The Quest for Congregational Comfort

When religious leaders think about providing comfort, they’re usually focused on scriptural support and compassion; but for congregation members, comfort may also be a physical consideration. It may not be the message that caused the congregation to be restless. Restlessness may simply be a matter of too little comfort. Providing ultimate comfort is what Church Chair Industries is all about.

For almost 20 years, Church Chair ® has been an innovator in church seating. Church Chair ® was one of the first companies to address the need for flexible seating, and the company soon became the global leader in modular seating design. Church Chair‘s ® flexible, stackable seating products allow congregations to take advantage of multi-purpose room applications, yet provide exceptional seating comfort during worship services.

Designing seating to comfortably serve many objectives and conveniently stack when not in use is not an easy task but it’s one at which Church Chair ® excels. In fact, a patent was issued to the company for its innovative approach to chair design and construction and numerous patents are pending. According to Dean Sammons, Church Chair ® president, product design and testing are a continuous process.

"Comfort is more than a buzz word, it’s key to long-term customer satisfaction," Sammons said. "We probably spend as much time evaluating the seating comfort of our new designs as we do in fabric review and selection. In addition to numerous patent pending steel and wood frame constructions, building in durable comfort is one of the ways Church Chair ® differentiates its seating from competitors.”

Sammons explained, “Comfort begins with the frame design. We found that, to appeal to a range of human heights, the combined seat height and foam thickness should total about 18 inches. Less seat height or seat foam thickness causes uncomfortable pressure no matter the cushioning materials. Chairs with custom dimensions for special needs are easily fabricated to those desiring a custom fit chair.”

Cushioning material selection is also important. Church Chair ® works closely with suppliers to develop flexible polyurethane foam cushioning that provides the proper combination of support and surface COMFORT. Sammons said, “Cushioning used for church seating is different than you’d find in household furniture. To provide seating for comfort over a period of hours requires much firmer foam than would be found in a sofa or upholstered living room chair. In fact, our exclusive cushioning is about three times firmer than that which would be used in the home. We also consider the support factor, which is the relationship of surface firmness to deep down support. Our cushioning has a minimum support factor of 1.9. That means that it takes about twice as much weight to compress the cushioning to half its height than required to compress the cushion surface. That extra amount of deep down support prevents “bottoming out” on the chair frame, eliminating the major cause of congregation discomfort.”

“Sometimes the firmness of our chair cushions surprises customers,” Sammons added. “We recently compared a number of competitors’ chairs with our own. We gathered initial comfort opinions and Church Chair ® products really paid off. Our chair testers reported that Church ChairTM seating was by far the most comfortable after an extended time," Sammons added.

Along with frame design and cushioning selection, attention is also given to chair width. Church Chair ® products range in width from 13 ¾ inches to 24 inches to accommodate a number of possible applications. Sammons said, “Customers often buy the narrower 13 ¾, 15 ¾ or 18 inch products for youth rooms and wider 20 to 24-inch for the main sanctuary, auditorium or special applications.”

In addition to providing exceptionally comfortable seating products, Church Chair Industries has simplified the process of selecting and purchasing seating for religious organizations. By exclusively selling factory-direct, customers have an opportunity to work directly with Church Chair TM experts on seating design and comfort. In fact, some congregations purchasing large numbers of chairs send representatives to the Rome, Georgia factory to work with the company's senior management.

Asked to summarize the best way to be sure of seating comfort, Sammons advised, “It’s a good idea to request a sample chair and perform the one-hour seat test yourself to determine if our chairs meet your needs.

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