Toolbox For Faith

My wife and I asked for a table for two. The host invited us to follow him and led us to the middle of the restaurant. As we walked I looked ahead and saw what appeared to be a full section. There was one table open, but it had about two inches between it and the tables on either side which were filled with people. Based on my observation, I assumed our host was taking us to another section. When we reached that empty table, however, the host stopped, grabbed the edge of the table, pulled it out into the middle of the aisle, so my wife could sit down and then pushed it back in so I could sit down. From my perspective as a resident of southwest Virginia, the section was full. To him, as a resident of New York City, the section was only full when every possible seat was occupied.

Somewhere along the line, I learned that there was a difference between the maximum seating capacity of a sanctuary and the maximum comfortable seating capacity of a sanctuary. Quite simply, if your sanctuary is 80% full, then you have reached your maximum comfortable seating capacity and the chances of continued growth in that service are significantly reduced. I have also learned that in rural areas, where people are used to having more space, you may reach your comfortable seating capacity when 60% of the sanctuary is full. Once a sanctuary feels full, then regular worshipers are less likely to invite someone else to church and new worshipers are more likely to feel uncomfortable when the arrive.

At St. Michael, I have been operating on the assumption that our sanctuary would be full at 80% of capacity, but based on my experience in New York, I am beginning to wonder if our community might be just rural enough that we are reaching our comfortable seating capacity at our 11 AM service even though the building is only filled to 70% of capacity. I need to look at this more closely over the next few months to see if this theory is true, but my experience in New York has reminded me that just because a seat is unoccupied doesn’t mean there are comfortable seats left in a sanctuary.