Themed Environments
As published in Worship Facilities Magazine, Aug/Sep 2005
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Everyone living in popular culture comes across themed environments practically daily. At the shopping mall the children's play area may sport a loud jungle motif. At your local Caribou Coffee the décor evokes a rustic camping lodge. And if you dine at Hard Rock Café you'll see, hear and feel the rock 'n roll vibe all around you.
The whole idea is to create a fun and memorable environment that transports patrons to another world; one that draws them back time and again. So it's no wonder that themed environments have found their way into churches -- particularly into youth ministries -- where kids are flocking in record numbers as a result.
Sunday School with Pizzazz
Largely thanks to themed environments in kids' areas at churches, gone are the days when parents had to drag kids out of the house for Sunday School. Companies, like the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Harvestime, create themed environments where, for example, two-level drop-offs are used for Sunday School.
According to Brad Oaster, Harvestime's "chief evangelist of really big ideas" (yes, that's his actual title), in a bi-level drop-off youngsters might jump into the mouth of a rhinoceros slide on the second floor and slide down to their classroom on the first floor. "Themed areas like these help get the parents to church on time," Oaster explains, "because the [rhino slide] closes five minutes before the service starts and the kids don't want to miss the ride."
Bruce Barry, president and founder of Oldsmar, Florida-based Bruce Barry's Wacky World Studios, where themed environments are created to help reach kids for Christ, says the "wow factor" produced by themed environments is easy to understand.
"[Themed environments] take a child or young adult someplace they've never been," Barry explains. The pages of a Bible story come to life in the Sunday school setting when theming is done well, and children love the adventure.
Barry notes the enjoyment of the experience that theming helps create leads to steep increases in attendance. "We see 35-percent to 120-percent increases in attendance after themed environments are put into place," he says.
And he adds, "The themed environments get kids involved in church and the parents follow." What Barry describes is the perfect scenario for many churches where new members are often couples in the 28- to 35-year-old age range who have young children.
Among the churches that Wacky World Studios themes, Barry often hears parents remark, "Why didn't they do that when I was a kid? I would've come more often."
There are always detractors who will say that church should be a somber affair and that theming is too garish in such a setting. Yet Greg L. Barron, CEO and president of G.L. Barron Co. Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, says theming is nothing more than a design approach that involves the human senses.
"Ministry is about people. People of this generation are affected by their senses more than any other time. Utilizing sound, taste, smell and sight increases a ministry's opportunity to connect and affect people for Christ," Barron says.
And Barron adds that author George Barna, in his latest book entitled "Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions," says spiritual identity is largely set in place by the age of 18. Barron believes most churches utilizing themed environments understand their strongest opportunity to affect people for Christ may occur before age 18, which may help account for the growing popularity of themed environments in churches today.
Out of a Whale's Mouth
Wacky World Studios has concocted themed environments where children literally slide out of a whale's mouth to land at their Sunday school classroom.
Wacky World creates themed environments in churches throughout the United States, such as Mariner's Church in Newport Beach, California, where it created a "2,000 Leagues under the Sea" environment complete with a submarine hanging from the ceiling.
As Barry says, "The kids out there are used to Universal Studios and Warner Brothers. They're used to a lot. So you have to be creative [to keep their attention]."
Yet Barry notes, once you have their attention, word of mouth is the best advertising for churches. The children will tell their friends about their church and Sunday school and the attendance grows by leaps and bounds.
Oaster recently visited Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana, where a clever farm theme separates age groups in the children's Sunday school area. According to Oaster, a "seeds" area is where infants and toddlers are cared for. A "construction zone" for preschoolers lets the older children learn, mingle and play.
"It's a Disneyland-like atmosphere and kids can't wait to go," Oaster says of Granger's farm-themed environment.
Sometimes themed environments in children's or youth ministry can become so popular that the result is parent/child traffic jams in the hallways before and after services. Oaster's Harvestime also specializes in creating "launch zones" for churches to help alleviate congestion at Sunday school drop off and pick up.
"A launch zone is where parents can drop off their kids for Sunday school," Oaster says. Harvestime has created launch zones where children can be dropped off upstairs after parents print their child's name label from a touch-screen computer. The children then shoot down a themed slide (the whale's mouth or rhino slide, for example) to their classroom on the floor below. Parents then pick their children up on the lower level following services.
While theming has advantages for churches in terms of increasing attendance of families with young children, are there times when theming simply doesn't work? According to Barry, the answer is yes.
As Barry says, "I often get requests from churches to recreate or duplicate their town in a nursery area, for example." Barry talks church personnel out of spending their money on creating usual environments or duplicates of familiar settings. "A themed environment must spark the imagination and take you someplace you've never been before," he emphasizes.
Costs to Theme
Oaster says the cost of theming an environment for church is well worth it because it shows parents that church staff is willing to make church exciting for kids.
"Children's ministry is the engine driving church growth today," Oaster says. And he says that his company has noticed particularly explosive growth when church clients move into a new building with a themed environment.
After a building is built, Oaster reports that most themed projects cost approximately $40 to $50 per square foot. "It's worth the money," he adds, "because the kids matter and the churches are striving for excellence."
Barron notes that the costs can vary widely. "Some churches of larger ministries have hired designers from Disney and Universal Studios. Most, however, are cost effective and use materials which are readily available on a regional basis," he says.
Barry says Wacky World works with churches of all sizes on theming projects. Even if a church has just 50 members, Barry says his company has something for them to help incorporate elements of theming.
"We have a room in a tube. It's a wallpaper format that people can use to decorate a small nursery area, for example, and get a themed effect for very little money," Barry says.
Whether for large or small nurseries or elaborate two-floor Sunday school settings, themed environments can help make church-time fun and memorable. And when themed environments deliver smiles on little faces, happy children and parents return again and again on a regular basis -- just what every church strives for.
QUICK-LINKS
G.L. Barron Co. Inc.
SERVICE: Themed enviroments
QUICK-LINK: (817) 231-8181
URL: www.glbarron.org
Wacky World Studios
SERVICE: Themed environments
QUICK-LINK: (813) 818-8277
URL: www.wackyworld.tv
Harvestime
SERVICE: Strategic planning, including theming
QUICK-LINK: (719) 532-0780
URL: www.harvestime.com
SIDEBAR
Theming to Enhance Overall Identity
Themed environments at churches are often much more than a fun, outlandish play area in the church nursery. As Harvestime's Brad Oaster says, a subtle overall theme -- or corporate brand -- can help give a church a sense of professionalism and stability.
"Some churches are always changing and chasing the latest thing," Oaster says. But his company helps churches do strategic planning to decide who they are up front, who they want to be, and how to get there.
Oaster uses Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, as an example of a church that has presented a subtle themed look overall, or a corporate brand.
"There's a particular look on the signage in Willow Creek's parking lot," Oaster says. "That look is carried throughout the building. You'll see elements of the same design on the railing on the second floor balcony."
When cohesive elements of a theme, subtly done, are carried throughout an entire church project, members and visitors get a sense of professionalism from the campus. "The environment raises the level of expectation and adds a sense of stability to the organization," Oaster says.