When fire destroyed the fifty year old sanctuary of First Baptist Church, Lafayette, Louisiana, the church found that they were given a unique opportunity to build a new sanctuary that would be designed around the needs of their current ministy.

The church coined a phrase that guided many of the decisions related to the building. Everyone in the sanctuary should be able “to see, to hear, and it should be invitation friendly.” Seeing and hearing seem so obvious but often take second place due to architectural concerns, budget constraints, or other reasons. And “invitation friendly” was key to completing the mission of this church.

AD was hired to help with the “hearing” part. In an effort to learn about the church, its worship style and overall programming, AD guided the church staff and leadership through an evaluation process that helped prioritize the requirements for the new sanctuary.

It was discovered that the church had always grown faster than the technical systems could keep up. If money was not sufficient to do everything the church wanted to do initially, the most important thing was the infrastructure. The conduit, cabling, and routing necessary to move audio, video, data, and the other signals throughout the building was far more important than buying every piece of equipment on the shopping list. If the building and infrastructure were in place, equipment could easily come and go in the years ahead.

Time was also spent discussing access for equipment, sets, props and people. In the church’s former building, things were constantly going up and down stairs. In the new building, everything comes in at ground level and stays at ground level, or it can fit in an elevator. Both the platform at the front of the room and the seating at the back of the room is at ground level with a slope down to the altar. A loading dock was provided and connects to a large storage area near the platform. The area under the choir loft is reserved for storage of orchestra equipment when it must be moved for special programs. Substantial cost savings for the maintenance department and time savings for volunteers will be seen in the years ahead as a result of these decisions.

Since the church was rebuilding on a limited amount of land in a downtown area, space was evaluated in an effort to make everything fit and to save on construction costs. By locating the media control rooms adjacent to the music rehearsal spaces, the spaces will be used more effectively. The voice over booth doubles as a small rehearsal room. The large choir rehearsal room doubles as a television studio. Cable was also installed in a number of areas that can serve as backdrops for videotaping, including several offices, the church library, a large seminar room, and the main foyer.

Finally, we’ve learned a lot about God’s goodness through this process. What seemed tragic one night four years ago has drawn our church body closer together; it forced us to think about what we do and how we do it; and it allowed us to build a facility for the future. The inconvenience of the interim will soon be forgotten as we move into our new sanctuary in the spring of 2004.