Church Design & Construction

Give Your Church $1,500 For Free

2012-01-04T12:12:00.000-05:00

What minor (or perhaps major) sacrifices are you willing to make for the advancement of the Kingdom of God? This article was written with an eye towards increasing giving to a church capital campaign, but is equally true for everyday giving.

Giving up just one fast food meal per week for a family of four saves well over $20 per week or more than $1,000 per year.
Putting off buying a new car for three years would save a great deal of money. The average car payment is around $420 per month which equates to over $5,000 per year.
Giving up a one weekend getaway per year could easily free up $500 or more per year.
Instead of going out for lunch from work, bring a bag lunch twice a week (or more!). This would easily save over $10 per week or more than $500 per year.
Studies indicate the average American goes to the movies 5 times a year at an average cost of $12.50 (with popcorn). For a family of 4, giving up movies would free up $250 per year.
Skip the candy bar and soda at the gas station and save $2.00 per week or over $100 per year.
Trim your cable or satellite TV package and save $10 per month and save $125 per year.
The average household grocery bill for a family of 4 is over $800 per month. Clip those coupons and shop those sales to trim 10% out of the budget and save $1,000 per year.

Implementing just one-half of these lifestyle sacrifices (excluding putting off a car purchase) would free up over $30 per week for the Kingdom with no impact on the household budget.

You are able to give the church an extra $1,500 for free - since it did not cost you anything extra to do so. To this "free money", you should add a financial contribution as God has prospered and provided for you to do.

Church Construction Guide

2011-12-19T20:57:00.000-05:00

If you like my blog, you will love the book!

Recently revised and updated, Preparing to Build will keep your church from becoming an unfortunate statistic. If you are planning on building a church anytime in the next three years, you should not miss reading this book on church construction.

I just wanted to comment on your book, it's phenomenal! Your book has everything from A to Z in terms of preparing the church to build. Thank you for your insight, this information is priceless. Pastor D. Owens

Are Consulting Fees Really Worth It?

2011-12-02T12:27:00.001-05:00

Are consulting fees in a church building program really worth it?

When considering consulting services, the cost often becomes a subject of debate usually negatively influenced by a number of factors. First, the church often does not like to spend money – it is typically frugally minded, sometimes to a fault. Secondly, hiring consulting services requires a change in how churches approach the problem. The church typically resists change and finds comfort in established patterns, even if they have not been the most effective in the past. Thirdly, many churches must put it to a vote of the congregation – a body that is largely unequipped by experience or training to truly understand the scope of the problem or the value of the assistance.

There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey. John Ruskin

While stewardship demands due consideration be given to the cost of the investment, the church often does itself a disservice by unfairly focusing on the cost of the service and not fairly counting the value gained from the engagement. Consider the parable of the treasure hidden in the field:

"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Jesus - Matthew 13:44 NASB

The man unearthed a treasure hidden in the field and then did what he had to do (sold all he had) to buy the field because he understood the value hidden in the field. He did not say to himself, “I would like to have that treasure, but I can’t afford it.” He evaluated the find, counted the cost, and understood the value was worth the sacrifice – which he then made.

To help determine the value proposition on consulting, the church should objectively and honestly ask itself questions, such as:

Do we have the training, experience, and objectivity to do this the best it can be done?
What is the value of supporting and protecting the leadership of the church?
What is the value of increasing unity and support for the building program in the body?
What is the value of increasing the financial support for our building program?
What is the value of bridging the gulf from “we think” to “we know” when talking about spending hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on a building program?
Why did Moses and Solomon get outside help for their building programs? (Exodus 31 and 2 Chronicles 2)
What is the additional price we will have to pay during construction for mistakes or oversights in the design of the new facilities?
What is the price we may pay, for decades to come, for ministry space that may not truly meet our needs?
How much is confidence and peace of mind worth to us?
What is the value of even a 10% improvement in the building program? (Hint: 10% of $1M is $100,000)
There is no right way to build the wrong thing; what is the value of objectively understanding what we need to build and why?

While some things are essentially priceless, the church should assign some dollar value to each of these and any other questions it may ask itself - then do the math.

So, are church consulting fees with it? If, at the end of the day, the engagement provides greater value than the cost of services, the difference in cost is the projected cost to the church to not engage for the services.

How to Increase Church Capital Campaign Contributions

2011-11-29T18:06:00.004-05:00

Why do churches resist getting expert help in capital fundraising? Is it really plausible to believe that having ready access to the combined wisdom of decades of experience in capital campaigns, being provided a step-by-step, job description by job description guide to a proven capital fundraising process, and the focused coaching of an experienced fundraising consultant will not help you raise more money in your church capital campaign? Experience shows that churches that use a campaign consultant raise, on average, about twice as much money (that’s a 100% increase, folks) as those churches who do not.

If you think that sounds like marketing hooey, you would be wrong, but go ahead - say the claim is grossly inflated (which it isn't) and discount it by 2/3's - make the factor only a 33% increase. Even sharply discounted, if you are looking to raise, say $1M, the difference between using a consultant and not using a consultant could easily be a couple hundred thousand dollars (and probably more)! Compare that to the cost of the services and you will see that is a huge return on the investment.

At the end of the day, the church often considers the wrong question in asking "how much the services cost", when it should ask itself "what is the cost to not hire a consultant". In a straw poll of 17 churches that had completed capital campaigns in the not too distant past, all of the churches remembered how much they raised, but only about half (53%) of them could remember how much they paid for the services. I think this illustrates what is important to the church in the long term. Of the churches who were asked if they would use a capital campaign consultant again, knowing what they now know, 86% indicated they would use a consultant again and the remaining 14% said they would consider doing so. None of the churches indicated they would not consider making the same investment again.

As Jesus said several times, “let he who has ears, hear.”

Time is Your Friend in a Capital Campaign

2011-09-28T13:03:00.000-04:00

When preparing for a church capital campaign, time is your friend. Time is also a critical factor in taking your church capital campaign from good to great.

Depending on the size of the church, it can take 3 to as much as 12 months to give yourself (and the church) time to prepare for and execute a capital campaign. While size is definitely a factor in setting the timeline, three other factors can also impact the time you should take in preparation.

Church capital campaigns raise money for specific capital projects, like construction, renovation, or large capital purchases. If there is not high and across the board level of excitement, unity, and support, this would indicate the church should take more time to make the case for support.

If the amount to be raised is at the higher end of the normal range of results or will need to be a real stretch, this would certainly be an indicator that you should take more preparation time in order to increase the odds of reaching your financial goal.

If the church does not already have a culture of generosity and sacrificial giving, more preparation time will allow you to improve giving on a week by week basis, thereby transforming the giving patterns of your members for a lifetime, not just 3 years.

Time is your friend in a church capital campaign:

Time to get the right people involved
Time to do proper donor development
Time to create a culture of generosity
Time to do the work without burning anyone out.
Time to make the most spiritual impact.
Time so that your church does not fee like it was "shoved down their throat".
Time to do it right as opposed to"good enough".

Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Taking a little extra time will reap both spiritual and financial rewards.

Now is the Time to Begin Planning a Spring Church Capital Campaign

2011-08-26T09:47:00.000-04:00

Ah, 'tis the season of churches calling wanting to start a capital campaign. Unfortunately, many church leaders are calling in August wanting to finish a capital campaign this fall. While it may not be impossible to do, especially if you are a small tightly knit church, it may not be a good idea - just because you can does not mean you should.

A church capital campaign is a spiritual work that produces a financial benefit. If you rush the process you will very likely negatively impact both the spiritual and financial benefits of the capital campaign. If your church has more than 150 or so adults, it will benefit you to begin planning for a capital stewardship campaign 6 months before you want to be in front of the congregation with the public phase of the campaign. Think of it this way. If you have ever been in a church that did a big Christmas or Easter production, you know that planning and preparation often start 3-4 months before hand. Perhaps a better comparison would be to ask if your church does VBS, and if so, when do you start planning? A capital campaign is a 6 week event that involves multi-faceted communications, preaching, teaching, and group events! How much more preparation do you think it deserves?

Learn more about what a church capital campaign is, and is not. View/download a free slideshow on conducting a church capital campaign including process, timeline, and phases.

Presenting March 29 at GA Baptist Conference

2011-03-25T07:29:00.000-04:00

If you are in the area, we will be presenting 3 breakout sessions at the Georgia Baptist Expo Conference in Warner Robin GA on March 29th.
Our session include:

Lessons Learned - Avoiding Common Mistakes Churches Make in Building
Church Financing Solutions in a Difficult Lending Environment
Proven Construction Methods That Lower Cost and Reduce Risk

For more information, see this link.

