When your church engages in internal discussions about facility expansion or renovation, your first conversations should not be about design, construction methods, how much square footage to add, or how many seats are needed in the sanctuary to accommodate growth. This might feel like a natural starting point for a conversation on church architecture, but […]

Intentionally building a program for individuals with special needs provides your church an opportunity to share the Gospel with individuals of varying abilities and allows them to fully grow in their faith. It also lets the families of those with special needs feel supported, knowing their loved ones feel comfortable and confident in their environment, […]

We’ve been enjoying the last six weeks of Barna’s ChurchPulse Weekly podcast series, “Making Space,” leading up to some great new research we’re partnering with Barna on called, Making Space for Formation. Aspen’s then VP of Design & Integrated Services and now President, Derek DeGroot, spent some time reflecting on each episode in his blog […]

When my wife Sonya and I were raising our daughter Anna, there were three “must-haves” that needed to be in place when looking for a church – high-quality Bible teaching, relevant music, and a GREAT children’s program.  After all, Sonya and I could “feed ourselves” if needed.  Anna, however, must be in an environment which […]

Guest post by Karl Vaters and Aspen Group The church is not dying. It’s in fine shape. Jesus said He’d build it, and He is. Relentlessly and beautifully. But individual congregations, denominations, and ideologies? Now that’s another story. While the church of Jesus around the world continues to move forward, chasing away the darkness with […]

Pastors who are focused on church planting and multiplying often focus on leadership and ministry as the key aspects of launching new churches. But one critical piece is almost always missing from the multiplication plan—a facility strategy. Visionary leaders often believe that space doesn’t matter, buildings cost too much, and facilities slow down the multiplication […]

Guest post by Karl Vaters and Aspen Group The church is not dying. It’s in fine shape. Jesus said He’d build it, and He is. Relentlessly and beautifully. But individual congregations, denominations, and ideologies? Now that’s another story. While the church of Jesus around the world continues to move forward, chasing away the darkness with […]

Recent data shows that the Gen Z generation (people born roughly between 1997 to 2010) spends an average of seven hours a day on their phone, but 79% of Gen Z people say they’re lonely. In a reality that’s become increasingly digital, there is still a strong need for physical community. In a previous edition […]

How to reach and engage men has long been a major topic of discussion for church leaders. Recently, the Aspen Group wrote an incredible article on this topic from a facilities perspective.  If you are not familiar with Aspen, you should be.  Aspen Group is a ministry-focused design, build, furnish firm providing integrated solutions for new church facilities, […]

When my wife Sonya and I were raising our daughter Anna, there were three “must-haves” that needed to be in place when looking for a church – high-quality Bible teaching, relevant music, and a GREAT children’s program.  After all, Sonya and I could “feed ourselves” if needed.  Anna, however, must be in an environment which […]

My friends at Aspen Group had a blast celebrating their recent annual Design Week!  Their team focused on five unique projects our team has worked on in different regions around the country. If you missed it, not to worry—here’s a quick recap: Day One: First Baptist Church of Greensburg We partnered with First Baptist Church […]

The built environment creates a language that is hidden to most. The places we visit and the spaces we inhabit shape us each day, whether we realize it or not. In our work designing and building church spaces at Aspen Group, we continually see a causal relationship between the spaces we create and the culture […]