When you are designing or expanding your church, one of the most important factors to consider is seating for your congregation. An uncomfortable or distracted congregation won’t want to stick around to hear God’s word, and who can blame them? To keep your congregants comfortable and focused, you need to make sure your seating fits their physical needs and aesthetic expectations.

Generally speaking, churches have two options for seating in their sanctuaries: chairs or pews. Each has its pros and cons, so choose what’s right for your congregation.

Comfort

If you’ve ever sat in a church with children and pews, you know: pews can be uncomfortable to sit on! Pews are often simple wooden seats that offer little or no comfort to your parishioners. Even if you have splurged and gotten pews with some kind of padding, it may not be enough for older members of your congregation or young children. Chairs, on the other hand, can offer better padding than benches and can be much more comfortable than traditional benches.

Appearance

There is no denying it: a church with rows of pews is a beautiful sight to behold. Everyone is perfectly lined up, everyone leaning towards the altar, it’s picturesque. However, chairs can also be a beautiful addition to a church, especially if you match your décor with the padding on your chairs. Chairs these days come in a wide variety of colors and patterns to complement the aesthetics of almost any church.

Traditional or modern?

If your church is going for a specific feel, you’ll want to choose a specific style of seating that matches that. The pews echo a more traditional, or even rustic, feel of a church. Aesthetically, they are generally considered the best option for cathedrals and other classical spaces. Chairs give a church a more modern feel than this, and can be considered distracting if used in the wrong space.

flexibility

Pews are generally immobile once they have been installed in your church sanctuary. They are huge and heavy, and no one wants to go to the effort of moving them. This is wonderful if your congregation uses the worship space solely for traditional worship. No need to worry that something is not in the right place for Sunday services! However, this may be less than ideal if you use the sanctuary for a variety of activities. Chairs offer your church the ability to be very flexible in seating arrangements, moving and adding (or subtracting) seating as needed. This can be very convenient for smaller churches that need flexibility or more modern churches that have a variety of services.