What do a church-planning consultant, a pastor, and an elderly church member with a bad back all have in common? All three recommended chairs for their church sanctuary seating. While the question sounds like the opening line of a bad joke, the reality is many church leaders are choosing stacking chairs as their seat of choice, and their reasons for doing so are as unique as their churches. For the saint with a bad back, chairs are more comfortable. For the pastor, the flexibility of chairs allows his church to fit in a few more rows of seating for Easter Sunday and Christmas services. And for the church-planning consultant, the option of chairs allowed him to help a debt-laden church postpone a costly new building program by increasing the seats available in the current sanctuary.

"Conservatively speaking, the number of churches using stackable seating is up 175 percent from five years ago," says Bruce Prock, marketing manager at Bertolini Inc. His company commissioned independent marketing surveys of Protestant churches in 1997 and in 2001. These surveys suggest that 20 to 25 percent of all churches now use chairs in the sanctuary.

This is a huge increase from the 1960s, when most churches had pews. The trend began in the 1980s when a growing number of churches opted to build multi-purpose structures that could serve as sanctuaries on Sunday and as gymnasiums or family-life centers during the week. The popularity of these buildings created a demand for flexible seating that could be used for Sunday services, but also could be removed for basketball games on Monday and then reconfigured for concerts on Friday night. Chairs became the seat of choice for multi-purpose buildings, and demand for their use in these informal sanctuaries has grown proportionately. Phil Setsma, president of ChurchPlaza, estimates that approximately 800-1000 new churches each year choose to furnish their sanctuaries with chairs.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, even churches with traditional sanctuaries began to replace pews with chairs. It's estimated there are currently more than one million sanctuary chairs purchased annually.

Flex Appeal
Cost and flexibility are the main reasons churches give for choosing stackable chairs over other seating possibilities. Kevin Massey, minister of administration and music at First Baptist Church, Port Charlotte, Florida, wanted to refurbish his church's 22-year-old pews, but found it would be cheaper to replace them with new chairs. Costs generally range from $25 to $45 per chair, but increase with optional accessories. Manufacturers recommend churches budget $30 to $35 per chair.

Once the chairs were in place at First Baptist, flexibility became the greatest benefit. "Our church puts on a Broadway-style show each year, and we need to pull out rows of pews in the front in order to fit in the orchestra. It used to take ten guys to move one pew, but now anyone can help move chairs," says Massey. When recent remodeling required Massey to replace the sprinkler system and hang chandeliers from the church's 23-foot ceilings, workers had to bring a small "car" with a lift attached into the sanctuary. The new chairs were moved easily to accommodate the process.

"More and more churches are using stackable seating because of the flexibility and value it provides," adds Prock of Bertolini. "The ability to turn a sanctuary into a theater, a banquet hall, or even an interactive art exhibit opens up the possibilities for creative outreach to a church's local community. That's right in line with the church being effective in the 21st century."

"All the chairs we design are stackable, whether they're for the sanctuary, fellowship hall, banquet hall, auditorium, or classroom," says Roland Reitz, vice president of sales for Chairtex. "We include a dolly with every order of 100 chairs because we know churches are buying them instead of pews for their flexibility, and our job is to make this flexibility as convenient as possible." Most other manufacturers also include a dolly or other chair-transport system if you purchase a minimum number of chairs.

If your chairs will be moved and stacked frequently, look for quality chairs where bumpers or special paint methods—such as powder coating—have been applied to protect the legs. You may want to visit a church that has the chair(s) you are considering so you can see how it feels to stack and unstack a load of eight or ten chairs. "It is very important to select a chair that is easily stacked and unstacked if you plan to do this often," says Setsma.

Sitting Pretty
While price and flexibility are important to churches, members just want a comfortable place to sit—and chair manufacturers understand this.

"We believe comfort is very important and that people will be more attentive if they're not squirming around trying to get comfortable," says Michael Sammons, vice president of marketing and sales at Church Chair Industries. "When chairs are ganged (hooked) together in rows, the seat and back cushions touch and you actually can sit on the joint between the chairs and be as comfortable as sitting on the chair itself."

Uniflex Church Furnishings, Inc., in Muenster, Texas offers a "Hideaway Ganging" feature. The plate swings away when not in use, so there are no protruding objects when being used next to an aisle or as a stand-alone chair.

