BuildingSolutions

I am sure when the members of the historic Abner Creek Baptist Church woke up on a sunny Wednesday morning in January 2008, they had no idea what events would unfold that day.  Founded in 1832, Abner Creek Baptist Church had been a center of life and community for many people in this rural corner of Spartanburg County. 

When their buildings were destroyed- everything except the gymnasium- they could have folded in the face of such a setback. After all, they were a relatively small congregation; how would they put this all back together? Rather than wallow in discouragement, they found another church that was willing to share their facilities and went about the business of planning to rebuild.  Rebuilding for Abner Creek didn’t just mean building back what they had before. They were presented with an opportunity to step back and ask  themselves some fundamental questions about who they are as a church and how they can reach out to their growing, changing community. 

The new Abner Creek Baptist Church won’t look like the old one; neither the buildings nor the people. Their rural community is rapidly becoming a suburban community. They are planning for a new church that will not only serve their current congregation, but also provide a place of gathering for a new type of community as it grows up around them.

As we have worked with Abner Creek Baptist Church to design their new home, it has struck me that their experience is not unlike what many people are experiencing now in their personal lives. For many, their financial world has burned down before their very eyes. They are faced with a choice: try to rebuild their life the way it was before, or reevaluate, find what is important, and build on a new foundation that will be firm on the shifting sand of an ever changing world.

Abner Creek Baptist Church saw a rainbow that day as their buildings were destroyed; a symbol of hope in the midst of destruction.  Hopefully many others see a rainbow today as they look to a new future with hope rather than despair.

St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Charleston, SC Photo by the Author

Many Christians when asked, “What is your church’s brand?” would take offense at the thought of “branding” or marketing their church. But, whether we want to admit it or not, your church has a brand. Hang in there with me for a minute and see if you agree…

If you define a brand as the sum of the experiences, expectations, and personality associated with a company, person, or service, your church does have a brand. The bottom line is that your brand is really about who you are. What is unique about your congregation? What ministries are you, as a church, involved in? What is your mission, as a church, and how are you working to achieve it? This is your brand.

If you fail to communicate who you are (your brand) to the public in an effective way, you are losing the power that your brand can bring you. In years past, a denominational association was enough to tell people what “kind” of church you were.  Today, denominational “brands” have lost much of their significance because there is such a wide variety of church “personalities” and even beliefs within a given denomination.

Whether you agree with them or not, some of the large “community” churches have done a very good job of creating an identity and communicating that identity to the world. One of the ways that their brand identity is often reinforced is through the design of their facilities.  Now, I will be the first to say that a church is not the building, but the buildings do communicate something about the particular church. 

This aspect of branding has proven to be problematic for some older churches that have transformed themselves over time, but still function in buildings that were designed to accommodate a different kind of worship or education.  They find themselves adapting their programs to their buildings; buildings that do not reinforce their brand identity. In some cases, adapting church buildings is an option, but more often than not, the buildings, to some degree, constrain the church’s identity.

It is very difficult to know what a particular church is going to “look like” in twenty or thirty years, therefore, designing buildings that are flexible and adaptable is crucial to facilitating the growth of the church.  In many churches, Sunday school programs look very different today than they did twenty-five years ago, and as a result, the use of some older buildings has become inefficient and cumbersome.

If you are in the process of planning new facilities, ask yourself these questions: “Do our facilities reflect who we are as a church?”, “How adaptable are our buildings going to be if we change the way we are doing things?” and “How expensive is it going to be to make the buildings adapt to change?”  As they say, change is one thing you can count on. Are you planning for it?

For additional thoughts on how your space reflects your brand, check out Chad McMillan’s post on Business Black Box at http://www.insideblackbox.com/?p=797