Discover then Design - Peace Lutheran Church
- berga47
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
When God is moving in a ministry, the natural instinct is to expand in every way possible. For Peace Lutheran Church (PLC) in Grand Island, Nebraska, that moment came when its weekday preschool ministry experienced a 200% growth in a short time. With classrooms bustling, the church of 500 members commissioned a plan to add more children’s education space—certain it was the right next step.
But then a new perspective changed everything.
Hitting Pause to Rethink the Vision
When Senior Pastor Terry Brandenburg arrived, he sensed that more classrooms might not be the whole answer. “Really, none of us could get very excited about it,” Brandenburg recalls. After two years of stalled progress, doubts about the expansion’s scope and direction deepened.
That’s when Todd Brown, founder of Brown Church Development Group, called. Two years earlier, Brown’s team had interviewed for the project but was passed over for a local architect. Now, God’s timing opened a new door.
A Ministry-First Approach
Brown’s team took a different route. Instead of starting with blueprints, they started with questions: What is your ministry’s real growth barrier? What are you trying to accomplish?
A ministry consultant studied PLC’s operations and discovered an important truth: while the preschool was thriving, overall church membership wasn’t growing—and existing education spaces weren’t even fully used.
The real obstacles were less obvious:
The building’s exterior felt unwelcoming.
Guests struggled to navigate the facility.
Worship spaces didn’t connect with the church’s contemporary services.
There was little relational space for fellowship.
“Instead of asking, ‘what do you want?’ we identified what they needed,” Brown says.
Designing for Connection and Flexibility
The solution? A bold shift from the original plan:
A welcoming new entrance leading into a spacious lobby with a coffee bar.
A large gathering area to encourage relationship-building.
An expanded, multiuse Christian Life Center that doubles as a contemporary worship space and gym, seating up to 543.
Improved wayfinding throughout the church building.
Additional classrooms to support future growth.
“It was a total package,” Brandenburg says. “They had the creative vision and the construction expertise.”
Building Together
Brown Church Development Group’s willingness to coordinate volunteers reduced costs and built ownership. PLC pastors with engineering backgrounds dedicated part of their time to the project, while Laborers for Christ contributed valuable “sweat equity.”
A Facility That Fuels Ministry
Completed in 2013, the transformation did more than refresh a building—it reignited ministry. “The gathering space has been a real blessing. So much relationship building happens there,” Brandenburg shares.
When the church dedicated the building, Brandenburg chose the theme “Opening New Doors”—a perfect reflection of what happened. The new church design didn’t just solve space issues; it created opportunities for ministry to flourish in ways the congregation hadn’t imagined.
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