“We bought the wrong chairs for our church,” the pastor who had just called me lamented.  “We appointed a committee to handle the selection process, and they were far more concerned with size and comfort versus the functionality our use required.  Now every week we deal with the ramifications of their decision!  If I had it to do over again, we would use a different process!  We were just not as informed about the various options available to us to make sure our chair choice aligned with our specific application!”

As I have assisted hundreds of churches over recent years with their church furnishings needs, similar thoughts to those that pastor shared have been far too common.  I believe there are seven main criterion that a church needs to consider during their chair search.  Too often, only a couple of these seven are taken into account, and the result is a purchase that is often regretted over the years following.

My next several posts will explore each of these seven criterion.  We’ll take them one by one and provide insights and recommendations about each.  I’m looking forward to this project as church seating, whether worship seating, classroom seating, cafe seating, or that of several other environments is a substantial part of the life of a church.  People will sit far more in your church than they will stand.  These articles will help the choices of seating we make not to be regretted over the years that follow.