-- Deyssler Padilla, pastor of Church with a Purpose, Pueblo, Colo.

Pastors and church leaders everywhere spend long hours and sleepless nights dreaming, debating and agonizing over one of the most difficult questions ever to face those called to serve a church. After analyzing costs, pros and cons, and potential obstacles, the question must be decided: Pews or chairs?

Okay, so the issue isn’t that weighty. But choosing proper church seating is tough. There is no universal right answer. However, pastors who have moved from pews to chairs generally have good things to say about the transition—and have some advice for those considering it.

The primary issues include:

The main reason pastors think of switching to chairs is simple physics: More people can fit in the same amount of space. That was the case for David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Valparaiso, Fla.

"About a year ago, our growth put us in a bind in terms of how many people our sanctuary could hold," he said.

Like Wilson, at such a point the pastor of a growing church has a decision to make. He could add another service, but if the congregation already offers multiple services that may not be an option. A building program may be expensive and time consuming.

"Lacking any ability to expand, I looked for other alternatives," Wilson said. "The chairs would allow us to get 30 more people into our facility."

Joe Gnatek, senior pastor of Stafford Community Worship Center in Stafford Springs, Conn., has a similar story. Chairs enabled his church to hold about 25 percent more people.

Issue #2: Tradition.

Every congregation contains people who will want to hold onto pews for dear life, if for no other reason than they’ve been there so long. How does a pastor handle those who are emotionally (and otherwise) attached to pews while making the case that chairs are a positive step?

Soon after Deyssler Padilla became pastor of Church with a Purpose in Pueblo, Colo., he emphasized the necessity of turning the sanctuary into a multi-purpose room with chairs to accommodate growth. It took about a year to prepare older members; some people departed after refusing to listen to his overtures.

Gnatek advises pastors to accept the fact "there will always be those who are attached to the pews." Because of this, he suggests enlisting members in the process.

"I got free samples from three different chair companies and set them in the back of the sanctuary," Gnatek said. "I put them there for three months and told everyone, ‘When you get a chance sit in those chairs, tell me which one you like the best.’ And that is what they did. We chose a (style) and ordered them."

Even in a small worship center, replacing the seating is not cheap. Most churches’ operating budgets don’t have huge reserves. So how does a pastor organize members to pay for it?

For Wilson, expense has proven the biggest obstacle.

"After Katrina last year, the suppliers raised their prices astronomically due to the ‘increase in costs of foam,’" Wilson said. "We are on hold because of that, until we can finish raising more money."

Aberdeen Wesleyan Church in Aberdeen, S.D., recently replaced the chairs they had been using for more than a decade. Pastor Brian La Croix suggests fund-raising events, such as the ice cream social his church sponsored.

For others, particularly those affiliated with larger denominations, funds may be available from a local denominational office. That was true for Gnatek.

"At the time (we bought chairs) we were a home missions church in the Assemblies of God, and they had a fund at the district headquarters to help out churches like ours," Gnatek said.

Padilla, who leads a Southern Baptist congregation, secured half of the money from the state convention and a quarter from his local association. That meant members only had to raise a fourth of the overall expense.

Despite the expense, is the move to chairs worth it? Those pastors who have made the switch answer affirmatively.

"The best thing is being able to configure the chairs anyway we want to," Gnatek said. "So if we have a special function it is very easy to set up the way we want to. We couldn’t do that at all with pews."

Padilla agrees, pointing to uses of their new multi-purpose room. Church with a Purpose has hosted a Super Bowl party and an outreach-oriented Valentine’s Day event called "An Evening of Enchantment." Neither would have been possible without the flexibility of chairs.

"The place looks cozy and inviting," Padilla said. "It’s clean. It smells new. It’s comfortable and orderly."

In addition, newcomers -- particularly those with no church background -- are usually more comfortable with chairs than pews. The latter are sometimes seen as "too churchy."

However, chairs alone don’t attract the lost.

"Some people – even pastors – don’t understand that the benches or the chairs won’t bring people in," Padilla said. "People attract people. People bring people. If the congregation isn’t ready for newcomers, then they aren’t ready for new chairs."

Gnatek mentions one less-obvious benefit of the move from pews to chairs. The latter prove more comfortable, particularly if your worship services last longer than an hour.

"The mind can only take what the seat can handle," Gnatek said.