First Impressions Part II: Details Matter

As Easter Sunday approaches, consider the message your church’s landscaping, layout and signage are sending.

In our last blog we discussed the importance of lobby space for churches to make a good first impression, saying a big “Welcome!” to newcomers and regulars alike.

Now we’ll broaden the details surrounding that crucial first impression.

Lobbies (aka fellowship space, atrium, café, etc.) are key, but so are things like landscaping, signage, logo and architecture. These things together tell a story that newcomers take in, often without even realizing it. A church’s facility layout, appearance and atmosphere say a lot about the values of its staff and leaders. Yours might be saying, “tired,” “traditional,” or “hip,” for example.

Try looking around your church property as if you’d never been there before, asking yourself what impression you’d get. If the answer isn’t glowing, chances are it’s time for some spring cleaning or even a more drastic facelift.

Here are some quick tips to help you take stock.

Landscaping

Grounds and building that are well kept and attractive attest to the dedication and discipline of the church.

• Are your flowerbeds hosting dandelions as the warm weather closes in?
• Is your parking space striping bright and fresh?
• Has winter sand been swept up?

Layout & Signage

Nobody wants first-time visitors to feel unnerved by something as simple as knowing where to park or which door to enter. You certainly don’t want them to be wondering the halls trying to find the children’s check-in or worship auditorium. Your church may have the coolest café known to man, but if people don’t know how to get there it’s not serving its full purpose.

In a nutshell, visitors should feel taken care of from their very first touch with your church and have a good idea what to expect as they arrive.

• Does a visitor have to walk a long way to the front door?
• Is it obvious where the front door is?
• Are there any messages/banners outside that convey current themes/focuses?
• Is there visible/cool interior signage to clarify the locations of the coffee, children’s check-in, and auditorium?
• Does the children’s check-in look secure?  Does there appear to be an enclosed area? Is there a computerized system in place?

People

Everyone wants to have a friendly church. It’s a good idea to ensure that visitors feel welcomed by more than a cool sign or lovely flowerbed. Enhance the atmosphere of your facility with that all-important personal touch.

• Are there people directing traffic at busy times?
• Are there greeters/door openers?
• Are the greeters sensitive that some people don’t want to shake hands?

Development Advisors provides facility development and expansion services for churches. For more information, please contact Scott McLean at 303-534-3344 (x 103) or at scott@developco.com.

First Impressions Count: Lobbies are Key

Consider a tale of two churches: A young couple, relatively new in town and looking for a church home, walks into one, then the other.

The first church is a little dingy, with outdated paint and fixtures and a sterile, cramped lobby leading to the auditorium. The carpet looks a bit worn and stained.

The second church enters into an open, bright space. Its homey, living room atmosphere is complete with fireplace and soft, cushy seats in clusters like you’d find in a coffee shop. Not to mention that there actually is a coffee shop, and people are laughing and chatting over warm drinks and muffins.

The first place a new visitor sees is your lobby—or to use various church lingo, your “fellowship space,” “atrium,” “café,” etc—and these spaces have been greatly increasing in importance in recent years.

At both churches described above, people are friendly and genuine. And both boast dynamic teaching and similar qualities of worship music, programs and doctrines. But to which does the couple return?

No surprise here: probably the second. Because first impressions are vastly important—for facilities as well as people.

Your church’s physical appearance and frontline interaction with newcomers could make or break the chance of a return visit.

A church should say “Welcome Home” when folks walk in, whether they’re new or occasional or regular attenders. Those serious about growing their churches in terms of numbers and community depth should take this reality seriously.

We fully acknowledge that physical space, by itself, is not the most important thing about being the body of Christ. But every space emits a vibe that encourages certain responses from the people in it—and you want your space to encourage comfort and open interactions.

We’ve seen a significant uptick in the number of larger churches in Colorado and nationwide providing café-like areas and even full-service coffee shops, which offer WiFi and operate during the week as well as on Sundays. The idea is to provide spaces where people want to be, and gather naturally.

Large churches are increasingly making building and facilitating community a priority. And an attractive, comfortable “coffee-shop” space is conducive to that. Instead of running out the door after a service, people feel invited by such a space to stay a while, hang out and connect with others.

That young couple probably knew which church felt more welcoming before they ever consciously analyzed it.

See our next blog for more on making a great first facility impression for your church.

A Project Manager: Best Bang for your Buck

When church leaders establish a vision for facility expansion, they typically want to see it on paper immediately. So they hire an architect. The problem with this is that the church is then spending thousands of dollars before they know if the vision is even feasible.

Vision is exciting, but the nitty-gritty stuff is what makes it tangible. There are roughly 10 major steps involved in every church building project, from strategic planning to moving into the new facility. Your first step should be your budget. Knowing how much your church can afford and having a plan will save you from wasting your precious time and resources.

Don’t:

• Hire an architect until you’ve got a budget. The costs to create a fully-functioning church facility go way beyond hard construction costs, and hiring an architect too soon often results in wasted time, money and effort…not to mention disappointment.

Do:

• Clearly define a budget. Identify all costs associated with the proposed project and know how much your church can afford to develop.
• Develop a strategic plan. Know your church’s top needs, goals and priorities and identify specific, ordered steps toward reaching them.
• Hire a project manager with experience in church finance, development sites and their cost, and church design.
• When it comes to church building projects, a good project manager is worth his or her weight in gold. This person or firm can take your vision and conceptually articulate your future facility program (building size, parking and related space configurations, etc.).

A Project Manager…

• Is the orchestrator of the entire project, not just a specialist in one particular component of it (i.e. not a contractor or an architect, who might face conflicts of interest at certain points in the process).
• Understands the tasks and responsibilities for every component of the project.
• Has commercial real estate development experience and has learned from mistakes seen in the past.
• Speaks the languages of the civil engineer, the architect, the contractor and the municipality.
• Knows the right questions to ask and can ask the hard questions you might be uncomfortable asking.
• Is your pushy personality and full-time project nanny, making sure everyone completes responsibilities on time and as promised.
• Can challenge the architect to dig deeper for new creative ideas instead of the same old “off‐the‐shelf” solutions.
• Knows the likely targets for cost-savings.
• Is responsible for the overall schedule to ensure the building is ready for use at its promised completion date.
• Arranges for and oversees the inspecti
  on of the contractors’ work.
• Can insulate you from well-intentioned in‐kind donors who might not be best suited to offer materials or labor.

To sum up: Identify your budget, project costs and strategic plan before starting the design phase. A project manager can help with this as well as each step of the project, and will bring value many times the cost or his or her services.

Development Advisors offers specialized A to Z project management services for Colorado churches seeking to expand their facilities. For more information, contact Scott McLean at scott@developco.com or 303-534-3344 (x 103).