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How to choose between church auditorium chairs, stackers and pews for your worship is important, consider safety, comfort, flexibility and seating capacity before you make a decision. Before that, let’s think about it, why do some churches, worship centers, and synagogues have pews while others have upholstered auditorium chairs or stackers? Why do some benches have kneeling stools and others don’t?
Wikipedia nicely summarizes the answer to this question as follows:
“The first backless pews began to appear in English churches in the 13th century, initially placed against the church walls. Over time they were brought to the center of the church, first as movable furniture and later Affixed to the floor. Wooden benches replaced stone benches in the 14th century and became common in the 15th century.
Prior to the Protestant Reformation, churches generally did not have fixed pews. The rise of preaching as a central act of Christian reverence, especially among Protestants, made pews a standard item of church furniture.
In some churches, pews are installed at the congregation’s expense and are their private property; the church itself has no common public pews. In these churches, certificates of pews record the ownership of the church and are used to transfer. Under this method, the pews were originally purchased from the church by their owners, and the proceeds from the purchase of the pews went towards the cost of building the church. When benches are privately owned, their owners sometimes seal them up in lockable bench boxes, and the ownership of benches is sometimes disputed.
Some parts of the church are believed to be preferable to others because they offer a better view of liturgical events and may even make a family or individual more conspicuous or visible to their neighbors during these liturgical events. In the late Middle Ages and early modern times, church attendance was a canonically obligatory obligation, so the allocation of church pews provided a public image of the social hierarchy of the entire parish. At this time, many benches were passed down from generation to generation. Alternatively, more prestigious seats were often expected by wealthy congregants to reward contributions to the church’s material upkeep. Disputes over the ownership of benches are not uncommon.
The pews were usually made of wood and were arranged in rows facing the altar in the nave of the church. A path is usually left down the middle of the pews to allow for processions; some churches have pew-style cushion seats and kneelers or footstools, although more traditional, conservative churches usually have neither cushions nor footstools. Many pews have slots behind them for Bibles, prayer books, choirs, or other church literature. Sometimes the church will also set up equipment in certain rows, allowing the hearing impaired to use headphones to listen to the sermon. In many churches, pews are fixed to the floor, or to a wooden platform.
In traditional churches where people kneel in public prayer, kneeling stools are often provided in front of the church pews so that church members can kneel on them rather than on the floor. These kneeling stools are long in nature, usually running longitudinally parallel to the bench seat. These kneeling stools are probably around 15cm wide and maybe 10-15cm above the floor, but the dimensions can vary widely. Fixed-attached kneeling stools are usually intended to be rotated, or removed when the congregation is not kneeling.
Today, the situation is completely different. The appearance of the church pews gathered, returning harmony and equality between believers to the temples. From the middle of the 19th century, private church pews were abandoned and little by little pews began to be made available to everyone. They even began adding kneelers and stands for the songbook and Bible to make them practical and comfortable for church visitors.
Minimalism and functionality prevail in the design of contemporary church pews. The quality of the material and workmanship, as well as the accessories, remain and are constantly improving. That’s why upholstered chairs appeared as a modern alternative to church pews. They are easier and more practical, allowing you to create space in churches when necessary and rebuild seating for more guests when necessary. In short, they are flexible.
Like art, culture, crafts and indeed everything that society produces, church seats are a kind of reflection of humanity. It has been adapted and improved over the years.
When selecting chairs for your church, it’s important to make sure you get the best chairs that fit your budget and that will suit your needs both aesthetically and functionally. Whether you’re designing a new church to build from scratch or remodeling an existing space, start by calculating your facility’s church seating capacity.
Consider safety and comfort
While you may be able to safely fit 20 chairs in a row, that doesn’t mean it would be comfortable for people to sit so close together. It can be tempting to try to fit as many people into your space as possible, but overcrowding can negatively affect your members. You may limit access to members with disabilities, and decrease the comfort level of attendees. Believe it or not, comfort is one of the most important things to consider when thinking about church design because that will directly affect how people feel about coming to church and inviting others to join them.
Sitting on upholstered church seats makes people more comfortable compared with when they are sitting on wooden pews. Foam of all Leadcom Seating’s church auditorium chairs are made of raw material from German company BASF, providing highly supportive back and seat cushions, to make sure every prayer is comfortable even sitting for several hours.
To discover different models of worship auditorium chairs, please click here.
Improved flexibility
How to make the seating in the church more adaptable to the actual needs of the venue is very important. A church with stairs or a sloping floor requires different seating than a church with a flat floor. On flat ground, pews, auditorium chairs, or stacked chairs are all available, but in churches with steps or slopes, auditorium chairs are the correct choice. The auditorium chairs can be fixed to the ground through ground screws and cannot be moved, making them safer. In addition, auditorium chairs can also be used in different shapes of venues, such as curved, fan-shaped church areas to make every inch of your church space count. If you want a more flexible layout, but don’t want to buy stackable church chairs, then auditorium chairs with a moveable base is a good option.
Besides high site adaptability, church auditorium chairs are not fitted with imaginable options to make the praying experience more complete. Bible box, book net, pen holder, and rear back writing tables are available. Below is Leadcom Seating worship auditorium seating Elizabeth with a wooden outerback and seat, it has a foldable writing table and a bible box on the rear back, which greatly increases convenience. Check out more options for worship seating accessories here.
Determine seating capacity
If the minimum amount of space is seven square feet per person, then you should expect to accommodate about twice the minimum. Plan to have 10 to 20 square feet per person, depending on the size of your space. Assuming that your church does not aspire to reach a capacity greater than approximately 300 people, you can anticipate that it will have the capacity for around 300 people.
Consider using upholstered chairs instead of pews
Upholstered church chairs allow you to more easily outline the seating capacity of your space since one chair will always accommodate only one person while benches vary greatly. Plus, chairs take up less space so you can actually fit more people into your church. Finally, chairs give you flexibility as you can easily rearrange the space and change seating for services and events.
Consider storage space
In addition to making sure you have enough storage space, be sure to buy chairs and dollies that are easy to move and store – if you want a flexible layout and a limited budget. This will save you a lot of frustration in the future! Buy chairs that stack easily without damaging the frame or cushions. And buy dollies that allow you to stack chairs efficiently so the cart fits through doorways. Besides upholstered church chairs, we also provide highly durable church stackable chairs, One of the best sellers is Alfie LS-306, to learn more, please click here.