Why So Many Capital Campaigns for Baptist Churches

2010-09-04T11:47:00.001-04:00

Anyone that would look at our reference list would see that we do a lot of church capital campaigns for Baptist churches. Their are multiple reasons why we do so many Baptist capital campaigns, but one of the reasons is *not* that we target them specifically. So, lets look at some of the reasons why we do so many Baptist capital campaigns.

First of all, we are located in the middle of the bible belt. While we do church capital campaigns all over the USA, the bible belt is full of Baptist churches, almost any flavor you could ask for. We have Southern Baptist, Independent Baptist, Freewill Baptist, American Baptist, Progressive Baptist, General Baptist, and even Pentecostal Freewill Baptist, and I am sure I missed a few.

It may have something to do with the fact that half of our capital campaign consultants are Baptist. Personally, I attend an Independent Baptist church, and I am also a church building consultant for the NC Southern Baptist Convention. As we have moved around, I have been a member of Conservative Baptist, Southern Baptist and Independent Baptist churches.

It may also have something to do with our biblical approach to capital fundraising. Our services will appeal to any church or denomination that are strong on biblical teaching, basing everything on the Word of God and the application of His truth to the lives of the people in their congregation. Now, you certainly don't have to be Baptist to be biblically based, but no one could deny that most Baptist churches would fall into this category!

All in all, its probably a "perfect storm" of all the above conditions that have come together to make Baptist churches some of our most frequent clients. At the end of the day, however, we work with any Christian church that will clearly preach the Word of God and salvation by faith alone.

Church Capital Campaign Website

2010-08-11T18:17:00.000-04:00

Our New Capital Campaign Website Is Live!
We have just completed our new church capital campaign website where you will find lots of information on the Abundant Giving Capital Campaign, Capital Campaign Feasibility Studies, Campaign Communication Materials (including links to 300 capital campaign themes), awesome customer testimonials, and much more.

Abundant Giving is unique in providing 4 delivery options to insure you receive the right level of capital campaign consulting services at a price you can afford.

Increasing Church Volunteers & Giving

2009-12-15T11:45:00.002-05:00

Two things most churches don't seem to have enough of are workers and money. What you may not realize is that these two issues are spiritually related and you can implement a simple strategy to bolster both of these important resources.

General stewardship principals teach us to give of our time, treasures, and talents. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:21 that "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Treasure certainly implies money or wealth, but actually was probably intended to denote a broader spectrum of those things we feel are important to us. Not only do your members' money follow what they feel in their heart is important, but so do their time and talents. Giving of time, treasure, and talents is a heart, or spiritual issue. What is interesting about Jesus' quote is that he clearly states that in whatever place you store or invest your treasures, that is where your spiritual center (heart) is.

This passage raises a question much like the chicken and egg question; which comes first, your heart or your investment. In reality, we see examples of money following heart (that is why missionaries visit churches), and heart following money (your devotion to a particular stock symbol once you have invested in a company). What is important is to remember that they are linked, so the best strategy to increase both workers (investment of time an talents) and financial support is to implement a strategy that works both ends towards the middle.

If you can convince people of the need and importance of serving, and engage them in doing so, you should also expect an increase in giving from those people. A recent study, the national study on volunteering just released by the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund ("Gift Fund") and VolunteerMatch, showed Americans who volunteer their time and skills to nonprofit organizations donate an average of 10 times more money to charity than people who don’t volunteer. If you engage their heart in serving, their giving goes up. Conversely if you clearly teach your people about biblical giving, thereby increasing their financial support, they will be more likely to serve, since they now have a greater heart interest in the ministry. Pastor testimonials show that a clear, compelling, and unapologetic teaching of biblical giving principals on an annual basis increase giving 10-30% or more each year.

Addressing both the financial need and the need for workers is done in similar fashion. As churches learn from annual stewardship programs or capital stewardship campaigns, to get people committed to giving you need to do four things. First, you need to provide the biblical basis for what you are asking; you need to lay the spiritual groundwork. Secondly, you need to clearly communicate the need that exists. The third step is to clearly and unapologetically make the call to action - tell them what you need them to do and challenge them to a specific action (exhortation). Finally, the last step and the one where many churches miss the boat, you need to hold them accountable to respond. While you may not feel as comfortable with this step as the others, you have to take seriously what James said, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

All too often pastors across America will just toss the concept of giving out there and hope the congregation responds. People need to be exhorted in the truest sense of the word. Strong's Concordance has, as the definition for exhort (parakalountev), "to call to one's side, summon, admonish, beg, encourage, and instruct." The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines exhort as "to incite by argument or advice : urge strongly." From the pulpit we need to lead, instruct, and exhort in every sense of the word. In general, most people only rise to the lowest level of expectation. In large part if you toss important ideas out there hoping they will act, the people will probably think about it, but not act. Often times they only think about it until the end of service.

If there is one thing we learn from church fundraising, you have to have personal dialog with people to get them to invest, whether it is their time or their money. You have not because you ask not. But only asking from the pulpit makes it a general issue and everyone assumes someone else will step up to the challenge, and when no one does, people generally don't feel bad because the are just doing (or not doing) what everyone else is. Exhorting means you not only need to make it clear over several weeks from the pulpit, but you also need to get face to face with people and make the personal appeal by exhorting them in the truest sense of the word. At the end of the day, it will be a blessing to the church and to the person giving of their time, talent, and treasure. So get out there and preach it, teach it, beg if you need to, and incite your people to a Godly response.

Needs & Feasibility Presentation - Recorded Webinar Now Online

2009-11-17T22:33:00.000-05:00

As a volunteer church building consultant for the Congregational Services Group of the NC Baptist Convention, I recently delivered a live webinar on the topic of conduction a church needs and feasibility studies as one of the first steps in a church building program. You may listen to, and view, this presentation online as it describes what a needs and feasibility study is, the process, the goals, and the benefit to the church. Follow this link to view the Church Needs and Feasibility Study Presentation.

How Much Unity Is Enough?

2009-11-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

As you move forward with a church building program (or for that matter, any large endeavor by your church), one of the challenges you will face is the decision about how much unity is enough; whether to try to get every last person in the church to be in agreement about what to do and when.

Allow me to set your expectations; it will probably never happen. In my years of consulting, I have never witnessed 100% unity on the decision to build, or as a result of deciding to build, unity in the decision to raise money for building. Chances are, it probably will not happen in your church either.

If everyone in your church is a sold-out, evangelical, deeply committed, mature Christian ready to do what it takes regardless of the personal sacrifice, you have a chance at 100% unity. It is important to realize the chances of getting 100% buy-in is inversely proportionate to the number of people in the decision process, so if you have more than 3 people in your church, the odds start going down quickly.

Almost every church has at least a few professional naysayers, people who don't want change for the sake of not having to endure change, people that don't understand the Kingdom need, or even agents of the enemy who try to derail good works. So therefore:

100% unity is a goal to hope for, but not one to necessarily hold out for.

How much unity then, is enough? At what point are you delaying a project that is the express wish of the vast majority, in order to attempt to bring the last few sheep into the fold? Honestly, only you can answer this question and should be approached with much prayer. I don't think a church should even remotely consider moving forward with less than 85% concurrence, and I recommend support of 90% or more. That said, however, there is a point of diminishing return where trying to convince that small handful of people will cost you far more than you will gain.

If you think me harsh, please don’t. No one will ever have a greater love for man than Jesus, yet on occasion He was clear in drawing the line and telling people they needed to be on one side or the other. (Lk 18:22, Lk 9:60, Jn 6:60-67). In no way do I mean this to be mean spirited, but there may well come a time when you need to say, "This is as close as we are likely to get, lets move on and let the chips fall where they may." It is important to realize some people will sit on the fence until presented with two clear choices and the exhortation to pick one.

As opposed to those who are merely uncertain or concerned, I have little tolerance for divisive people. I wrote in my book, Preparing to Build, "Some people advance the cause of peace by their absence." It’s often the case of goats and sheep. The difference between a goat and a sheep is the sheep will do what the shepherd tells them to do, and a goat goes "but, but, but..."

Sadly a few unhappy goats often make a whole lot more noise than a church full of contented sheep. I have long suspected, and many pastors have backed me up on this, that for the most part, the malcontents, trouble makers, high maintenance members, sticks in the mud, or whatever you call them, usually give very little of their time or money to ministry work.

I believe the most difficult person to know how to handle is that person, whether they be staff, a deacon, or just a long-term member, who has the best of intentions, but ends up being a sympathetic sounding board for unhappy people and unwittingly undermining both the authority of the leadership of the church and the will of the majority of the church members.

Often times this person considers themselves a genuine peacemaker, but by being overly sympathetic, often gives an appearance of legitimacy and support to contrary opinions. This person, once hearing out the objections, should encourage the dissenting party to place others and their opinions before their own and submit to the will of the leadership and church body.

