There are numerous items which can affect a church’s real capacity, but the most common limiter is parking. The current national average of parking spaces needed for an evangelical church is one space for every 2.2 seats in the Worship Center. As Rick Warren says, “Americans love their cars and bring them to church.” Years ago a family of four would come to church in one automobile. As a result, most zoning and planning ordinances reflect this outdated statistic and only require one parking space for every four seats. Today’s dynamic is very different, making many zoning and planning ordinances that require only one parking space for every four seats obsolete.  Since many families have multiple cars and have different agendas, it is common for one family to bring two or three cars to one service. As a result of this trend, the Southern Baptist Convention recommends that any new facility be built with a 2:1 parking ratio. Most churches today have an inadequate number of parking spaces and, as a result, never fill up their Worship Center. Many times the single best investment a Church can make to growth is adding more parking.The second most common growth limiter is the actual seating capacity in a Worship Center. The rule of thumb is that when a church is 80% full, it’s “full.” At attendance of 80% capacity, either additional worship services need to be added or the capacity of the Worship Center needs to be increased to maintain growth. One reason is that a visitor (who tends to arrive closer to the starting time of the service) coming into a Worship Center that is 80% full has the perception that the sanctuary is full and there is no room for newcomers. Additionally, if a Mom and Dad come with a couple of children in tow, they need to find four seats together. A Worship Center that is 80% full rarely has whole rows left open for late comers.

 Another thing to be said about worship capacity pertains to the seating. Pew manufacturers will give a certain seating count, usually based on 18” per person in a pew. This count is deceptive and unrealistic in light of the habits of most Americans. A typical family moves into the pew and “stakes out their territory” by putting Bibles, coats and other things on the seat beside them. Instead of the 18” per person it becomes more like 28” per person, as people insure their own comfort. Even when the service gets full and an announcement is given from the pulpit for everybody to “slide closer to each other to make room for the guests,” the result is usually little more than a few inches of “butt slide” per person, only opening up a few additional seats. For this reason, pews are an inefficient seating for the Worship Center and not a good indicator of the true seating capacity.

A final note on pews is that they are a rather “user un-friendly” type of seating, especially for people who have not been raised in the church. Churches are one of the few places left in America where strangers are required to sit on benches together. Pews tend to be a lot less comfortable than individual seats specifically designed for worship or theater use.

A third common growth limiter is the location of the children’s space, especially the nursery. The primary issue is not the size of rooms or the number of children that can be accommodated. Many visitors come with little children and need to feel comfortable that they are leaving their children in a place that is easily accessible, orderly and attractive.  Without this type of space for children, visitors may be hesitant to return. For more information on this topic see our article on “Frontline Outreach Spaces.”

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