October 1, 2026
On most Sundays, I meet a guest long before they ever hear the sermon. They arrive in the parking lot. They look for a door. They scan the lobby. In those first five minutes, your campus is already preaching.
The question is not “Does our facility communicate?” The question is “What is it saying about the gospel and about the people who walk through it?”
Scripture tells us to “welcome one another, just as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God” (Romans 15:7). Long before someone sits in a pew or a chair, they are quietly asking, “Am I truly welcomed here, or merely tolerated?”
Our communities have changed. Our buildings often do not.
The United States Census Bureau recently reported that fewer than half of households in 2025 were married couple households. Nearly three in ten households were one person living alone, and more than half of adults ages 18 to 24 still lived in a parent’s home.
At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 29% of adults, roughly 70 million people, live with some type of functional disability. Among adults 65 and older, that share is more than 40%.
In other words, on any given Sunday, you are likely to welcome:
The typical “family of four” is no longer the only story walking through the door. Most pastors feel this reality every week. Yet few have a simple way to evaluate how their facilities are serving real people. A recent Lifeway Research report found that only 52% of Protestant pastors say they have an intentional discipleship plan, only 30% use specific ways to measure discipleship, and only 29% regularly assess spiritual growth in their churches.
If we rarely evaluate discipleship, we almost never evaluate how our buildings help or hinder it.
Listening to your building on purpose.
When I walk a campus with a pastor, we do not start with blueprints or budgets. We start with people. I will often say something like, “Today you are not you. You are a first-time guest. Let us find out what our building says to you.”
From there, we walk one common path together:
At each stop, we ask three simple questions for a specific type of guest:
Over time, this became a practical tool that any pastor can use with a small team, even in a rural or smaller church setting. We designed five “facility walk lenses” that each fit on a front and back page, you can put on a clipboard.
Each lens gives a short missional snapshot, a simple guest persona, and tailored questions for the same seven waypoints. Every participant carries one lens, stays in that perspective, and quietly takes notes as you walk. What this looks like in practice Here is one way to use this with your leaders:
You are still in the discovery phase. This is not a complaint session about the building, nor is it a spending plan. It is a way to listen carefully so that any future changes connect directly to disciple-making rather than personal taste.
Why this matters for renewal
True discipleship says that people are the mission field, not programs. If that is true, then the first steps a guest takes on your campus are part of your path of disciple-making, not just logistics:
Your building cannot make disciples. Only the Spirit of God can do that through the Word and the people of God. Yet your facility can either remove barriers or quietly build them.
A simple next step
If you would like a ready-to-use set of these five facilities walk lenses and a short leader guide that explains how to walk your building with a team, we would be glad to share them with you. Email pdunn@gabaptist.org and we will connect you to this self-guided resource.
Gather a few leaders. Take an honest walk. Listen to what your building is saying.
Then ask the Lord how your campus can better serve the people he is already sending to your parking lot every week.
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Dr. PJ Dunn is the Senior Consultant for Revitalization of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. He can be reached at pdunn@gabaptist.org.
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