Those in your church who are part of a very small minority that may not support certain decisions must be willing to say that if they, once their concerns have been heard, need to submit to the will of the church leadership and body. If they cannot get to this place, then it may be best to consider finding another church.

Losing people for any reason is a hard thing for almost any pastor, and hopefully it will not happen because of the building program. However, any time the church does something big, it provides the opportunity for people to come down on opposite sides of the solution. A mature Christian, once having been heard out, will hopefully submit themselves (if not joyfully, then at least quietly) to the overwhelming opinion and desires of the church body. Losing people can be hard, but sometimes the only thing harder is to try to hold onto people who are not in step with the church vision and mission.

Unity in the body is important to God, but He does not expect the church to indefinitely postpone doing His will in order to try to bring along a few people just aren't with the program.

Timing a Church Capital Campaign

2009-09-27T21:36:00.007-04:00

Many churches in the past year have postponed building programs due to economic uncertainty. Even though building may be 1, 2 or even 3 years away, the wise church will be preparing now for a future building program. One of the keys to becoming financially prepared to build is to execute a capital campaign well in advance of building, or even before talking to lenders about borrowing (for more on this subject see my post, The Year of the Church Capital Campaign).

As we enter into the fall, now is the time we are helping equip churches to execute a capital campaign in the 1st quarter of 2010. Now is the time to begin to implement a campaign timeline and strategy, recruit capital campaign committee members, and integrate your campaign into the church's calendar. There are a number of things the church can do to prepare the way; to prepare the fields and sow some seed that will increase the spiritual and financial effectiveness of your capital campaign next spring.

By the time of this post, most of those churches planning a Christmas play or pageant have already begun to organize and mobilize for this event. If you give 3 months to preparing for the Christmas play (a one-day event), how much more time should you give to preparing for a capital campaign which is much more complex and lasts for 6-7 weeks?

All too often churches underestimate the time and effort that goes into preparing for an effective capital campaign. There are several topics for messages, if not entire sermon series, that should proceed the "actual campaign". There are scheduling issues that need addressed, recruiting, organization, and equipping that needs to be done before you even begin!

Churches that wait until after the first of the year to begin to move on a spring capital campaign will find themselves pressed for time and having deal with more stress and complications than necessary. The church that does not plan ahead will make this wonderful event a burden, not a joy to the staff and committee members. It will, in all likelihood, end up negatively impacting the spiritual effectiveness and financial benefit of the campaign. The earlier your church begins to prepare for its capital campaign, the more effective the campaign will be, and the least stressful for those involved.

Pastors Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

2009-08-13T16:49:00.010-04:00

Last year, you may recall that the bottom fell out of the economy.

According to a survey conducted by Brian Kluth of over 1,000 churches, 29% of the responding churches reported giving was down in 2008, and 53% of churches reported giving was behind budget for the first quarter of 2009. The amazing finding was in the face of these statistics, only 14% of churches made cuts to their 2009 budget. At face value, this would seem to indicate that at at least 15% of churches are going to be faced with severe budget shortfalls this year.

However, if the 53% of churches who were behind budget early in the year don't architect a financial turn around, many of them could be seriously behind budget for the year. This could put a number of churches in the position of needing to take some drastic and painful steps later this year or early 2009. One thing is certain, no pastor or board wants to fire staff or reduce important programs and ministries. One might consider this situation to be "the rock."

Churches that are having a hard time meeting budget, are struggling to pay mortgages, or can't afford to hire needed staff have only three options: reduce expenses, increase giving, or a combination of both. Two of the three solutions depend, in whole or in part, upon increasing giving to the church general fund. This brings us to the "hard place"; the Lilly Endowment Studies report that 85% of pastors feel uncomfortable and/or unequipped to preach on giving.

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?" The same question might be asked about giving; how can anyone expect to increase giving in the church if 7 out of 8 pastor's are unwilling or unequipped to preach on biblical stewardship?

The Kings James Bible has 64 verses that mention hell, and 334 that mention love, however there are reportedly over 2,000 verses (depending on the source quoted) that deal with money and possession. Pastor Randy Alcorn's book, The Treasure Principle, puts the number of these verses at 2,350. Now there are those who will dispute that number, and it is certainly open to debate, but even if the number of verses was overstated by 100%, there would still be 3x more verses about money and possessions than love and hell combined.

Being unwilling to preach and teach on money is not a new problem. Malachi begins in chapter 1 by rebuking the priests for failing to properly oversee worship (particularly the offerings), and failing to properly instruct the nation in God's Law. He goes on to call the people to repentance, not the least of which was the famous "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings."

So what are pastors to do when they feel caught between a rock and a hard place?

The answer is to clearly and unashamedly preach and teach on biblical stewardship and not be afraid to challenge the people to respond. In 1 Chronicles 29:5, King David, after proclaiming his financial support for the building of the temple then clearly challenges the people to give by boldly asking, "Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?" David clearly threw the gauntlet down and the people responded.

Pastors and church leaders who wish to become equipped to lead their church in biblical stewardship, should consider the Dynamic Giving Toolkit. Pastor testimonials report increases in giving of 10-30% the first year and double digit increases yearly thereafter. The web site asks a very good question, "What would your church do with 10-30% more money?"

The core of the program is the book, Pastor Driven Stewardship by Dr. Rod Rogers. Used by over 1,000 churches in 13 countries, these materials have transformed the members and the giving of churches around the world. If your church needs to retire debt, hire staff, expand ministry, or you just want to avoid painful budget cuts, we think these stewardship materials will teach, equip and challenge you to lead your church in biblical stewardship.

Post a comment and let us know what your church could do with a 30% increase in giving...

A Wise Quote, Still True Over 100 Years Later

2009-08-11T14:07:00.003-04:00

I love this quote. It is appropriate in so many circumstances, not the least of which is in church design and construction.

“There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey.” - John Ruskin

For more sage words, see these John Ruskin Quotes.

The Most Asked Question in Church Construction

2009-08-04T19:58:00.011-04:00

"How much will it cost to build the church?" is by far the most asked question we receive.

This is a very important question, and one worthy of an accurate response.  Everyone wants to know how much it costs per square foot to build a church.  The REAL answer is this: All I or anyone else, including your local builder, can do is guess (we professionals call this "estimating") - until there is a real set of church plans. Anything else is just a guess, and not one you can hold someone to, at that.

Can an experienced church builder look at a concept drawing of a church plan and get pretty close on cost?


Yes they can.  I have been blessed to be be uncannily close on several projects - simple because, like a builder, this is something at which I have experience.  However, when you talk to someone who does not specialize in church construction, or worse, someone who gives you a lowball estimate just to try to get a business relationship going, the church can end up in trouble.  There is no way most churches know if their builder is really honest and capable until it is too late. To make it worse, most architects don't really know what a church will really cost to build - ask just about any builder and they will probably tell you the same thing.

Most churches push their budget to the max in order to build all they can afford.  A church can easily into the design process and spend several ten's of thousands of dollars on plans based on a bad guess or deceptive estimate. When the church gets the real construction bids and find out they can't afford the building, they then have to pay even more to have the plans redrawn.  This is not only a waste of money, but of time and momentum.

There are two ways to solve this problem:

The first is to NOT do the tradional Design-Bid-Build approach where you don't find out how much the building will cost until after it is designed.  A better approach is to put together a team consisting of the architect, engineer, and builder to work the process together, getting pricing estimates all during the design process so that by the time the building is designed, it is also priced.  This is commonly referred to as the team build approach. Team build differs from design/build by virtue of the fact that both the architect and the builder work for the church, an important distinction.

The second way is through the use of a new church plan offering that allows churches to buy detailed plan sets from previous building programs for only $895.  Starting with any one of the 200 or so church plans on ChurchPlanSource.com, the church can find a plan that is very close to what they want to build in size and general seating capacity.  The church can then buy detailed blueprints in PDF format and submit them to a builder for pricing.

Once the church determines it can afford the building, the changes to the plan are made to make it the church's own.  The key to making this work is to find a building that is as close as possible to what the church needs.  Non-structural changes to room layouts and reconfiguring space will not greatly affect the price of the building, so the church can have construction drawings completed with the confidence they know the final price.  Even if the building needs to be resized soemwhat, the cost per square foot for the church will be approximately the same.  If it cost $100/sqft to build a 10,000sqft building, it will probably be the same price per square foot to build a 9,000 or 12,000sf building based on the same plan. Personally, I find these sample plan sets to be very helpful.  All too often churches don't believe me when I tell them how much a building project will take.  They are always sure they can get it done much cheaper.  For churches with unrealistic expectations, this is a great way to confirm if they can actually build it for what they believe.  If they can, Praise God, if not, they have lost very little.  (I may not have been able to keep them from shooting themselves in the foot, but I did at least switch them to a lower caliber that made a smaller hole. LOL)

If your church is in a hurry for whatever reason, it can have church building plans in hand in days instead of weeks or months. The full sample plan set in PDF format can be used to:

Get an accurate cost, or better yet, a firm bid, from a builder.

