By Dave Milam
You’ve only got about 10 minutes.
According to Greg Atkinson, founder of the First Impressions Conference, guests who visit your church decide if they’ll return in the first 10 minutes of their visit.
For this reason, the lobby may be the most critical environment in your building for reaching the lost and welcoming guests. Your church lobby deserves ruthless evaluation through the critical eye of a newcomer.
Even if you feel your lobby needs an appointment with a wrecking ball, there are some things you can do now to leverage what God has entrusted to your care.
Here are 10 design secrets to help you take your church lobby to the next level.
1. Clear the clutter
If you’re like most churches, you may have more junk in your lobby than you care to admit.
Remove anything superfluous and eliminate everything that doesn’t reflect the heart of your mission or strategically move people toward taking the next step.
Here are a few ideas:
- Replace large welcome desks with people stationed throughout the lobby with iPads for capturing guest information, welcome gift bags, or a simple guest information form.
- Reduce printed collateral and migrate information to your church’s website.
- Dump any and all worn out furniture. And say goodbye to that Ficus tree from 1992. As a matter of fact, if you have any silk plants, kick them to the curb.
2. Right-size your lobby
If walking through your lobby on Sunday morning feels like navigating Walmart on Black Friday, you may need to quickly increase the size of your community space.
You could do a building campaign and add more interior space.
Or, you can think outside the box and invest in the front porch for some low-cost square footage. Just add outdoor furniture, some market lights, and a little pre-function music, and you’ve just expanded your lobby.
For most places that have decent weather for at least seven months out of the year, outdoor lobbies are doable.
If your lobby is too big, shrink it. Invest in a little pipe and drape to quickly shrink any oversized space. Then search for a more permanent solution when funds allow.
3. Create community connectors
Every lobby should have designated space for people to hang out and for relationships to organically form.
Here are a few tips to develop these spaces:
- When you pick the furniture, remember commercial grade is usually worth the extra cost. Otherwise, the pieces might not survive the next middle school lock-in.
- Always purchase more chairs than sofas. For the record, the biggest sofa you’ll ever need to get is a three-seater.
- Aim for a simple style, and your design choices will have a little more longevity.
- If you’re developing a coffee shop environment, be sure to vary the heights of the table tops.
4. Remove the clogs
Evaluate the traffic patterns of people in your lobby and note where the natural flow of people clogs. Significant blockages occur in major arteries anytime something causes people to stop: the coffee bar, the kids’ check-in area, or wherever the pastor happens to be standing on a given Sunday.
Differentiate the major traffic arteries from the places you actually want people to linger and build community. Then, work to eliminate clogs from the major arteries and dangle a few carrots—like seating or a coffee bar—where you actually want people to hang out and gather.
5. Point the way
Have you ever been on a road trip with a driver who refused to stop for restroom breaks? During the next fill-up stop, passengers jump out of the car and race into the gas station, quickly scanning the gas station for signage pointing the way to restroom relief.
For your first-time guests, maybe it’s not the restroom they are craving. Perhaps they are looking for a seamless hand-off of four children to the kids’ ministry area. Or maybe they’re craving a warm cup of coffee.
Your guests should be able to navigate your building without the help of a volunteer. If they can’t, take a critical look at your directional signs and wayfinding.
6. Put coffee everywhere
You don’t have to build a coffee bar that serves custom chai lattes to warm up the lobby. There’s actually a growing trend of lobbies spreading out the goods with several small stations instead of one big one.
And it’s not just that kick of caffeine that makes coffee a valuable addition to any lobby. Scientific studies have proven that when guests hold a hot drink, they are significantly more likely to see the people and environment as warm and welcoming.
7. Check the lighting
It’s surprising how a change in lighting impacts a space.
I’m not talking about switching every tungsten bulb to LED. I’m talking about switching out that ’70s chandelier for something in a more current style. Sometimes, just updating the fixtures is enough.
8. Update your colors
When your local paint store offers 63 shades of the color white, it doesn’t take long to realize that picking the perfect color can be tricky.
On top of that, a ton of variables can impact the tone of the color, including finish, light, and neighboring color choices. If your church has overdosed on beige, the palette you choose for the lobby will immediately update the space.
Use a professional when choosing your colors and finishes. If you have a decorating committee, suggest that they consult with a local interior designer.
9. Add personality with graphics
Art can add personality to a space and redirect your eye from the places that aren’t as flattering.
Don’t just pick up an 8×10 framed art piece. Supersize your graphics and print a giant photo from one of your events. Or, grab some stock photography to spice up your hallway—no text necessary.
Unless you have a designer’s eye, it might be smart to go with high contrast black and white images—especially if you’re planning to mount several photos that have competing color palettes.
10. Hire a professional
It’s hard to know when to spend money to hire a professional and when to recruit someone from your congregation who seems to have an eye for design.
Believe it or not, recruiting that volunteer hobbyist to help redesign your lobby may cost more money long term than hiring a professional from the beginning.
There’s a lot at stake every week when guests walk in your door. You’ve only got about 10 minutes to make the right impression. Get started now and don’t wait to make your lobby an environment that helps newcomers stick.
Dave Milam
Dave is vice president of strategic design at Visioneering Studios, a team of nationally licensed architects and general contractors.