"It's easier to grow a church by having quality children's programs"

More church designs focus on children

GREG GARRISON News staff writer
Noah and his ark are definitely in the building.
When fast-growing churches start construction projects, one of their first priorities is adding educational space for children. These days, that often means adding bright artwork of Noah, the ark and animals, but also making children's church more technologically savvy and specialized.

Ric Callahan, who supervises age-group ministries at Hunter Street Baptist in Hoover, notes that Valleydale Church, Westwood Baptist Church in Alabaster and Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Vestavia Hills are among the churches that recently have developed new specialized areas for children.
"Something we all have found is that it's easier to grow a church by having quality children's programs," Callahan said.

The three-story addition just opened by NorthPark Baptist Church features two floors designed for children, with custom artwork by Bruce Barry's Wacky World. Barry also did the artwork for Hunter Street Baptist Church's $7 million children's building that opened in 2003.
"It's really a state of the art children and youth area," said the Rev. Bill Wilks, senior pastor of NorthPark. "We looked at demographic studies. The future is young families with kids. We need to build for what our mission field is."

The NorthPark preschool floor, with a Noah's ark theme, features large animals and park scenes. The children's floor has two large studios with audio-visual equipment for children's church.

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At Hunter Street, children's ministers create a series of sermons tailored for teens; all the children's worship is age-appropriate and meant to groom youngsters in the faith.
Hunter Street offers programs for more 1,000 children from babies to sixth grade every Sunday, and about 500 from seventh grade through high school. When they enter the building, it's like walking into a cartoon world.

Bruce Barry, president of Wacky World Studios, has designed cartoons and theme-style worship rooms for dozens of churches across the country including NorthPark and Hunter Street. He previously designed some of the scenery for the Rainforest Cafe in Orlando and the look of E.T.'s home planet in the E.T. theme ride at Universal Studios.

Now, Barry's business is almost exclusively devoted to designing children's worship space for churches. Barry, whose father was an animator for Disney during the "Three Little Pigs" early animation era, creates the designs, then has teams of artists project the designs onto walls and paint them.

It has created an atmosphere of excitement and set a tone for growth at Hunter Street, Callahan said.
"The week we opened our building, we increased by 100 children," he said.

"It lets families know that our church loves kids, loves families and is willing to invest in them," Callahan said. "Children want to be a part of learning that becomes fun. Kids will bring their parents, families and friends."