Most companies offer optional convenience items, such as bookracks, book pockets, card pockets, cup holders, communion cup holders, and theater arms that can be inserted or removed. Other options are available, such as narrow chairs (18") or wide chairs (21"). Some companies also provide pew ends and kneelers. Finally, most companies offer choices in the thickness of the foam found on the seat and on the back of the chair. (In an interesting hybrid, Flexible Seating Systems of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, offers the "FlexPew." As the name implies, FlexPew combines comfort and portability in a multiple-seating unit.)

A majority of manufacturers have a large selection of colors to choose from, with maroons, reds, and purples the most popular choice for sanctuaries. If your order is large enough, a few companies even will create a custom-colored chair to match your church décor. However, custom chairs may take longer, so plan for 8 to 12 weeks or longer from order to delivery.

If you need chairs quickly, several companies keep a small inventory of finished chairs they can deliver immediately. Others can produce chairs rapidly from a limited number of in-stock fabrics and finishes. Mill Brook Industries, one such company, offers a quick-ship program if you choose from what they already have in inventory. Charles Hobbs, president of Mill Brook Industries, recalls receiving a phone call at the beginning of one week from a church that needed 100 chairs by that Friday. "On Wednesday the pastor showed up with a trailer and we loaded up the chairs!" says Hobbs.

Just "Sit on It!"
Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but comfort can only be experienced. Most companies will send you a sample chair if you're considering a purchase of 100 or more. "Get samples and kick them, beat them, sit on them; find out what each chair is made of," recommends Prock of Bertolini.

Experiencing the quality firsthand is important, because price alone cannot tell the whole story. Manufacturers can sell a chair cheaper by reducing their profit, or by cutting costs on fabric or foam. Using a cheaper fabric reduces fabric costs, which normally run from $2.50 to $5 per chair. With a close inspection, you may be able to distinguish inferior fabrics from those of quality. However, the foam used in a chair often is hidden from the consumer. Even if you were to cut open the chairs and examine them, unless you can do compression tests or observe the products over several years, it would be difficult to distinguish good quality foam from poor quality foam. It is only after foam has deteriorated after a year or two of use that you'll know. To avoid this problem, make sure you get the chair's specifications in writing so you easily can compare it with others.

The best way to compare chairs is also perhaps the easiest. Sit on them! Just like Goldilocks, who tried out chairs that were "too hard" or "too soft" before she found one that was "just right," Hobbs recommends finding a chair somewhere in the middle of your comfort range. "Sometimes cheaper foams can feel harder, so you want foam with a medium feel. You want it a little firm, but not too firm," he says.

First Baptist's Kevin Massey picked out seven different chairs for his church and then asked each manufacturer to send him a sample in his color preference. Once he received them, he did a little in-house testing. "I had people with chronic back pain or who are uncomfortable all the time sit to their heart's content in all the chairs and then tell me what they thought about the comfort level." Based on those results, two chairs emerged as the most comfortable. He then compared the chairs' construction and warranty before making a final decision.

So How Do Chairs Stack Up?
You may be wondering how chairs stack up against the traditional pew.

"Chairs cost less than pews or theater seats," says Setsma of ChurchPlaza, which sells all three.

Comparing longevity, wooden pews obviously will outlast chairs. However, if your pews are cushioned, the life of those cushions is similar to the life of a chair cushion. After approximately the same number of years, fabric and foam will need to be replaced whether you own chairs or pews.

If you're considering a move from pews to chairs, Setsma warns that members may oppose the change for aesthetic reasons. "Chairs are comfortable, but dramatically change the look and feel of the space," he says. Both take up the same space and both seat approximately the same amount of people. Chairs, like pews, can be configured to provide continuous seating rather than individual spaces. Churches that own such configurations report that sitting "on the crack" between chairs can be quite comfortable.

Ultimately, churches must decide whether they want something bolted down in the sanctuary or something with the flexibility to move, as that's perhaps the biggest difference between chairs and pews.

Of course, if you ask manufacturers how chairs stack up, they'll tell you they stack eight to ten to a dolly!

Jennifer Schuchmann (jschuchmann@bellsouth.net) is a management consultant and writer in the Atlanta area.