Traditional or contemporary? Small, formal foyer or large, casual lobby? New construction or renovation? Those are just a few of the decisions churches face when entering a building or remodeling project.

Form, function and economics have influenced significant shifts in church architecture the past two decades.

As church practices changed and churches approached ministry differently, the facilities themselves began to reflect those changes, according to Gary Nicholson, director of LifeWay Architecture.

"Churches also are trying to get more ministry out of their dollars," says Nicholson. "That applies to facilities as well." But Nicholson says church building trends are more than a reflection of the financial times, since many of today's trends began before the recession of the 2000s.

"It's more a matter of stewardship," says Nicholson. "Churches have a responsibility to make the best use of the dollars they spend, whether it's in construction, or any other area of ministry."

If your church is considering new construction or renovating an existing facility, here are five trends to consider.

Designing for context
You wouldn't build the same church building in Portland, Ore., you would build in Portland, Maine, advises Nicholson. "Facilities need to fit the context of the community around the church as well as align with where you are going as a church."

LifeWay helped design a space for Grace Chapel in Franklin, Tenn. The exterior of the facility has a meetinghouse look with barn-like features that reflect the popular horse country surrounding the church.

The other day, I overheard a guy say that Starbucks was "the greatest drug dealer in the United States." Being a guilty party to that sort of "drug dealing," I'll recuse myself from discussing the merits of such a charge.

But what if I told you that the internet "is the greatest drug dealer in the United States?"

A growing body of research supports such an assertion as it relates to a new "narcotic": internet pornography. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that in 2008 there were 1.9 million cocaine users. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, there are an estimated 2 million heroin users in the United States, with some 600,000 to 800,000 considered hardcore addicts. Compare these numbers to the 40 million regular users of online pornography in America.

Neurological research has revealed that the effect of internet pornography on the human brain is just as potent—if not more so—than addictive chemical substances such as cocaine or heroin. In a statement before Congress, Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, physicist, and former Fellow in Psychiatry at Yale, cautioned:

With the advent of the computer, the delivery system for this addictive stimulus [internet pornography] has become nearly resistance-free. It is as though we have devised a form of heroin 100 times more powerful than before, usable in the privacy of one's own home and injected directly to the brain through the eyes. It's now available in unlimited supply via a self-replicating distribution network, glorified as art and protected by the Constitution.

Though pornography, in one form or another, has been around for most of human history, its content and the way people access and consume it have drastically changed in the past few decades with the advent of the internet and related technologies.