“What furniture will your church use by far the most over the years?” When I ask that question to pastors and church leaders and church building committees, the answer always comes back quite quickly and very consistently! They respond, “Our Church Chairs!” And they are overwhelmingly correct. The reality is that when people come to church, they do like to sit most of the time!
Your church could likely get by without classroom tables for years. And the absence of a pulpit or lectern will be tolerated by your congregation. A church can adjust to not having coat racks or nursery cribs or kneelers or a host of other furniture items. But rare is the church that could ever adjust to not having church chairs or some other seating arrangement.
Church chairs are a critical furnishing for churches today. With that being the case, it makes sense for your church to purchase a church chair that is comfortable, is of significant quality, and is one that fits the environment of your worship area. At least that seems to make great sense! But we too often hear of churches that have purchased church chairs that are not comfortable, are not those of significant quality, and do not fit the environment of their worship area. So why did they purchase these church chairs? Primarily because it was either marketed well online, or the price was very low, or a combination of both of these factors. And so they spend the next years sitting on these inferior church chairs.
But let’s take a moment to really consider how affordable a quality church chair actually is. We’ll work somewhat here in generalities to help simplify the process. There are substandard church chairs that lack comfort, quality and décor, but cost in the $30.00 a chair range. And there are comfortable, quality and attractive church chairs that cost in the $40.00 a chair range. (Again, we are just using ballpark numbers for illustration). A church may decide to purchase the $30.00 chair versus the $40.00 chair to save dollars. Such purchases happen all the time.
But the $40.00 quality church chair may last your church 20 years while at the same time providing great comfort and attractiveness. Assuming a 20 year period of use that equals 1040 Sundays over those 20 years. This means that to obtain a quality church chair versus an inferior church chair, will actually cost your church less than a penny a Sunday per chair! I daresay there would be few church members that would not be willing to fund a comfortable seat for themselves for less than a penny a Sunday!
We could also add that the $30.00 church chair may in fact only last your congregation a few years. For our illustration purposes though, let’s say they last your church ten years. Your church would then have to purchase new church chairs for the next ten years. A second purchase of church chairs definitely makes the $40.00 church chair a wise and prudent investment.
At Church Furniture Partner, our ministry now has access to almost every church chair available today. And the reality is we have those we favor and those we do not. We’d love to assist your church in acquiring quality church chairs versus inferior church chairs. Please contact us for more information.