Architectural Outlook: 2007 — Youth Facilities
February 14th, 2007 by Jon
Church Business recently published an article about this year’s 7 Biggest Trends for Churches. They list the seven trends as:
- Youth Facilities Still Top the Trends List
- Multifunction, Multipurpose, Multi-Venue, Multi-Site
- Churches Must Act Like Good Neighbors
- Remodeling, Renovation On The Rise
- Traditional Design Elements Make a Comeback
- Higher Land and Construction Costs
- Building Community With Design
The experts they interviewed had some good comments and ideas, but still miss some key concepts. We’ll take a look at one or two of these trends each day, starting with youth facilities.
Bill Chegwidden says:
“When you’re in middle school, you want an activity to do when you come to church. You want to throw a basketball or something. And when you’re in high school, you want somebody to sit down and talk to. It’s about a relationship.”
What Bill mentions is important, but he’s forgetting that today’s youth is much more socially concious than previous generations. It’s not just about playing basketball, or sitting around talking. Many youth want to serve the poor, shelter the homeless, clean up the Environment, and deal with social crisis. Similarly, today’s youth are more technological than in years past. They don’t just want to throw a basketball around, they want to have slam dunk contests using the latest game consoles with a big screen tv.
David Evans is right on when he says:
”There’s recognition among churchs that they have to have state-of-the-art, high-quality children’s spaces. They have to say to parents, ‘We care about your kids’. A lot of kids are bringing their parents to church, so those spaces are big.”
Just remember, the message is “We care about your kids”, not “we care about the spaces your kids inhabit at church”. Children like to play, and children like to make spaces their own. Make sure your space is rugged enough to handle that.
Tomorrow we’ll be looking at Trend 2: Multifunction, Multipurpose, Multi-Venue, Multi-Site.
Technorati Tags: Architects, Ministry, TheMinistryCafe, God, church, growth, expansion, worship, planning, building, location, ChurchBusiness, Trends, 2007, Youth, Facility
[…] Yesterday, we examined Trend 1: Youth Facilties from 7 Biggest Trends for Churches by Church Business. Today, we’ll be looking at Trend 2: Multifunction, Multipurpose, Multi-Venue, Multi-Site […]