What’s a church without its people? What are the people if they can’t see or are uncomfortable? We asked Les Lundberg, worship sales manager for Irwin Seating Co., and Anthony Cler, sales and marketing director for Chairs 4 Worship, to give us their take on some important seating considerations. Their responses are paraphrased below.

Q. What’s the most important thing you ask church leaders to consider when it comes to choosing a seating arrangement?

Lundberg: The most important consideration, especially in an existing space, is the way different-sized chairs impact the sight lines. The width of chairs is really the most important variable, and there are a number of components involved. If a church is looking for capacity, I’m going to recommend using a much smaller chair. If the church is looking for comfort, they’re going to want a much wider chair. It’s not only the width, but also how the sizes are arranged within the rows.

Cler: The most important consideration is how many seats they’re looking to have and how many seats they’re looking to fill. One factor is whether they’re looking at pews or theater seats or chairs, but regardless of the seating style, they still have certain ideas in mind about how many people they want to seat. It comes down to how many people they need to get into the space. The reason we ask that question is because sometimes we recommend wider chairs, and wider chairs result in fewer chairs, but they also usually result in fuller occupancy because people are more comfortable and not as close together. We want churches to be happy with their chairs – to feel like they made the right decision with their purchase. If that means they buy fewer chairs because they go with a wider model to get the result they want, we’re happy with that.

Q. When a sanctuary serves as a multiuse space, what types of chairs and arrangements typically work best?

Lundberg: If it’s a true multipurpose space, you’d need stacked chairs or telescopic seating.

Cler: It depends on what the needs are and what the space is being used for other than worship. It’s a combination of comfort, space and budget, but it boils down to what the primary use is.

Q. What is the most unique space you’ve had to work with, and how did you go about making it work?

Lundberg: One of the more unique spaces was a sports arena that we converted to a church – Lakewood in Houston. We basically went into what was once where the NBA Houston Rockets played, and transformed it to the place Joel Osteen preaches. We worked very closely with the architects and designers to pour the floor in a way that made sense, both to obtain great sight lines and also to look good.

Cler: We’ve had a lot of unique spaces. There are gyms and grocery stores. It’s actually becoming relatively common to see a shopping center used as a church, especially with a Kmart or an old grocery store where the market is no longer viable because of the rise in new shopping centers. The church often has offices in a neighboring store, and then in the big grocery store, they’ve gone in and gutted it. A lot of times, those folks have future plans that are grand, and the store facility serves as a convenient temporary worship space for a few years.

Q. What is the biggest pitfall you see church leaders step into when considering seating options?

Lundberg: There is a tendency to focus on price, which is not all that well served. I think what happens is: someone brings a sample chair in; it looks wonderful sitting in their lobby; and it’s the cheapest one they looked at, so that’s what they buy. Then, 10 or 15 years down the road, we’re replacing when we shouldn’t be because they didn’t really look at the durability component. Churches need to find a seating company that will do the engineering and work hand in hand with the architect to develop a system that makes sense for their needs.

Cler: They wait. They don’t involve seating in the early planning stages, even if it’s an existing space. Usually the seating is one of the last things they tackle, and that’s why the market for inexpensive in-stock chairs is such a big market – most people have spent their budget and they’re ready to be done with it. They kind of forgot they needed chairs. It really is one of those things where they’ve been struggling with construction and everything else so long, that when they finally get to the point where they can see the light at the end of the tunnel, they realize they haven’t even thought about chairs.

Q. How can churches work with the space they have to make sure every seat has a good view?

Lundberg: If they’re working with an architect, make sure the architect does a sight study, which means the architect will take a look at the sight lines for each row and consider how high the platform is. If it’s an existing space, the chair manufacturer should be able to do a sight line study. It’s really important.

Cler: You definitely have to incorporate it into the planning. That’s why it’s so important to deal with the seating early. We’ve worked with some churches for more than a year. Other customers call on Monday and wonder if we can ship by Friday.