Five Questions Every Church Should Ask Before Opening Their Doors

The enthusiasm is real — and it should be.

The idea of a church building becoming a hub of community life, generating revenue while serving the neighborhood, is genuinely exciting. I've seen it transform congregations. I've also seen poorly planned pilots create conflict, drain resources, and leave leadership teams wishing they'd never started.

The difference, almost always, comes down to the quality of the discernment process. These five questions won't guarantee success, but they'll help your team move from excitement to clarity — and from clarity to a decision you can actually stand behind.

Question 1: Why are we doing this?

This sounds obvious. It isn't.

"Because we need the revenue" is a reason, but it's not a sufficient one. Coworking spaces that are launched purely as financial rescue operations tend to struggle — they lack the missional energy that makes a church-based coworking space distinctive, and they're often undercapitalized because the congregation is already in financial distress.

"Because we want to serve the neighborhood" is better, but it needs to be tested. Which neighborhood? Which neighbors? What do you actually know about the people who would use your space, and what they need?

The strongest answers to "why" combine financial sustainability with genuine missional clarity. Something like: "We believe our building is an underused resource, and we want to put it to work serving the creative and entrepreneurial community in our neighborhood — while generating the revenue we need to sustain our ministry."

That's a "why" you can build a pilot around.

Question 2: Who owns this?

Every successful coworking pilot I've seen has had a clear internal champion — someone within the congregation who is genuinely passionate about the project and willing to invest significant time and energy in making it work.

This person doesn't need to be a coworking expert. They need to be a trusted member of the community who can navigate internal politics, build relationships with members, and keep the project moving when enthusiasm fades (and it will, temporarily).

If you can't identify that person before you launch, you're not ready to launch.

Question 3: What does success look like in year one?

Vague goals produce vague results.

Before you open, your leadership team should agree on specific, measurable outcomes for the first twelve months. How many members do you need to break even? What's your target occupancy rate? What does the relationship between coworking members and the congregation look like — are they separate communities, or is there intentional integration?

These conversations are uncomfortable because they force you to confront the possibility of failure. But they're essential. A pilot without clear success metrics can't be evaluated honestly, which means you can't learn from it — and you can't make a good decision about whether to continue, adjust, or stop.

Question 4: What are we not willing to compromise?

Every congregation has non-negotiables. The question is whether you've named them explicitly.

Some congregations are clear that the sanctuary is off-limits for coworking use. Others are comfortable with members working in the sanctuary during the week but not during worship preparation times. Some have strong feelings about alcohol, about the kinds of businesses they'll host, about whether members need to share the congregation's values.

None of these positions is inherently right or wrong. But they need to be articulated before you open, not negotiated in the moment when a member asks if they can host a wine-tasting event in your fellowship hall.

The clearer you are about your non-negotiables, the easier it is to design a coworking model that respects them — and to have honest conversations with prospective members about what your space is and isn't.

Question 5: How will we know when to stop?

This is the question no one wants to ask, and it's the most important one.

Not every pilot should become a permanent program. Some buildings aren't right for coworking. Some congregations discover that the operational burden is greater than they anticipated. Some pilots generate revenue but create conflict that outweighs the financial benefit.

Before you launch, agree on the conditions under which you would stop. What would have to be true — financially, relationally, missionally — for you to conclude that this isn't working? And who has the authority to make that call?

Having this conversation in advance doesn't mean you're planning to fail. It means you're planning to learn. And it protects your congregation from the trap of continuing a program that isn't working because no one wants to be the person who says so.

Moving from Questions to Decision

These five questions aren't a checklist. They're an invitation to a deeper conversation — one that your leadership team needs to have together, honestly, before you commit to a pilot.

In my experience, congregations that do this work well tend to launch later than they originally planned, and to launch better. They have clearer goals, stronger internal alignment, and a more realistic picture of what they're getting into.

That's not a bad trade.

Ready to go deeper? The Church Space Readiness Assessment walks your team through eight dimensions of readiness and gives you a detailed profile of where you stand.