Notes from the Editor

by Carol Padgett

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Dynamic facilities for effective ministries -- it's what nearly every church wants. But how do you translate that? The architects, builders, professionals and church staff we've recently interviewed are telling us that the modern church is "not cloistered and mysterious." In contrast, it is open and inviting.

We also hear that churches are getting smaller. Pastors and other church leaders, as well as those who specialize in building houses of worship, have learned lessons about the economies of scale that many businesses and homeowners have learned following the recession: Bigger is not always better. Functionality that helps convey a message, on the other hand, is what churches and those who create them seem to be striving for.

In WFM's Sept/Oct (WFX Dallas) issue, you will see a number of different types of churches mentioned throughout our stories -- small, medium and fairly large -- occupying various types of real estate. St. Paul United Methodist Church in that issue, for example, is a modest-sized church in terms of square footage, right in the middle of the busy Dallas Arts District. Dallas's Watermark Community Church, also in the issue and in contrast, features an immense renovated office tower on a campus of multiplying structures. Both fit into the fabric of an existing urban or suburban landscape. The difference is that one claimed its spot before Dallas was Dallas and the other made itself comfortable and accessible in an office building.

Following this recession -- or in the midst of it, depending on how you view current economic conditions -- it seems the church has learned to both make do with what "is" to reach people for Christ (renovating existing space where warranted, like St. Paul UMC) and envisioning something better for a space in the community that could otherwise sit vacant like an eyesore, as Watermark did.

It makes me wonder, what is your church facility's story? How did it come to be a connection space to tell your surrounding community about God? Was your building always a church, or was it once a retail store or maybe even a bowling alley? It amazes me that God, almost like He does when a bird builds a nest in the neon letter of a sky-high retail sign, seems to help church leaders conduct their business in the most unlikely of spaces if that's where the need lives.

Email us your stories or post a comment here. Or if you're attending this year's WFX, tell them to our staff at the show in Dallas. I hope to see you there and hear some of your stories face-to-face.

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