What rooms are in my small Baptist church?

rabidstoat
What rooms are in my small Baptist church?

935 / 50,000
Joined: Oct 8, 2006
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Posts: 24
Posted on:
Nov 7, 2007 - 18 31

Okay, not a church goer myself, but I have a small Baptist church (I'm thinking, a congregation of 75-100 people) that some scenes take place in. It's actually been partially destroyed in the Apocalypse but that's irrelevant for my question which is: what rooms are in a small Baptist church?

I'm thinking there's the sanctuary itself, maybe a little foyer leading into it, a church office, and one or two general purpose meeting rooms. Oh, and likely a bathroom. Possibly a little kitchen area. Am I missing anything here?
----------
2006 WINNER: Triptych

catgurl83
Winner!
75,488 / 50,000
Joined: Oct 2, 2004
Location: California
Posts: 6
Posted on:
Nov 7, 2007 - 19 36

In my teens I was a nursery care worker at a Baptist church with about a hundred members. There was the sanctuary, a huge kitchen, a fellowship hall adjoined to the kitchen, a two room nursery, a children's church room, the office which led into the Pastor's private study, a small room where the prayer group met, a choir room, and several bathrooms.

lel

15,322 / 50,000
Joined: Oct 5, 2003
Location: Arizona, USA
Posts: 24
Posted on:
Nov 7, 2007 - 19 57

This is what was in the Baptist church I attended as a youngster, with a congregation of about 20-30. It was located in the Midwestern US:

Upstairs: Chapel seating about 35, three Sunday School rooms.
Downstairs: small kitchen, fellowship area seating about 50-75, set of bathrooms, nursery, two Sunday School rooms, a church office, a foyer with a Sunday School room off to the side, a large baptistry, and a sanctuary that could seat about 75-100.

This is what was in the Baptist church I attended as a teen, with a congregation of about 60-75. It was located in the Southwestern US:

Building 1: foyer, sanctuary (seated up to about 200), church office, library, meeting room, three nursery rooms, set of bathrooms.
Building 2: six Sunday School rooms, a set of bathrooms, a mid-size kitchen, a fellowship hall (large meeting room) that could seat about 100, and two storage closets.

So for a Baptist church with 75-100 people I'd make the church quite a bit bigger than what you have.

babadski

7,441 / 50,000
Joined: Oct 25, 2006
Location: Bellingham, WA
Posts: 18
Posted on:
Nov 7, 2007 - 20 36

I attended a church about that size when I was a child. It had a foyer leading into the Sanctuary. The choir area was behind the stage and behind them was the baptismal font (or whatever it was called). There was an area behind the sanctuary that led to the baptismal font where items were kept for decorating the sanctuary.

The fellowship hall and kitchen were in an area perpendicular to the sanctuary and leading off the back of the sanctuary. The fellowship hall was large, but it had those sliding partitions that you could pull out to break it up into smaller rooms. They used that for the adult sunday school classes. There was another ell off of that wing that was parallel to the Sanctuary. That wing held the nursery which was fairly large, and the Sunday School classrooms (of which, if I remember correctly, were 6 in number).

At the back of that wing, extending out from the fellowship hall wing, was the church offices. This included the front office where the secretary worked, the pastor's office, as well as a meeting room where the church board usually met.

This was a fairly typical set up that I saw in many small churches in the South at the time (about 30-35 years ago).

Xeen
Winner!
67,044 / 50,000
Joined: Oct 1, 2004
Location: Grants Pass, Oregon
Posts: 55
Posted on:
Nov 7, 2007 - 20 54

Don't forget the "Screaming like bloody murder" room for people who bring da baybies. I've heard that those rooms have an intercom sort of thing built into them so that the attending parent can hear the pastor. but this room might not be specifically FOR that... not sure in that area...

----------

http://www.resirem.com -blog!

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow
You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. ~Ray Bradbury

thelemonadebandit

11,694 / 50,000
Joined: Nov 6, 2007
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 47
Posted on:
Nov 7, 2007 - 20 59

those rooms (screaming like bloody murder) are more for the bigger churches from what I've seen, you know, the catholic churches with big steeples and stained-glass windows. For a small, baptist church, I think you pretty much had it at the beginning.

----------

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair; and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

ruth_wedera

8,616 / 50,000
Joined: Oct 28, 2007
Posts: 17
Posted on:
Nov 8, 2007 - 16 10

The church I grew up in was about half again the size you have in mind, and it had one room in the upstairs part of the addition (in the 19th century, the building was all sanctuary) with a sign that called it "The Bawl Room." That was actually used for storage in my time -- I think parents took fussy babies to the nursery instead.

The rest of the upstairs was Sunday School classrooms, which you may or may not want to include -- these rooms were used as a kindergarten during the week, but in a smaller church they might be wasted space. Speaking of storage, we once found 1950s-era curriculum guides in one of the Sunday School bookcases. As a rule, you couldn't throw anything away because you might offend whoever had donated the stuff to the church, even decades later.

You're missing the small room right behind the sanctuary where the choir robes and so on are kept. This doubled as the exit route for people who had just been baptized -- it had a linoleum floor, and was the quickest way to get to the bathroom and into dry clothes. It's also where the choir and the pastor gathered immediately before the worship service, since it led up to the choir loft and the pulpit instead of the main entrance into the sanctuary.

The baptismal font was under the floor in front of the altar. Normally it would be covered over with a carpeted lid, but on baptism days, choir members and liturgists had to be careful to step around the open pool!

There's also the belfry under the steeple, which was just big enough that we had stored a few things there too. It wasn't heated. Some small churches these days get paid to keep a cell phone antenna in there, which I suppose beats having a tower in the neighborhood.

library_geek126
Winner!
50,027 / 50,000
Joined: Oct 2, 2007
Location: Kentwood, Michigan
Posts: 105
Posted on:
Nov 8, 2007 - 21 13

You might also want a small utility room for a water heater, furnace, and things of that nature. You might want a closet for cleaning supplies, although if it's that small of a church, they might just have a designated shelf for cleaning stuff and not a whole room.

----------

"In life there are only two pursuits, love and power, and no man can have both." - Terry Scott Taylor
----------
Inofficial JulMo 2007 - Shady Fey - 50,000 finished July 29th
NaNoWriMo 2007 - Temper, Temper

Home :: About :: Authors :: My NaNoWriMo :: FAQs :: Fun Stuff :: Donation/Store :: Forums :: Our Programs
Privacy Policy :: Terms and Conditions :: Returns Policy

Copyright © 2008 The Office of Letters and Light :: All posted novel excerpts remain copyright their authors.
Powered by Drupal