Be submitted as part of your inital loan application package.

Used for a preliminary plan review meeting with your local building department.

Uses as a planning document to communicate desired changes, and much more...

Go to ChurchPlanSource.com for more information and pricing.

Time is Running Out for a Fall Church Capital Campaign

2009-06-12T13:31:00.003-04:00

A church capital campaign is not unlike the Christmas play - you begin to prepare months in advance to have the best and least stressful outcome.

The right time to be in front of your congregation for a fall capital campaign is after school is back in session and before the holidays. This provides a smaller window of opportunity for that 6-7 week time of preaching, teaching, and support building than a spring campaign.

If you plan to be raise money this fall, you should begin to organize and prepare your capital campaign team starting before the end of June. This will enable your church to achieve the best results with the lowest stress. Every week that your church delays from this point forward increases the effort and stress of a capital campaign.

For more information on capital campaign timelines, download the PowerPoint presentation on www.OurCapitalCampaign.com.

Church Financing - Still a Tough Market

2009-06-02T15:28:00.006-04:00

Churches continue to have difficulty getting the financing they need for buildling or relocation. We have seen any number of churches that should be able to get financed turned down by lender after lender. Many churches that are getting turned down for financing today could have been financed a year ago with exactly the same financial statements. The biggest impediment to financing is inadequate cash flow - not enough money left after expenses to service a mortgage. Unlike previous years, lenders are not willing to wager that the church will reduce discretionary expenses to service a mortgage or increase income because of growth. Today, lenders want to see 6-12 monts of financial history showing a cash surplus sufficient to cover a mortgage.

Many churches are qualifying for loans, they're just qualifying for significantly less than last year, and less than they need for the church plans they have. For churches that cannot qualify for as as large of a loan as they need in order to build, they need to raise the difference in cash.

There are three things that a church can do to improve cash flow. The church needs to apply a sharp knife and cut expenses, it needs to faithfully preach and teach about giving and stewardship, and it needs to run a capital campaign (which will also help with coming up with the cash difference between what they need and what they can borrow).

Cutting expenses is difficult, but a necessity for many who want to build. Trimming expenses and increasing income and cash on hand through a capital campaign is the financial answer to many of today's church financing problems.

How To: Estimate a Church Building Program Budget

2009-05-09T14:48:00.010-04:00

"What man would build a tower without first counting the cost?? - Jesus

Millions of dollars every year are wasted on church building plans that churches cannot afford to build. Many churches let the church building project define the budget, instead of letting the budget drive the design of the church. This simple transposition of steps in the process takes a toll on churches in terms of cost, time, effort, enthusiasm, and support for the project.

Design is part of the building process. Counting the cost does not mean sending your plans to the builder for an estimate. Counting the cost means understanding what you can afford before you begin. There are a great number of church building plans available, and any number of church architects that will create more, but knowing what you can afford is a necessary step before you concern yourself with design.

In my book, Preparing to Build, I discuss this in great length, but below is a basic formula that any church can use to get an first approximation of their budget for a building program.

There are 4 basic variables in determining your budget. Those 4 variables are added together to determine the preliminary budget. Often, early in the process, the church will have to use estimates for these values and refine them later in the process.

The four variables:

Cash on hand: This is the amount of money available which can be applied to the building program. This would include whatever amount of money in checking, savings, money market or CD's you want to use.
Money you can borrow: The maximum that any church can borrow in a loan or bond program is 3-4 times its current income; and is often less. Borrowing ability is based primarily on cash flow, not the value of assets.
Money you can raise from the sale of assets: This may be your current location (if you are moving), a parsonage, or real estate. If you owe any money on the asset you are selling, it will be the net cash to the church after paying off the debt.
Money you can raise before construction: This is typically money raised in a church capital campaign. In a 3 year capital campaign, churches typically raise between one and three times the current amount of their annual tithes and offerings, with around two times income being the average.

Our formula then becomes:

Cash on hand ___________

Money that can be borrowed _____________

Money from sale of assets _____________

Cash that can be raised before construction _______________

Your budget _____________________

If your church needs assistance in answering the budget questions and/or defining what it truly needs to build, I would suggest downloading this pdf file about a Needs and Feasibiltiy Study.

If your church needs a capital campaign, we can help. Our church capital campaign consultants can provide everything from a full-blown capital campaign to a do-it-yourself capital stewardship campaign that you run in-house.

Raising Money From Outside the Church

2009-05-09T14:23:00.002-04:00

A reader asked about how a church capital campaign can reach outside the church to get money from the community. This is a good question, and I will try to give a clear answer.

The quick answer is that a church capital campaign is not the best tool for obtaining financial support from the community. The reason being that the campaign is strongly based on a Kingdom need and God's provision to meet that need through His people; an approach that will find little traction with most folks outside your church and faith.

Getting support from the community takes a somewhat different approach, and is much more like a grant writing effort than a capital campaign. The similarity to a campaign is you will be creating a case for support. This case for support, however, will focus on the ministry of the church and its measurable impact in the community. It will also be much more extensive, objectively detailing what you do and giving a qualitative analysis of how you have impacted the lives of those you have ministered to, and the impact the community

Essentially, you need to tell the story of what you do and how those programs and ministries are improving or serving the community as a whole. You need to make the case and explain what effect the donation you are seeking will make in the community.

It will also be helpful to research your community, find which businesses give to local charity and religious organizations. Also, you can research if there are any local donors or foundations that support programs in the community. These two sources would be the best place to begin looking for financial support for your church, outside it's four walls.

Announcing The Complete Church Capital Campaign in a Box

2009-04-27T20:21:00.006-04:00

AMI today announces the Abundant Giving Capital Campaign, a complete Church Capital Campaign in Box.

Abundant Giving distinguishes itself from other church capital campaigns by its flexible and cost effective delivery method. Whether you are a small church looking for a DIY capital campaign you can run in-house, a full blown capital campaign consulting engagement, or something in-between; the Abundant Giving program has a offering that is right for your church.

This comprehensive church capital campaign provides detailed documentation including:

A week-by-week schedule
Detailed task lisk
Stewardship sermons & studies
Evaluation copies of Sunday school/small group lessons
Examples of materials from other campaigns
Two complete seminars on giving & stewardship with workbooks
Forms and letters
Electronic copies of the books Pastor Driven Stewardardship and Preparing to Build.
...and much more

Also included in this offering:

Professional layout of your communication materials, using your choice of any of the 250 capital campaign themes.
Digital, print-ready artwork - ready for your printer, or ours.
Your choice of three levels of support and training to insure your church has a spiritually and financially successful capital campain.

Comprehensive enough for large campaigns, cost-effective enough for even the smallest churches, all of this, and more, is offered at a refreshingly low price that makes it affordable for churches of any size. More information is available at www.OurCapitalCampaign.com.

Capital Campaign Feedback

2009-03-02T12:37:00.004-05:00

I had a status call today with a church capital campaign client this morning, and the chairperson had a most insightful and encouraging comment. The church is two weeks away from their Committment Sunday when everyone will bring their initial offerings and ongoing peldge commitments for the 3-year giving period.

His comment to me was the leadership team felt that they already had a successful campaign and that if they were to call it quits today and not take up the collection and pledges, that their campaign was worth it in terms of spiritual growth, team building, unity, and involvment of such a large part of the body. Praise the Lord, that's the way it should be; like I say, it is not about the money.

The Year of the Church Capital Campaign

2009-02-12T16:01:00.007-05:00

The banks have money to lend, they just don't seem to want to do it. This week a number of the largest banks were called before Congress who basically told them to make more of the bailout money available for loans. Some lenders have just stopped lending to churches while others are setting the bar so high, that if you can qualify for the loan, you probably didn't need it.

The money is out there, its just not as easy to get. Banks are requiring many times the level of documentation and are lending less. A year ago, a church could reasonably expect to borrow 80% of the appraised value of a completed project (80% Loan to Value or LTV), today if you are fortunate, the lenders may lend you 80% of the project cost (as opposed to project value) and some lenders are talking 60% and 65% loans.

As one lender recently stated to me, "cash flow is King, and cash on hand is Queen." What many lenders will require to see today is
at least 20% of your project cost in cash and a monthly net positive cash flow that is 125% of the loan payment. These criteria make it very difficult for the church to borrow today without significant and time consuming preparation. To qualify for a loan, the church needs money in the bank and a history of positive cash flow. Most churches are not in this situation, even though they have an immediate need to build.

