Moving a Church or Mosque to a New Building

Sunday service ends at noon. By two o'clock forty volunteers are standing around the hall, half the chairs are stacked by the door, nobody knows who has the key to the new building, and the drummer has already put his drum set in the back of his own car.

Moving a congregation to a new building is a bulk move with an unusual twist. The people helping are willing and many, but they are not movers, and the deadline is the next service. A clear plan turns all that goodwill into a move that actually finishes.

Pick the window between services

Look at your calendar and find the longest gap between gatherings. For a church that is often the days between Sunday and the midweek service. For a mosque, plan around the daily prayers and Jumu'ah, and make sure people still have a place to pray while the move runs.

Two approaches work well:

• Move everything in one long day if the new building is ready and the distance is short.
• Move in stages over a week, starting with items you can do without (spare chairs, archives, store room items) and finishing with the pulpit, sound and main seating just before the first service at the new place.

Staged moves are usually calmer. They also mean any missing item is noticed before the first service, not during it.

Make one list for the whole building

Walk through the building with two or three leaders and write everything down. A typical list includes:

1. Pews, benches or plastic chairs, with a rough count
2. Pulpit, lectern or minbar, altar table and stage platform pieces
3. Sound system: mixer, amplifiers, speakers, microphones, stands and cables
4. Instruments: keyboard, organ, drum set, guitars and percussion
5. Carpets, rugs and prayer mats
6. Projector, screens and lighting
7. Office furniture, filing cabinets and records
8. Kitchen and hospitality items, canopies and tables for events
9. Generator, fans and air conditioning units if they are moving

Note which items are heavy and which are fragile. This list becomes your load description, and it tells you whether you need one truck, two, or more than one trip.

Seating: pews, benches and chairs

Wooden pews are long and heavy. Measure the longest one against the doors at both buildings before the day. Some pews can be unbolted from a base or have ends that come off. If they can, do it, and keep the bolts in a labelled bag taped to the pew.

Plastic chairs stack well, but stacks that are too tall tip over in a moving truck. Keep stacks to a sensible height, stand them against the walls of the truck and strap them. Count them out and count them in.

For pianos, heavy wooden pulpits and similar pieces, read our guide to moving heavy wooden furniture and pianos.

Sound and instruments

The sound team should pack its own equipment. They know what goes where.

• Photograph the mixer and amplifier connections before unplugging anything.
• Coil cables neatly and label both ends.
• Speakers and amplifiers travel upright, wrapped in blankets.
• Keyboards go in cases or padded covers, never loose.
• Drum hardware goes in one box, shells in another.

Load all of it last so it comes off first and the sound team can start setting up while the seating is still coming in. Our guide to moving a TV, home theatre and sound system has more detail on speakers and amplifiers.

Ready to move?

Request a truck or van on Sphere

Choose your vehicle, propose your price, and verified drivers in Lagos, Abuja and Ibadan accept or send a counter-offer.

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Carpets and prayer mats

Vacuum or sweep carpets before rolling them. Roll them tightly with the pile facing in and tie them at both ends. Label each roll with where it goes in the new building, especially if a carpet was cut to fit a particular space.

Prayer mats and smaller rugs can be folded into large bags or boxes. Keep them dry. Do not leave rolled carpets out in the rain while waiting for the truck.

Organise the volunteers

Volunteers are the biggest asset in a congregation move, and also the biggest risk if nobody is in charge.

Appoint one coordinator at the old building and one at the new building. Split volunteers into small teams: seating, sound, carpets, office and cleaning. Give each team a leader who reports to the coordinator.

Keep heavy lifting for people who are fit for it, and remind everyone to lift with their legs and ask for help. Our guide to lifting heavy items safely is worth sharing with the team leaders beforehand. Children should not be near the loading area.

Have water and something to eat ready. People work better when they are not hungry.

How to do this on Sphere

1. Open the Sphere app and pick a truck or pickup van based on your list.
2. Add both addresses, with notes on parking, gates and stairs.
3. Describe the load: number of pews or chairs, sound equipment, instruments and carpets.
4. Tell the driver your volunteers will load, or agree loading and offloading help with the driver before you accept an offer.
5. Propose your price. Verified drivers accept it or counter, and you choose.

For a staged move, create a separate request for each trip. Sphere has truck hire in Lagos and also works in Abuja and Ibadan.