Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, CA) recently shared with The Christian Post six physical factors about church buildings that affect a worship service. Here is a summary:

1. Lighting 
   Lighting has a profound effect on people’s moods. Inadequate lighting dampens the spirit of a service. Shadows across a speaker’s face reduce the impact of any message.
2. Sound 
   It doesn’t matter how persuasive the message is if people can’t hear it in a pleasing manner. A tinny, fuzzy sound system can undermine the most gifted musician and incapacitate the most profound preacher. And nothing can destroy a holy moment faster than a loud blast of feedback!
3. Seating 
   Both the comfort and the arrangement of your seating dramatically affect the mood of any service. The mind can only absorb what the seat can endure! Uncomfortable seating is a distraction that the Devil loves to use.
4. Temperature 
   The temperature can destroy the best planned service in a matter of minutes! When people are too hot or too cold they simply stop participating in a service. They mentally check-out and start hoping for everything to end quickly.
5. Clean, Safe Nurseries 
   If you want to reach young families, you’ve got to have sanitized and safe nurseries. There should be no mop-buckets in the corners and the toys should be cleaned each week.
6. Clean Restrooms 
   Visitors may forget your sermon but the memory of a foul smelling restroom lingers on … and on … and on! You can tell a lot about the morale of a church by checking out the quality of the restrooms.

Without question environment and atmospherics influence people’s behavior. But it is also worth noting that the quality of environment needed for a church to effectively reach someone is largely dependent on the average quality of life to which that person is accustomed.

In third world countries, people rarely are bothered by the quality of a sound system, and just having one is impressive enough. When I went to Africa, hot temperatures were expected. When I lived in Peru, strange restroom smells were considered normal. In these circumstances, less than ideal environments did not affect the impact of ministry because they were expected.

It comes down to the expectations of the people you want to reach. Although the United States has its share of poor areas, most U.S. churches are trying to reach people with high expectations compared to the rest of the world. And if your church is trying to reach the affluent who are accustomed to posh restrooms, there is a good chance that anything less than posh will turn them off.

The bottom line is: 
Know who you are trying to reach and create an environment one step above their expectations. 

Shaffer, Kent http://churchrelevance.com/category/ministry/first-impressions 6/25/08.