There are three things a church can do to prepare that will help it become qualified to borrow for construction:

1. Reduce Expenses. As the past treasurer of my church I can assure you that almost every budget can be cut, often dramatically. It's never easy, but it can be done. The good news is that trimming the expense side of the ministry requires only commitment and a sharp knife.
2. Increase Income. You need to have the largest possible gap (positive, that is) between income and expense. Increasing income through tithes and offerings is 50% of that battle.
3. Increase cash on hand. Put a line item in the budget for debt retirement even before you get a loan and put the money into savings. Add to this amount whatever you can by increasing giving and decreasing expenses.

Increasing income and cash on hand can both be accomplished through a church capital campaign. (Follow this link to learn more about a church capital campaign. Historically, the vast majority of churches have waited until they were about to build or were in the process before beginning a capital campaign. I believe that many churches that need to build now will not be able to get financing and begin construction until late this year or even this time next year because they cannot meet the new lending requirements of cash on hand and cash flow. Although the church may have equity, even cash equity, if they cannot show a history of positive cash flow, they probably will not be able to get adequate financing.

I believe that many churches are going to come to the hard realization that they cannot get the financing they need and that to qualify will take them many months of demonstrated financial change. I believe we will see a large number of churches want to enter into capital campaigns very soon so they may build next year. Remember, the banks will want to see 6-12 months of reduced expenses and increased giving (due in large part to a church capital campaign) before approving the church loan. The wise church will plan ahead and get their campaign underway as soon as possible. To this anticipated need, we are bringing on additional staff and looking at creative and cost effective ways to help churches execute their capital campaigns.

SonRise

2009-02-12T15:39:00.007-05:00

Depending on your point of view, this either has nothing to do with church construction, or it is the whole point. I was blessed with a copy of this sunrise photo taken by Bob Freeman who is a member of the capital campaign team at Metrocrest Church in Coppell, Texas. I think Bob's camera caught a glimpse of God "doodling" for His pleasure and Glory.

This image of the cross in the clouds appeared and disappeared in a matter of seconds, but serves to remind us of a couple of things.

That is by the grace of God that the sun rises anew each day, and with the new day, His grace and mercy are renewed as well.
And that soon, Jesus will return again, the "SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. "

Take a moment and enjoy the SonRise.

Used With Permission - Freeman Photography of Coppell

Don't Complain About Your Church Building

2009-01-19T15:24:00.005-05:00

The next time you are feeling like complaining that your church building is too small, too crowded, too cold, too dark, or that the building is preventing you from growing, think about this picture.

This is a picture of an unregistered Baptist congregation that met in the forest for 10 years because they were not allowed to have a building during the Soviet era. This picture was taken just outside what is now Kiev, Ukraine. No matter what you don't like about your building, I would wager they would have been very thankful for what you have.

Notice the Lord's Supper table in front of the congregation. How many of our churches would have 30 or more people for a service where they had to walk to church and then stand in the snow to hear a sermon, and do so in defiance of a government that was not too keen on human rights??

Photo & story courtesy of FrontLine Missions, www.frontlinemissions.info. I urge you to support FrontLine Missions or any organization that is taking the Word into areas of persecution and oppression.

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Economic Crisis Affecting Capital Campaigns

2008-11-30T13:33:00.007-05:00

Depending on what part of the country the church is in, the current economic downturn most likely affected the results of capital campaigns that were kicking off this fall. Based on the results of our church capital campaigns that were already in the planning stage for kickoff this fall, pledge commitments received are substantially less than the estimates made before the downturn. In areas especially hard hit, such as areas supported by the big three auto makers, commitments were as little as 50% of the expected range of results. In areas less impacted, results were off as little as 15% of the expected results.

It seems people are hunkering down, holding onto their money, and avoiding long range financial commitments.

In large part, it seems that commitments are reduced more because of uncertainty as to how much worse it may get before it gets better, than to real current economic hardship.

Historically, national economic stress generally has very little impact on giving. According to research from the Giving USA Foundation, which analyzes charitable fundraising, giving increased an average of 8.4 per cent in years without a recession and by 6.2 percent in years with a recession (in current dollars, before adjusting for inflation). The average rate of change in giving during a recession is a drop of only 1 percent, the foundation reports. In the worst recession year for giving, 1974, contributions dropped a total of 5.4 per cent.

The current downturn in long term giving commitments then is most likely due to the FUD factor - fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

What this means for spring 2009 capital campaigns is anyone's guess and depends a great deal on what happens over the next few months with respect to the credit crunch, major industry, and employment. More bad news will certainly not improve the FUD factor, but we need to keep the faith. If you have a need to build and you believe that God is calling you to build, then rest in the promise that He will meet your needs. Your task then is to count the cost, separate needs from wants and go forward in faith.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt; these things are not of God. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

I'd love to hear how your fall capital campaign fared. Please post a reply with details of goal and commitment amounts. Your input will help other churches plan their capital campaigns.

You may also be interested in reading my October blog post, "Should churches build in these times of economic uncertainty?"

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Should Your Church Build In These Times Of Economic Uncertainty?

2008-10-02T16:25:00.006-04:00

I am hearing this question a lot these days, "Should our church build given the economic situation?" While a specific church situation may otherwise dictate, I believe that the general answer is that it should, if certain conditions are true.

Here's my premise. God is bigger than any economic crisis. He's bigger than Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and Wall Street. Sadly our lives don't reflect what our money reminds us. Our forefathers were wise enough to know not to trust the money, that is why they wrote a reminder to us, "In God We Trust", on every bill.

In 2 Corinthians 9:8 Paul says, " And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;"

And Jesus said, "Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?' or "What shall we drink?' or "What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matthew 6:31:33.

We have an abundance for every good work, - not sometimes, but always! No one is going to lose their house or go hungry because they gave to the work of the Lord with a joyful heart as they respond to the leading of the Lord. Better to trust the promises of God than our feelings about our present circumstances.

What a great witness, when the entire country is pulling back, for a church to be seen growing forward! I believe a church can, and should, step out in faith and build, regardless of the world's circumstances, if the following conditions are true.

There is a real kingdom need to build. Not "want to", "would like to", or "wouldn't it be cool if", but "you need" to build. This means you are out of room and cannot accommodate the souls that the Lord is sending your way (i.e. you either build or put out a "no vacancy" sign) or it is the long-term and deeply held conviction that you are called to a ministry that you cannot provide for in your current facilities. Your church leadership and church body as a whole need to pray long and hard about the need to build and be in overwhelming concurrence (80% of more) that you truly believe you need to build.
Your church continues to see growth (the exception would be there is just no more room to grow and visitors don't come back).
You know what you need to build and what you can afford to build, given the current finances of the church. This is best accomplished through a needs and feasibility study which will not only answer these questions, but will also be able to gauge the church's readiness to build.
Your church as started or will be soon starting a capital campaign. A capital campaign is a key element in a church building program, and should be begun in advance of the construction. The benefits of a church capital campaign are too many to list here, but one of the advantages is that it will objectively determine whether the congregation will financially support a building program.

The bottom line is this truth; Lord, Your will shall not take me where Your grace will not sustain me. God’s grace is sufficient to meet our needs and accomplish His purposes.

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Need a Church Architect or Church Building Plans?

2008-09-13T00:21:00.005-04:00

If your church is in the market for a church architect or church building plans, you will want to check out this new web portal, ChurchPlansource.com

This new portal provides access to stock building plans from experienced church architects. Visitors are able to view church building plans by building size or seating capacity. If a church desires, a free consultation to help identify the most appropriate plan for a church's needs and budget is available. If the church desires to purchase one of these stock plans, an order can be placed with the church architect that supplied the plans.

Most of the plans on the site may be purchased "as-is" from previous building programs and then brought up to local building code (for fee) either by the church architect that originally designed the plan, or by an architect of the church's choice.

As one developer put it, "this is a real blessing to the church and will save a great deal of time, and effort, not to mention money." In addition to allowing users to download preliminary plans, the site offers referrals to church building and capital campaign consultants, financing sources, and builders.

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Tips on Selecting a Church Architect

2008-06-21T19:43:00.004-04:00

If you are looking for a church architect, here are some tips that you will want to keep in mind that will help you get the right architect for your church building program.

First and foremost is that there is a difference between an architect that has designed some churches, and a church architect. Designing churches is different and working with church folks is different. What ever church architect or firm you select should specialize in churches. The church architect you select should have designed dozens or even hundreds of church plans.

Secondly, the church architect you select should have experience in designing churches that are of the size, style, and complexity of the church you need to build. Just because the firm of Dewey, Cheatam & Howe has designed a few cathedrals or edifices for mainline downtown churches, does not mean that they are the right church architect to design your multi-purpose family life center. As you search for a church architect, make sure you ask to see work from other projects of the type, size, and cost of your program.

