If you are new to venue hire or even just thinking about setting it up, you will probably feel a bit of tension. On one hand, you want to protect your building as a place of worship. On the other, you can see the need to support your church financially and serve your community well. It can feel like a pull in two different directions, and it is completely normal to feel unsure about how to manage it.
A lot of the fear comes from a sense of losing control. People worry about what might happen in their space, or when the building will actually be available, or whether hire will start to crowd out the life of the church. I want to offer some simple guidance that will help you hold the balance with confidence, because this is such an important area.
If venue hire starts to take over your mission or pushes aside your primary ministries, then something has drifted. So the real question is: how do we build the right foundations from the start?
Venue hire should always sit under worship and ministry. It should strengthen the church, not compete with it.
1. Get your calendar in order
The most important first step is to get your calendar into a healthy rhythm. Many church staff juggle several roles at once. There is always more to do, and it is very easy to feel time-poor. That pressure means things do not always get booked in on time or planned far enough ahead. You end up reacting to whatever is happening that week rather than steering the whole picture.
If you want venue hire to work, you need structure. Set aside time to map out your term, your year, and your regular church commitments. Look honestly at the weeks and ask: where do we need space for ministry, and where are the genuine openings for hire? If your building is only used for worship on Sundays, you may decide to list it for hire Monday to Friday. If your weeks feel more fluid, you might intentionally block out set days for community or ministry, such as keeping Tuesdays and Wednesdays for church groups and offering hire on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.
You have permission to take ownership of your calendar. It is absolutely fine to draw these boundaries.
If your church’s rhythm is more sporadic, plan at least three months ahead. At the start of January, look ahead to the spring term. At the start of July, map out winter. Even if you do not know the precise details, block out the spaces you know you will (or might!) need. Build margin. Give yourself room to breathe. You will likely never reach 100 per cent occupancy, so you will always have more flexibility than you expect.
2. Build habits that support you
Good calendars only work when the whole team uses them. Make it part of your weekly meeting to check what is coming up. Ask your administrator to look at the next month and highlight anything that needs attention. Bring these routines into your staff rhythm so that venue hire feels integrated rather than squeezed in.
3. Be honest about your space’s capabilities
Storage is one of the biggest challenges for churches when managing space. If you can invest in proper storage, do. If you cannot, be upfront about it. It is completely fine to say you cannot offer early deliveries or out-of-hours access because you have nowhere to store anything! People will always ask for more than their booking allows, but you do not have to bend every time. Protect the things you need to protect.
Sometimes we keep doing things the way we always have, even if the season has changed. Ask whether there is a different way to work.
At the same time, stay open to conversation with your teams. Sometimes we keep doing things the way we always have, even if the season has changed. Ask whether there is a different way to work that still honours ministry but creates room for sustainable hire. These conversations can feel delicate but when they are rooted in shared values it can help create momentum.
4. Tie your decisions to values people care about
If a ministry team feels like they are being pushed aside for venue hire, it will never land well. But if they can see that the income will fund new resources, support their work, improve their environment, or make something possible that they genuinely care about, their openness shifts. Clarity builds trust.
Tell the story of why the church is doing this and how it connects to the vision.
This also helps when talking with the congregation. Many people feel uneasy at first because they do not see the whole picture. It can look like the church is acting like a business rather than a place of worship. This is where grounding yourself in the bible is so important. Think about the parable of the talents and the call to steward what we have. Look at Ezra and Nehemiah, who both received resources from kings to build what God called them to build. Remember the Israelites leaving Egypt carrying gold because God knew what they would need in the years ahead. When you hold all of that together, good stewardship becomes part of discipleship rather than a compromise.
5. You can choose what you host
You have more freedom than you think when it comes to choosing what you do and do not host. Churches are allowed to decline events that do not sit comfortably with their values. The Equality Act includes specific exemptions for religious organisations, and charity law recognises that faith-based charities can act in line with their religious purpose. This means you can set clear boundaries and still be fully compliant. Many churches simply include a short clause in their hire policy that allows them to decline events that conflict with their ethos.
When you do need to say no, keep the conversation simple and kind. You never need to explain in detail. You can say you are unavailable for that hire, or that the event is not the right fit for your space, and wish them well. Most people are looking at several venues and will simply move on.
Balancing mission and income is absolutely possible.
You do not have to choose between worship and hire. With a good calendar, boundaries, team communication, and confidence in your theological grounding, the two can sit together with surprising ease. Your building can host ministry, community life, and paid events without losing its heart. When it is done with intention, venue hire becomes part of the way you steward your space for the long term.
If you are exploring this for your own church and want some support shaping the right rhythm, I would be very happy to help.
Warmly,
Charlotte