WFX Awards » Solomon Awards » Best Church Design Expansion (801+ seats)

Nominee: Good Shepherd Lutheran Chuch

URL: www.wideopenwest.com
          www.goodshepherd-naperville.org

Size:

Date Completed: 1-Aug-10

Description:

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church has experienced a huge growth curve. But that growth was running into invisible barriers, preventing us from serving our community with excellence.

Our style of worship includes multiple venues hosting simultaneous services, but with differing styles to serve a wide variety of demographics. However, the separate exterior entrances to the venues created an environment where those attending the different venues never saw each other. People came to the service of their choice, and then left. Our sense of community, so critical to the Christian walk, was stunted.

With the help of Aspen Group, a church design-build firm, we renovated and added on to our existing facility to better support the ministry our church is called to do, and bring community back into Good Shepherd Lutheran.

Our new facility has crashed the invisible walls which constrained our ministry down. The congregation now enters and leaves the facility through a common third-space area that is warm and inviting, designed to encourage lingering not only after services, but also during the week. This lobby features huge vista windows that look out over the community as a daily reminder of who we are trying to reach, but also lets our community look in onto the warmth and sense of family we invite them to become a part of.

Within the lobby is a cafe, adding to the coziness of the environment and providing a genuine, successful third-place to enjoy. With soft, comfortable seating, warm granite counters, and a beautiful fireplace, our attendees can truly have those “fireplace chats” that build fellowship. And during the week, the cafe is already attracting unchurched members of the community as a comfortable place to have business meetings or connect with friends. It’s become an amazing tool that brings in the community and introduces them to what church can really be.

The color palettes and treatments have an “edginess” to them, providing an energizing feel without being over the top. People feel energized by what they see, from the unique color palettes to the funky light fixtures. Visitors walk in and say, “I’ve never seen anything like this before