Christian Post Guest Columnist
I remember the first time I went to a mall. Raised in a
small town in the southeastern section of Alabama, I was amazed when I went to
the "big city" mall in Montgomery. All the stores were under one
roof. They were new and shiny. The venture became an adventure for me.
But that was fifty years ago. Things have changed. Things
have changed significantly.
As Jeff Jordan notes in The Atlantic Cities, the future
of American shopping malls is tenuous.
The Plight of the American Shopping Mall
As Jordan says in his prescient article, the trends are
gloomy for malls. Sales are down. Numbers of malls have closed or they are on
the precipice of closing. Vacancy rates are up. Jordan notes "there are
more than 200 malls with over 250,000 square feet that have vacancy rates of 35
percent or higher, a clear marker for shopping center distress." He
further provides data that indicate over 10 percent of malls will close in the
next five years.
Of course, the declaration of the death of American malls
is an overstatement or, at the very least, a premature obituary. Many malls will
remain open; a number will remain viable and growing. Still, the trends are
unmistakable and unavoidable. Only those who deny reality will fail to note the
implications of this issue.
The Relationship to Church Facilities
Is it then fair to suggest any relationship between the
decline of the malls and the future of the church buildings? I think so. To be
sure, most malls are adversely affected by the growth of online shopping. There
are not too many brick and mortar stores that don't feel the impact of the
Internet.
But there is more to the decline of the malls than the
rise of the digital world. The Boomer generation has been the generation of
bigness and sprawl. Their parents, in the aftermath of World War II, moved
numbers of them to the new and massive suburbia. Large malls would soon follow.
Most large megachurch buildings were constructed primarily for the favor of the
Boomers.
But the children of the Boomers, Generation X and, even
more, the Millennials, have been pushing for more intimacy and smallness. They
triggered the unprecedented growth of Starbucks. They have been the key movers
in social media, which has fostered a new online intimacy.
Among the Christian Millennials there is a desire for
greater intimacy in church. They are in many ways triggering a new small group
revolution. And though they may not have an explicit aversion to large church
facilities, neither are they attracted to them.
The Future Size of Church Facilities
As there will still be large malls twenty years from now,
so will there be large church facilities whose worship centers can accommodate
2,000 or more in one service. But you will also see a discernible difference in
megachurches in ten or twenty years. Fewer of these large churches will have
large facilities. More will have smaller worship centers and multiple venues,
many with multiple gathering times and days.
The trend in smaller facilities will not be limited to
just the largest of churches. Churches of all sizes will "downsize."
Or, as an alternative, they will not build larger the first moment the capacity
feels challenged in their worship services.
A Boomer church leader looks at a small building and
limited acreage and sees challenges. He sees the limitations of size and space.
A Millennial leader looks at the same building and acreage and sees
opportunity. He immediately thinks multiple venues, multiple services, and
multiple days.
It will be fascinating to watch these trends unfold.
Large malls will yield to online shopping and smaller and more intimate
shopping villages. And large church buildings will yield to smaller church
buildings and other venues that aren't "churchy" at all. The result
may be that we will see our church facilities actually utilized more; greater
facility stewardship could result. After all, only college football stadiums
are utilized less than church facilities.
Dr. Thom Rainer is president and CEO of
LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention
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