In a Q&A session with a church yesterday, I was asked yesterday what were some general qualifications that the church should look for or consider in hiring an architect. In addition to the above tips, I suggested that they look for an architect who attends church. I even suggested they may consider asking how often they attend. The reasons for suggestion this were two-fold. For one, its always better to do business with a fellow Christian when possible. Secondly, and even more importantly, is how well can an architect design a church when they don't attend?

As a church building consultant, I have been blessed to come to know several architects who specialize in church construction. You could save yourself a lot of time, effort and money, by contacting me and letting me put you in contact with the right church architect.

For additional information on question to ask church architect candidates, you may download an excerpt from my book, Preparing to Build, in the form of an article entitled 75 Questions to Ask When Hiring an Architect.

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Don't Forget the Bibles

2008-06-12T12:00:00.003-04:00

So many details get overlooked when building a new church. As you approach the end of your church building project you will be ordering new church furniture. Whether you order pews or nice church chairs, don't forget that you will also want new pew bibles (chair bibles just does not sound right). If you are expanding ministries or Christian education you may need to stock up on study bibles or teen and youth bibles.

Whether you want KJV or a foreign language bible translation, a large number of pew bibles, make sure you get them for your opening service. If you need really large numbers of bibles you can get pallet pricing directly from the printer.

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Contracting for Church Design & Construction

2008-05-30T09:01:00.007-04:00

Which Way is the Right Way? There are a myriad of ways for a church to contract for the design and construction of a new church. Today, many churches are built by what has become traditionally known as the design-bid-build method. This is the conventional general contractor approach, where the church hires an architect to design the building, the design is sent to bid, and builders submit bids to build the building, usually at a fixed cost. This is undoubtedly the worse way for the church to contract for the design and construction of their church.

There is a growing trend towards design-build, which, while better than design-bid-build, is not the best method in terms of lowering cost and risk. In a typical design-build model the church hires a builder by who, in turn, hires an architect who does the design work for the builder. The drawback, however, is that the architect works for the builder, not the church. This can put the church at a disadvantage as the possibility exists that the builder and architect can make design decisions that benefit the builder and architect (i.e. raise their profit), and not the church. In many cases, design-build has a drawback similar to that of the conventional general contractor model, a fixed price closed book contract where the church does not know all the costs of the building program and cost savings go to the builder, not the church.

Diametrically opposed to the sequential, and somewhat disjointed, design-bid-build delivery model, is the team approach using a construction manager. The team approach integrates the church, builder and designer together at the beginning of the design process to work in parallel throughout the design and construction process. This parallel team method provides the church with a number of advantages including: time savings, less duplicated effort, a design whose cost is counted throughout the development process, and a building design that is a collaborative effort rather than the product of a somewhat disjointed and adversarial process. All of these benefits add up to significant savings in time, cost and effort while producing a superior result.

If your church is planning to build, it will greatly benefit from having an “ideal model” to emulate. In the best church construction scenario, the church will have begun preparation to build well in advance of the design and construction phases, and accomplished two very important tasks. First and foremost, it should complete a needs and feasibility in order to objectively understand what it needs to build, what it can afford to build, and how to pay for it. (A needs and feasibility study is a prerequisite step for both architectural design and raising money through a capital campaign.

The capital campaign is the second task that the church should begin as far in advance of building as possible. Among other benefits, a capital campaign will help raise money for the up-front costs of building and potentially reduce the amount of money that needs to be borrowed. It would be in the church’s best interest to get a church building consultant, either from within their denomination or an independent consultant, for both the needs and feasibility and capital campaign. Both of these important tasks will be greatly enhanced by the wise counsel and experience of an outside consultant who is both experienced and objective.

This brings us to the model that will save the church the most time and money, reduce its risk and stress, and has the highest probability of providing the best building solution. The ultimate model for church construction is one with a consultant involved early in the process to determine needs and feasibility and execute a capital campaign who is working in a team consisting of a licensed architect and a construction manager working in an open book method where all costs and accounting are open to inspection and is working for a fixed fee.

The further away the church gets from this model, the greater the potential amount of cost, risk, and time the church will experience in their church building project. It is also important to remember that there is a lot of difference between an architect (or builder) that has done some churches and a church architect (of builder).

To get the full 4-pg article that describes this in more detail, you may request a copy from the author by using this contact form.

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Church Building Plans - The New Paradigm

2008-05-14T22:46:00.005-04:00

I am really exited over the relationships we have built with a number of church builders and architects. However, the relationships I am the most stoked over today are those with 3 forward looking architectural firms (who all have a heart for the church) that I believe are driving a paradigm shift in how many churches will go through the design process.

As I have previously noted, it is possible for churches to get church building plans from previous building programs for a fraction of the cost of design from scratch. Granted, these plans need to be modified for local conditions and building codes, but the church is able to save approximately half of the cost of their church design by starting with existing plans.

There are three distinct advantages, in addition to cost savings, in starting with existing church plans:

It saves time. It is much easier (read faster) to pick out an existing plan rather than try to go through the give and take process of trying to explain it to an architect. It is much like picking out a suspect from a lineup instead of trying to describe them to sketch artist.

Using existing, or stock, building plans also allows you to get an accurate construction cost early in the process from working drawings that cost as little as $2,995 - as opposed to spending 10's of thousands (or more) to get to the same point designing from scratch, especially when the vast majority of churches cannot afford to build the plans that the architect typically provides in the first pass.

Likewise, you can start the preliminary plan approval process sooner with the city or county, again, without having to invest months and tens of thousands of dollars to get this process rolling.

In addition, existing church building plans are a definitive point for identifying what changes the church would like to make. I always say "it ain't yours 'till you mess with it", and this is certainly true of church plans. By limiting changes to interior walls and not changing the fundamental structure of the building, these changes will not make a significant impact on the overall cost or invalidate the preliminary cost estimate. Once the church has made all the red-line changes they feel they need, the architect can give them a quote on turning those uncertified plans into final, sealed construction documents, usually at 40-60% less than the traditional design process.

As a church building consultant I recommend that any church should at least investigate this option as part of their due diligence. To make it even easier, we offer a church plan search service at no cost to the church. We have a close working relationship with all three of these industry changing firms and we would be please to help you find the right church building plan for your church

Next post, I will show how this fits into a larger strategy that I consider just about the best way to design and build a church.

The Worst Way to Design & Build a Church

2008-04-12T12:07:00.004-04:00

I have seen a number of articles recently that echo what I have been saying all along, that the "traditional" Design/Bid/Build (DBB) model is not the way to build churches. In DBB, the church hires an architect to design a building. That design is then put out to bid to a number of contractors. The winning bidder then builds the church.

As explained, it seems like a good way to go, but in reality, this method will take longer, cost more, cause more conflict, and reduce the church's satisfaction with the process. What happens in almost every church building project done this way is the architect over designs the building and produces a building that the church can't afford. After the design goes to bid, the church receives multiple bids that are typically 2x - 4x what the church can afford. The design goes back to the architect to be redesigned. The revised plans go back to bid and (hopefully) a reputable builder can price the job near the church's budget. The builder then helps the church value engineer the building to bring the project within the church's budget. Once again, the changes are done by the architect, and guess what, you pay for the changes again. In fairness, what I have described is the typical experience of most churches, some architects may charge differently.

For a church that does not clearly understand what they need to build and what they can truly afford, it will most likely spend tens of thousands of dollars on plans it cannot build and then spend even more to get plans that will work for the church. The best thing would be to have completed a church needs and feasibility study before talking to an architect or builder.

A lot of architects don't like what I have to say. However, the majority of architects that specialize in churches absolutely agree with my position. A number of these offer stock church plans at huge savings and/or offer services to the church at rates that are 35-50% or more below "street price".

Many of those who are now writing articles in the church magazines decrying the traditional Design/Bid/Build model (what I have been telling churches for years) are promoting the Design/Build (DB) model for building a church. While better than DBB, DB has it's own unique potential drawbacks. In a seminar this week, I was able to help a church save between $300,000 and $500,000 by explaining how modify the way they did the Design/Build contracting for their on a $4.5M project.

In a follow-up post, I will describe the best way to contract for a church building project.

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Financial Considerations for When to Build

2008-03-31T21:25:00.002-04:00

A popular theory with some in the church is that the church should wait to build until it has raised most, or all of the cash for building. This can be a good strategy if the church is forward thinking enough to begin to accumulate cash well before it needs to build, but may be contra-productive if the church needs to build in the near future.

Some may also purport to claim that it is unscriptural to borrow, often quoting one or two verses out of context to prove their point. The truth is, that while borrowing may be less preferable than paying cash, it is not a sin as long as the church is careful to count the cost and determine a safe debt limit.

