ministry outreach.

Be creative with finding your new facility

What type of facility do you need to host a multi-site campus? You probably need additional space for children’s ministry, lobby space, and even some storage for equipment. A comedy club, movie theater, auditorium, school, gymnasium, even a plain large room with higher ceilings can make a great facility for a multi-site venue. Get creative with thinking about the possibilities! As we’ve mentioned before, we highly recommend only considering multi-site if you have 150 people willing to help launch the new location.

If you’re considering a multi-site expansion facility, 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.

Time to Multi-Site?

Multi-site church ministry is quickly reshaping American Christianity in powerful ways. Churches of all theological bent- everything from contemporary to traditional churches- are considering multi-site as the next phase in ministry growth. As your own local church grows, you may be wondering if expanding into multi-site locations is the right move to make. Here are five questions to ponder before making the leap from single-site to multi-site:

1. Why are you considering multi-site?

If the move to multi-site is simply because “everyone is doing it,” that’s not a good enough reason. Expanding into multi-site needs to line up with the unique vision God has given your leadership and pastoral team. If multiple factors are pointing towards greater ministry opportunities through multi-site, then Godspeed!

2. What’s your average weekend attendance?

We highly recommend churches only consider multi-site if their average weekend attendance is over 1,000. This gives you a financial base that can readily support the vision and mission of the church while also supporting the financial needs of a new multi-site campus location.

3. How will you keep a “one church, many locations” feel of multi-site ministry?

Several multi-site churches rely on video-streaming technology for weekend messages to have a consistent worship experience across all campuses. Other multi-sites have a one-week tape-delay broadcast of their weekend messages for the same purpose. There are a variety of ways different multi-site churches use technology and planning to create a singular mindset across all campuses. How will your church do the same?

4. How will you staff both your new multi-site and home base campuses?

A new campus means new people who need pastoral and ministerial care. This includes increased demand on children’s ministry and weekend worship service for volunteers and staff. Do you hire ahead of your prayerful growth, or do you revise your current staff and volunteer structure to accommodate multiple locations?

5. What facility options are you considering for multi-site ministry?

Multi-site churches across the U.S. use a variety of venues to host their multi-site campuses. Movie theaters, college amphitheaters, hotel conference rooms, comedy clubs, and school auditoriums are just a few of the different venues multi-site churches are using each week. The cost of renting a facility is often as expensive as simply purchasing one. Instead of running the risk of steeplejacking, as Thom Schultz warns readers, you may consider purchasing an existing facility and revising it to fit your basic needs as a new multi-site location.

If you’re considering a multi-site expansion facility, 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. 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.

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.