St. Stephen Lutheran Church

St. Stephen Lutheran Church is located in a rapidly growing area of Liberty, Missouri. While the church building had not seen significant changes in decades, membership had grown and space was at a premium. SFS Architecture was selected to evaluate a previous master plan with programming completed by a building committee. Alternate options for the master plan revolved around two conceptual layouts of the worship space. One solution was to build a temporary worship space that would ultimately become the narthex for a future worship space. The second option was to construct a worship space that would be expandable in the future. Both options were to be constructed to an initial 330-seat worship space configuration, with future plans to expand it to a 560-seat facility. 

The building committee embraced the concept of constructing an expandable worship space in lieu of building a temporary worship space that would require future construction. The committee also decided to build out the future space requirements for the expanded worship space as current classrooms.

A new worship space was created to meet both current and future space requirements. Rather than overbuild the worship space at this time, classrooms were located in space that would eventually convert to worship when the capacity is needed. The new worship space takes advantage of the site’s hilltop views with expansive windows for natural light and a vertical tower element visible for miles. The natural light, which bathes the worship space, creates an environment that is continually in animation through the changing position of the sun.