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Church growth is a spiritual blessing, but it can also be a spatial curse. The desire to design and build a new church that will address every space need you can afford is very powerful. But before you abandon your existing building in favor of a brand new one, consider some of the ideas here to get more from what you've already got.

"When you want more room at home, you clean out the closets and rearrange the furniture—why not do the same thing at church?" asks architect Bert Luper of Worship Concepts. "Churches are often pack rats. I have never seen a church with excess storage. They always fill it up no matter how much they have." To help keep clutter under control, Luper offers this rule of thumb: if it hasn't been used in a year—toss it.

Rearranging the furniture helps you to see things differently. Moving the platform or recessed baptistery might not be an option in the sanctuary, but changing the seating arrangement or moving the piano and organ can redirect traffic patterns and ease cramped spaces. Other areas of the church, such as lobbies or crowded classrooms, could also benefit from reorganizing. "You can't create space," says Luper, "but you can utilize it more efficiently."

For those things you need to keep, consider offsite storage. New storage companies will even drop a container in your parking lot. After you fill and lock it, they take it away and store it for you. It's a great way to get those once-a-year items, like your Christmas decorations, out of the way until they're needed.

Centralizing supplies will also help. Instead of a system where each person stores their own supplies, consider storing them in a central location. An even better idea might be to combine storage and office equipment into a single resource room. That way all your office supplies and copy, fax, postage, and folding machines are centrally and efficiently located.

Reduce the number of conference rooms you have. Trim three sporadically used conference rooms down to a single carefully scheduled room and you will immediately have two new spaces to use for classrooms or offices. Another idea is to follow the lead of secular businesses. Take a large single office and use office dividers to create workstations for two or three people.

If you're still tight on office space, architect Christopher Kidd of Christopher Kidd & Associates suggests checking out freestanding office buildings. To make more room for their administrative staff, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia moved their missions department to an office building adjacent to their parking lot. By moving an entire administration wing to another building, you can often free up enough space to make several classrooms or even a multipurpose space.

"When reviewing the options for a church we always begin by trying to efficiently reuse all of the existing space before adding any new space," says architect William E. Chegwidden of CDH Partners. He often finds that the most innovative way of reusing existing space comes from asking the church to rethink their ministry goals. By taking a fresh look, they see things differently.

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