JOHNSBURG – Steve Erickson has preached in gymnasiums, 100-year-old chapels with no bathrooms and movie theaters.

The Meadowland Church pastor's most recent house of worship? A refurbished barn on 4815 Johnsburg Road.

"I really see the building as a tool for the ministry, but the church is not the building. The church is the people that gather together," Erickson said. "You can be anywhere. It's a matter of seeing the space as a tool."

Erickson's journey from one nontraditional church setting to another is becoming more common for pastors and congregations looking to grow. There is financial sense, Erickson said, in moving from places such as small strip mall commercial spaces to middle school gyms and even larger barns as membership increases.

But alternative locations also can offer an attractive ambiance for potential members, he said.

"On one hand, you may have someone who doesn’t feel comfortable stepping into a church that is a converted barn," Erickson said. "But you might also have someone who had a bad experience at a traditional church and associates those experiences with those buildings. They might have no problem going to a movie theater or a school."

Cabot Ashwill knows the challenges of finding a place to call home. In October 2010, he left Lakeland Evangelical Free Church in Gurnee with a mission to "plant" a church west of his home congregation. After meeting in schools and barns, Ashwill and his growing congregation have settled in a 7,000-square-foot unit in a Spring Grove warehouse.

Though LifeSpring Community Church is surrounded by manufacturing and importing businesses in the multi-unit industrial building, Ashwill said the space at 2503 Spring Ridge Drive has become a warm and welcoming home for the evangelical congregation.

"Every church needs to start somewhere. All these large traditional churches people see started a long time ago in people's homes and grew," Ashwill said. "For us, this has been great and is a nice in-between place. At some point, I'm sure we'll plan on building a church."

Worshipping in nontraditional spaces also allows congregants to engage with the church in ways they otherwise would not, said Paul Carlson, pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Huntley.

In Carlson's nine years at the church, the congregation met at Marlowe Middle School for the first five years and now at Deicke Park Community Room on 11419 S. Route 47 for the past four years.

Carlson said both locations require congregants to help set up the worship space each week, a practice that helps members focus on why they are there. He said that connection often gets lost in the contemporary approach of megachurches.

"Too many churches today are measuring success by how many people come rather than focusing on the spiritual roots and God's way," Carlson said. "Churches are becoming more man-centered today, not God-centered."

While many pastors are embracing the benefits of nontraditional buildings, Erickson said there is one problem with facilities such as his barn. It can be too welcoming at times.

"The squirrels feel very welcomed here," Erickson said. "So there are some challenges."