From its formation to business practices to values, ChurchPlaza is a unique organization among those providing all sorts of church chairs, church seating, and other church furniture products to America’s churches.
In 1986 Dr. Thomas McElheny was retained by Gospel Publishing House, publishing house for The Assemblies of God, to evaluate the feasibility of expanding their product lines from primarily curriculum and other printed materials to hard goods and services.
Following receipt of his report and at the request of The General Council, Dr. McElheny met, prayed and discussed the report with members of The General Council. Unexpected by Dr. McElheny, he was asked to form an organization that would supply Assemblies of God Churches worldwide with church chairs, pulpit seating and other church products in addition to receiving their endorsement and encouragement to serve other churches.
This business venture originally began as the Christian Purchasing Network, and in 1997 changed their name to ChurchPlaza. They have been in faithful ministry and the business of providing quality church chairs, church seating and other church products to churches throughout the United States and eventually the world.
The ChurchPlaza Difference
Additional endorsements and recommendations quickly followed and today 47 national denominations, fellowship, ministries and/or their publishing houses representing a wide range of Christian traditions have endorsed and recommended ChurchPlaza to their churches for church chairs, sanctuary chairs, church seating and other quality church products. They include; The Willow Creek Association, United Methodist’s Cokesbury Publishing, Church of God in Christ, American Baptist’s Judson Press, Evangelical Free Church of America, National Baptists, Church of God’s Pathway Press, Advent Christian Church, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, International Four Square, National Catholic Education Association, Disciples of Christ, The Christian Management Association and many others.
Over the past 30 years, ChurchPlaza has become one of America’s foremost providers of custom upholstered church chairs, sanctuary chairs and church seating. Utilizing ChurchPlaza’s ergonomically correct proprietary designs and using only the finest components and technology, more and more churches are turning exclusively to ChurchPlaza.
Especially noteworthy have been ChurchPlaza’s contributions to industry practices where ChurchPlaza has been the first to introduce dual-layer foam comfort, steel “T” nut fastening systems, standard moisture barrier chair fabrics, web suspension seating and much more. Today, many church chair providers attempt to copy ChurchPlaza’s long standing design and manufacturing standards while ChurchPlaza continues to develop and bring to market new quality church chairs, sanctuary chairs and other church seating products utilizing ChurchPlaza’s unique market knowledge and innovative practices.
