Turning Buildings into Churches

August 4, 2005 by

We’re not exactly a church building blog, but I think this article about churches converting old buildings instead of building new ones is pretty cool. The main motivation is that churches can get a lot more bang for their buck. Spending money wisely is usually a good idea.

But I also love the symbolism of churches taking old, empty buildings that have been discarded by commercial interests and breathing new life into them. You couldn’t ask for a better metaphor.

Post By:

Kevin D. Hendricks


When Kevin isn't busy as the editor of Church Marketing Sucks, he runs his own writing and editing company, Monkey Outta Nowhere. Kevin has been blogging since 1998, runs the hyperlocal site West St. Paul Reader, and has published several books, including 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading, The Stephanies and all of our church communication books.
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5 Responses to “Turning Buildings into Churches”

  • corey
    August 4, 2005

    For the last two years, I’ve been doing work for a church in New Jersey called Renaissance Church. They were able to purchase a century-old opera house and convert it to a state-of-the-art sanctuary for their Sunday services. I understand that there may be financial benefits to purchasing a pre-existing structure and retrofitting it to meet parochial needs… but there’s also something über-hip about meeting for church in a warehouse, abandoned factory, old opera house, etc.- it becomes a little microcosmic allegory to how the gospel makes old things new.


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  • corey
    August 4, 2005

    sorry, I realize that the end of my comment just parroted what Kevin said in the blog post… whoops- I wasn’t listening, I guess I was just waiting to speak…


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  • Wentz
    April 26, 2006

    The link to the article is dead… Can anybody point me to it? Our church is doing this right now…


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  • The Aesthetic Elevator
    August 16, 2006

    Our church is in an old furniture warehouse; people around town now call us the “Bynum furniture church.”
    I do think it was a good use of the building.


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  • Kevin Headings
    April 20, 2007

    May I suggest that the ‘church’ is not a building, but that we are the ‘church’.


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