By way of example, let's consider a modest building program of $1,000,000. Accepting that construction costs have increased an average of approximately 10% per year, averaged over the past several years, then a $1,000,000 building program will cost about $100,000 more in one year. A $100,000 annual cost increase is about $8,000 per month. If a church had $500,000 and waited a year to build in order to raise all the money, it would have to raise $600,000 by the time construction began.

On the other hand, if the church were to borrow the $500,000 at 7% interest for one year, the total cost of interest would be no more than $35,000. (Actually it would be closer to $18,000 as the church would exhaust its own funds before borrowing, so it would not need to borrow the entire $500,000 until about 6 months into the project.) In the worse case, the church would pay $65,000 LESS by borrowing and building than by saving and paying cash and could save as much as $82,000.

While there are some reasonable warnings with respect to borrowing, it is not unscriptural. It would be, however, unscriptural not to be good stewards of God’s money. The church should not be like the servant in the parable of the talents who buried his master’s money in the ground to be safe. This servant was an unwise steward whom the scriptures refer to as wicked, lazy, and worthless. Like the wise servants, the church needs to make effective use of its money work.

The cost of delaying construction is also valid issue when discussing delays due to a slow decision-making process and/or unnecessary delays in design or construction. Again, every month of delay costs the church $8,000. If the process of design and selecting a builder takes 4 or 5 months longer than necessary, the church has added $40,000 of cost to the building program for no good reason.

In the final analysis, the church should not only count the cost of building the tower, but also count the cost in delaying to build.

The Biggest Mistake in Church Design

2008-01-27T15:59:00.001-05:00

As I look back over the years and hundreds of church building stories I've heard, by far the single biggest mistake made by churches in the design process is the failure to have a firm and reasonable budget at the front-end of the design process. This is a joint failure on the part of the church and the architect. Now before I get a bunch of angry emails from architects (it wouldn't be the first time) I want to say that the responsibility is primarily the church's, however, this does not let the architect off the hook, as I will explain below.

A church should have a firm budget going into the design process that is based on what it can truly afford to build. It is not the architects responsibility to help the church determine what they can afford. Sadly, however, when most churches sit down with an architect, the first question asked is "what do you want to build" and not "what is your budget" or "what can you afford". While it is the church's responsibility to know what they can reasonably afford to build, the architect has a responsibility to ask the question. However, experience shows this rarely seems to be the case. If the church does not have a reasonable budget, or any budget at all, the architect should press them to develop one. (For an in-depth understanding of how a church determines its financial ability and the appropriate formula to calculate a maximum construction budget, see my book, Preparing to Build.)

The church's financial ability will dictate how big of a building it can build; the needs of ministry will dictate how that building is laid out. It is a gross disservice (and that is being kind) if the architect does not ascertain one of the fundamental factors affecting the design - the client's budget. If the design process starts with what the church wants to build, instead of what in can afford, the church's budget must then conform to the building plans, when it should be the building plans that should conform to the budget. This is a recipe for disaster. After several months of design and, quite often, 10's of thousands of dollars, over 8 out of 10 churches end up with building plans that far exceed their financial ability to build. In this manner, millions of dollars are spent each year by churches on building plans that they cannot afford to build.

Not too long ago a builder shared with me an experience from when he spoke at a small church building seminar. In the presentation he asked the pastors how many of them came to their current church and found a set of building plans in the closet or stuck in a drawer that they couldn't build. An astounding 20 out of 22 (90%) raised their hands! When you consider that these plans probably cost between $30,000 and $150,000 each, those few churches probably spent between $600,000 and $3,000,000 on plans that would never get built.

The church must have a true and accurate understanding of what they can afford to build and that must be communicated up-front to the architect. The church should then hold that architect financially responsible for delivering plans that are within, or reasonably close to, its construction budget. In this manner, the church will not find itself paying an architect to draw church plans that won't work and then paying them to fix those same plans, which will add adding considerable time and cost to the church's design process.

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Church Building Guide

2008-01-02T23:08:00.002-05:00

Need a guide to church construction? I've put up a new web site dedicated to my book, Preparing to Build. Here's the official description,

Written by an experienced church building consultant, Preparing to Build is over 170 pages of real-world, practical information that will equip your leaders and church building committee to properly prepare for, and to execute, a church building program in a manner that will save time, stress, and money.

Reader Comments:

"Preparing to Build was an incredible value - just a wealth of information. The truth and his experience jump off the pages." - Dwight VanDaveer
"I have read your book and recommended it to our church board. I think your book is one of the best I have found on this topic." - Mark Sterk

Check out the new site at PreparingToBuild.com

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Church Capital Campaign: The Biblical Basis

2007-12-21T11:27:00.002-05:00

I occasionally run across folks that think that a church capital campaign for a building program is a bad idea. Some have even called it unscriptural, but in in my opinion, its just the opposite. Perhaps people get caught up in the terminology, but a capital campaign is really just a name for designated offering to the church building program.

A capital stewardship campaign is a purposeful giving effort for the purpose of buying land or building a building. While more structured in the process than in Old Testament times, church capital campaigns have as a biblical basis the example of building of the tent of the tabernacle. In Exodus 35, we read that Moses went to the people to take up a special offering for the building of the tent and all that went inside of it. The first principal that we learn is that God called (and continues to call) His people to sacrifice their time, treasures and talents in order to accomplish His work.

Capital campaigns also draw upon the example in the 29th chapter of 1 Chronicles of where we find King David preparing to build the temple. In this example we learn two important principles.

First is that he prepared in advance. Even thought the Lord had told David that he could not build the temple, God did not say he could not prepare, so we see him taking up an offering for the work.
The second important principal we learn from this text is one of leading by example. In verse 26, we see a "top down" approach to giving as the leaders gave first as a model to the people.

The three capital campaign principals you should take away from this post are; God calls His people to sacrifice for His work; start saving before you need to build; and lastly, giving should be modeled by the leadership of the church. Best wishes to you for your church's capital campaign.

Church Grants - Part I

2007-12-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

Many churches today are seeking church grants for a variety of purposes, including construction. According to Bernice Sanders Smoot of Saint Wall Street, there are over 600,000 churches and faith based organizations in the USA and my experience is that most of them are looking for money. With only a very few thousand faith-friendly grant foundations, well I guess you can do the math.

The bottom line is your ministry, in order to get funded by grants, must have three key ingredients and follow the golden rule if are to stand any chance for grant funding. In simple terms, the three key ingredients are: you need to have something worth writing about; you need to write about it well; and, you need to write to the right people.

Once you have these three key ingredients, you then need to follow the golden rule for grants: "He with the gold, rules." This means that you must follow the grant maker guidelines to the the letter, unless you want your proposal to end up in the trash can. Yes, I said the trash can. Over 80% of requests received by foundations are immediately rejected, largely due to not following the rules. and this is true regardless of how deserving of funding your ministry may be. You see, some faith-based foundations receive dozens or hundreds of requests per day. Grant makers don't have the time or the manpower to try to piece together your request - you follow their format and process or your request does not even get considered.

When applying for a church grant, you must be able to demonstrate the value proposition. You do this by quantifying what you have done, what the effects were, and how the money you are requesting will produce more results. Grant makers like to fund success, not just good ideas. This requires many ministries to take the time to measure and quantify their programs so they have something worth writing about. Once you have something that you can document as being worth funding, you then need to make the grant request. You need to submit according to each foundation's guidelines, and you need to write it well; get professional help if necessary. Who you submit to is also very important. Just because a foundation makes faith-friendly grants does not mean that they want to fund everything just because it is faith related. Many grant makers fund only specific types of programs, so you should to apply to those that fund the type of programs and ministries like yours.

If your church is looking for grants for ministry, stay tuned for Part II of this post which will share where to find the vast majority of the funding that goes to houses of faith and ministries. Hint: Its not from grant making foundations or the government. In Q1 of 2008 we also will be announcing where you can get a directory of over 1,000 foundations who openly accept proposals from Christian churches and agencies.

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Avoiding Budget Bloat in Church Construction

2007-12-06T07:43:00.000-05:00

Church construction projects (and their budgets) seem only to grow over time, not shrink. Here are three tips to prevent construction budget bloat.

Tip number one is to make sure you have everything in the project budget to begin with. Your project budget should be one that includes everything including site acquisition, site development, architectural design, engineering (including survey, civil and fire), construction interest, fees & permits, consulting fees, contingency and furniture and fixtures. Whatever you forget in the planning stage you will pay for later in the project, usually after you have already used up all of your budget on the things you did remember.

