Use of space. The fastest-growing churches in America are moving away from a formal worship center to multipurpose and multifunctional spaces. These spaces must adapt to various church activities. The pulpit can be used as a lectern. A Communion table opens to a baptistry.
Plant stands fold into music stands.
In design, the trend is toward the integration of glass, plastic, and wood. When a church service is televised, the altar becomes the stage for the broadcast. Viewers who tune in to the program should immediately recognize the set as the altar of a church. That means the pulpit must look like a pulpit, and what's in the background should not distract from the service. One of the advantages of the glass pulpit, according to Robert Jackson of Prestige Glass, is that it is clearly a pulpit, yet it provides the kind of openness that allows the speaker to move about the platform.