Engaging with those who hire your halls

Many churches over the years have rented out their halls to outside agencies. From slimming clubs to blood donors, the number of organisations that use church premises is vast.

Additional Revenue

The primary reason many churches allow other organisations to use their premises is often to create an additional revenue stream for the church; an approach that has frequently been moderately successful. While the amount of income raised might be relatively small, it has been welcome and, more importantly, it has been regular.  

When offerings are small and the church buildings are large (and need some repair), creating this revenue stream is an obvious move to make. There are even churches that have taken this to another level, redeveloping their buildings to a standard suitable for conferences, business meetings and the like.

This development with one eye on providing attractive facilities has proved to be a lucrative income stream and has enabled many churches to invest in more effective ministry. Centre Managers aren’t common place yet, but they are becoming key members of many church staff teams. In many ways this can only be regarded as a good thing.  

Serving the Community

But another reason to open the church’s doors to other groups has been to provide a service to the community. When you don’t have a large congregation, but you have a large building it makes sense to invite others from the community to share your facilities. Often the hope is that in doing so the church will still have the appearance of being at the heart of the community.

The danger with this approach is that appearances can be deceptive. The building can be a hive of activity that gives a false impression. This can lead the church to believe that they are engaged with the community when in reality that could not be further from the truth.

Just because an agency uses a church building does not mean that they have any contact with the church, except maybe the bookings secretary. What is intended to communicate service to the community can appear to those who book as simply a way to make money.

Recently I was speaking with a church centre manager. I asked him if he ever went into the Weight Watchers class that was taking place as I entered the building. His response was, “No fear! All those women - it’s scary!”

His comment makes the point powerfully. We can fail to see the opportunity and capitalise upon it. It is precisely because “all those women” were in his church building that he, or someone else from the church, should attend and be known as a member of the church.

Join the Groups

There are two ways to do this. The first is to encourage church members to join the groups that use the building. The second is to serve those who attend. Instead of simply hiring out and letting them in, maybe we ought to think in terms of premium service.

Be the Best

Not only should our public buildings be the best maintained, best resourced in town, but the kitchens and the toilets should the cleanest.

Many churches have caught on to this.  Their attention to detail is awesome. Some churches have fresh flowers every day in the entrance hall. The notice boards are always up to date and relevant to those who use the building. The toilets have nice soap in the dispensers. They smell nice. The coffee is good quality. It smells nice! The biscuits are good quality and arranged well on the plates.

Everything speaks of care. Care for the buildings and care for the people who use them.      

Aim to Serve

Whilst this is important we need also to think about putting people in positions where they are served by credible, caring church people. Maybe there could be someone to greet our guests and someone to make and serve the coffee. They should be someone with a friendly face and a warm smile.

Someone once said people join a church for many reasons, but they only stay for one – they feel loved. If that is true, then to start with a servant heart has got to be great advert for what you do at others times of the week (like Sunday mornings!).

All of these are first steps. We all know when going to an interview how to make a good impression. When people come into our church buildings and encounter us as Christians - we are on show.

People will decide what the church is like, whether it is relevant or not, whether it is a place for them initially on the basis of these small things. We then need to ask ourselves what ‘first impression’ our church is making to the people who are already in the building:

Last Updated 16 July 2009