Why bars are fun and church is not pt. 1

or why you should remove 1/2 the pews in your church

There have been many Sunday mornings where I wonder, ‘why is this place so different than the bar I was in last night?’ Throughout my 20s I frequently found myself hanging out with friends my age at the bars, and then would go to church by myself in the morning. I felt comfortable inviting my friends to bars, but for some reason I didn’t feel the same way about the churches that I so loved.

There’s quite a bit to unpack here, and so I’m going to be doing a few posts on this. Today I’m going to cover seating. Next I’ll cover lighting, then conversation, then momentum. But today, I’m going to make the plea that (most) churches remove half of their pews.

I know that’s a ridiculous thing to say. That’s why I said it. If I suggested churches remove 10% of their pews, that’s mildly interesting but doesn’t really spark conversation. Removing half the pews is wild.

So why would I make such a silly claim?

Seating matters in churches. If there is no place for new visitors to sit, then they’re going to leave. The vast majority of churches I know have the exact opposite problem, they have far too many spots open. In fact, I would reckon that for the majority of churches I’ve visited there are more open spots than filled. This does two things.

First, open pews signal a lack of interest.

Fifty people in a small room feels exciting, like there’s something going on that everyone wants to be a part of. Fifty people in a church that seats 250 feels like something has gone wrong, and people are not interested. The energy of a place varies radically depending on the number of chairs, and the size of the space. We can’t change the size of most of our churches, but we can change the number of pews (or chairs)

Second, open pews mean people spread out.

This isn’t necessarily bad, we don’t want everyone to feel like they’re in the budget section of a poorly ventilated plane. We do want people to be close enough that they can casually interact. Maybe a kid drops something under the pew, and the retired couple behind them picks it up. Maybe during the peace, a couple greet each other and make small talk about last nights high school football game. Maybe after worship, an elder can invite a new person to the fellowship hour after church. None of these happenstance interactions can occur if everyone is seated far away from each other. They can happen if we’re close to each other though! So maybe we can’t just order up 100 people to fill the pews that we have, but instead we can right-size our worship space to the church body that’s there. I haven’t even touched on how difficult it is to sing together when everyone is far apart, and how joyous and amazing it feels to be a part of a crowd all singing together.

So let’s say you’ve entertained this silly idea so far, and ask the normal follow up question: what would we possibly do with all this extra sacred space? I certainly don’t have all the ideas, but I have a few.

A. An art gallery

With the back half of the pews removed, a church could erect a few free standing white walls that contain art. The walls would provide a space to hang the art, and also provide some separation between the two spaces. It would be a great way to reach out to a local art teacher, or center an art project in the congregation, or lift up artists in the community, or to showcase the variety of amazing Christian art that exists across the whole of Christianity.

B. A play space for kids

If you’ve ever had little ones in church, you know how difficult it is for them to sit still and quiet for an hour. Having a space where kids could move their bodies (along with toys that aren’t super disruptive) would be a boon for young parents. Also, not having this space in the front means there is less pressure on the parents, and less distraction for the congregation. It’s great fun to watch a toddler play with a toy car during the sermon, but I imagine it’s also a bit stressful for the parents to care for their young children with a whole congregation watching.

C. A contemplative space

From my experience, we aren’t very good at contemplative prayer in the US. We like to be action oriented, which means we’re great at building external things, but poor and building up our own faith. I’m also guilty of this. Part of this problem is a lack of space for this contemplative prayer time. It’s easier to dance in a bar because the lights are low, the music is loud, possibly alcohol is involved, and the place is set for that activity. While our worship spaces might be set for worship, they’re not really set for individual prayer. I would love if worship spaces had a space with incenses, and icons, and various bells, a place that feels like it’s set for prayer. Once again, you would probably need some sort of wall to separate this space and make it feel private. Otherwise all that stuff in a large open space loses its power.

I haven’t done any of this stuff, to be clear. It’s just an inkling of an idea. But it excites me, so here we are. May our churches learn from our bars.