Secondly, make sure the budget is reasonable. Your builder should the church a complete project budget prior to construction. One of the safest contractual arrangements for the church is one that provides a guaranteed not-to-exceed price. In this agreement, the builder is responsible for underbidding, errors, and omissions. This is typically easier to do with a design/build firm, as they are responsible for both the design and construction. If something is left out or underbid, they can blame no one except themselves. Whoever provides the project budget should have some responsibility and liability for that number. For planning purposes, you should figure that your project budget (including everything) will be no less than $100-125 per square foot. Certain states and metro areas will be higher.

Finally, watch the change orders. Change orders will happen. If the changes are required due to code compliance, there is little you can do except grin and bear it (note, the building inspector does not always interpret things the same way the planning department did when they approved your plans). If the change order is because of a design deficiency, you can try to pursue the architect's errors and omissions insurer (best wishes with that) unless it was design/build, in which case you can probably make some or all of the problem the builder's. That all being true, the biggest threat however, to budget creep is often the church! Once the church has had designed just about all it can afford (and sometimes more), sometime during project construction the pastor, a deacon, or building committee member will get a "great idea" and ask the builder if they can do it. Generally the answer is yes, however, is always at a cost. It all adds up, $80,000 here, $12,00 there, and pretty soon a budget that was already tight becomes super-critical.

In summary, know what you can truly afford, design to your budget (and stop there), don't make changes once construction starts, and keep an eye on those change orders. Change orders make up a large portion of many builders profit objectives, so watch out that you don't pay more for them than they really cost.

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Architects and Church Construction Cost

2007-11-21T12:22:00.001-05:00

I had to laugh today as I was reading a Scout Merit Badge Review on the usscouts.org website. One of the merit badges which boy scouts can earn is for architecture. Under the comments section for this merit badge it says, and I quote, "...involves interviews. Be sure to ask the architects why they almost always under estimate the cost!" It's not just me saying this folks, it seems others have the same opinion!

I can think of a couple reasons why the architect's cost estimate for church construction is low. For one, they usually only deal in theory as they are not the ones actually building the building. They may consult a building cost resource (always out of date), base it on their last project, or underestimate the cost of some of their architectural "features". However, they are not on the front line every week in construction of these facilities and may not really have a grasp of the actual costs. Architects also tend to over design buildings. One of the first things most builders will do with a plan is to "value engineer" it to provided the same functionality with a simpler or more cost effective design.

Another reason is that architects usually have no liability if their price estimate is wrong. If the church budget is $1M and the best builders estimate is $1.3, the architect usually has no liability and will cheerfully redesign the building - for a fee. A wise church will insure that in the negotiation phase that any cost for redesign to make the church meet the budget that was provided is born by the architect and not the church.

By the way, if your church is building and you have boy scouts in your church, this would be a great opportunity for them to earn a merit badge.

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Church Capital Campaign Horror Story

2007-10-30T10:35:00.001-04:00

For many churches, it is the season of the capital campaign that will help finance the construction of the church building. For the world, it is the season of horror as it celebrates Halloween (don't get me started on that track). For some unlucky few, it is the intersection of both - a capital campaign that turns out to be, if not a horror, then far less the spiritually and financially uplifting event that it should have been.

As a capital campaign consultant, I hear the good and the bad about church's experiences with their campaigns. Sometimes its enough to make you want to cry, or at least cry out in anger and frustration. Today I heard from a church who spent $50,000 on [just] capital campaign services from a well known consulting firm with a short name. The church did not feel they received the the promised or necessary attention or focus of their consultant. The church soon realized that the campaign was in trouble and when they reportedly contacted the firm, they were promised printed materials and follow-up visits, none of which materialized. The end result was the church was left much on its own and raised about 25% of what the consultants told them they could raise. The church is considering asking for some of its money back, as the consulting firm did not deliver on its promised services.

I hear variations of this sad song over and over, perhaps with a different refrain, but always the same chorus; "we paid a lot of money and feel we got very little personal attention for the money spent." Over and over again I hear churches say the results did not live up to the sales pitch. Churches that were wined and dined and inundated with fancy glossy sales packages often felt somewhat abandoned when it came to delivery. A word of warning - it seems that many firms are better at marketing than performing.

Before you get the wrong idea, I do NOT mean this as a condemnation of capital campaign services. A capital campaign is an effort that produces both spiritual and financial benefit! The church will typically experience much better spiritual and financial results when it hires a consultant. An experienced consultant should be able to tailor the best practices developed from other church's efforts into a capital campaign to meet an individual church's needs. Speaking from my own experience as both a client and a consultant, the church should get experienced outside help for its campaign. There are good consultants that can deliver entire completed campaigns for less than just the consulting fee charged by some of the "big firms".

I will also say that, regardless of the size of the company, the church should not "buy the company", it should "buy the consultant" . It's important to know your consultant and how many projects he or she will be working on at the same time as your project. It is also important to know the spiritual "fit". for as it says in 1 Thes. 5:12, we are to "know those who labor among you".

If you have your own capital campaign story, I encourage you to share it as a comment to this post.

Timing a Church Capital Campaign

2007-10-21T17:51:00.005-04:00

Timing is critical for churches that want to execute a capital campaign, and preparation for a spring capital campaign needs to start the previous fall (and vice-versa).

A church's capital campaign has 5 phases and it is the third, or public phase, that most church people think of when they talk about a capital campaign. As you will see below, there are two other phases of the campaign that must happen first - and that means the church needs to be getting started in the fall.

A capital campaign takes time to prepare, committees must be formed, people trained, and all of the behind the scenes work to make the campaign happen have to happen before the campaign goes public. As a pastor who recently finished a spring campaign said, "If there was one piece of advice I would give about a capital campaign, it would be to give yourself plenty of time". While their church had a very successful campaign, their short timeline put a great deal of stress and burden on the staff.

The following is a sample time line for a 5 church capital campaign:

Planning & Recruiting: 3 weeks - 3 months
Equipping & Preparation: 5 - 10 weeks
Public Phase: 5 - 8 weeks (Elapsed Time 13 to 20+ weeks)
Receiving Commitments: 1 to 3 weeks
Collection & Follow-up: Typically 3 years

Phase 1 - Planning & Recruiting
This phase can take from 3 weeks to 3 months, depending on size of congregation, method of church governance, availability of staff to the project, and other events on the church calendar. In this phase a general timeline is established, the director and executive committee members are considered and recruited based on job descriptions and gifting. Workers for the various teams or committees may also be solicited during this phase.

Phase 2 - Equipping & Preparation
This phase can last from 5 to 10 weeks, or often even longer. The shorter the time frame for completion, the more intense the effort. It is during this phase that recruitment of workers for the capital campaign teams is completed, training for the stewardship committee is accomplished, and much of the “behind the scenes” background work is completed. The more time the church allows for this phase, the easier it will be for everyone involved.

Phase 3 - Public Phase
It is this phase that most people think of when they conceptualize a capital campaign. This phase can last from 5 to 8 weeks, depending on the size of the congregation and other factors. The goals of this phase are to clearly communicate the need; clearly teach and model stewardship; and for everyone prayerfully consider how the Lord would them contribute to the campaign.

Phase 4 - Capital Campaign Wrap-up Phase
This phase will last from 1 to 3 weeks depending on size of congregation and method of collecting pledges. The major goals are: to have a celebration Sunday to give thanks and Glory to God; collect any remaining pledges; provide a final total to the church; send thank you letters; acknowledge and thank workers; and implement a plan and process to provide regular statements on giving.

Phase 5 - Pledge Collection & Follow-up
This phase consists of the tasks of collecting the monies pledged, providing regular statements to members for pledges received, making regular reports to the congregation on capital campaign pledge receipts, and integrating new members into the program.

Churches will typically raise about twice as much money by utilizing an outside capital campaign consultant than they will on their own. While some churches may be put off by the cost or idea of a consultant, it is easy to see that this is an investment that will pay for itself many times over. A church consultant will lead the church's capital campaign committee and help them apply the best practices that have been developed by the thousands of churches in their own capital campaigns over the decades. By getting started with their campaign at the appropriate time, the church will make it easier and more effective, not only for the capital campaign consultant, but for the church as well.

Captial Campaigns have gotten even more important due to the economic crisis; see this post about financing and church capital campaigns. If your church is interested in a cost-effective capital campaign that offers the flexibility to be anything from a DIY in-house campaign, to a full capital campaign consulting engagement, visit www.OurCapitalCampaign.com

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Church Seating - How Would Jesus Sit?

2007-10-14T00:39:00.000-04:00

Pastor Dan Kimball of Vintage church posted an interesting history of pews and church seating. As he points out, pre-reformation, people did not sit in fixed seating. I chuckled when he painted the mental picture of the Last Supper in pews. Want to be a new testament church? Then get out of those pews and rows of locked chairs and get more relational in your gathering.

I attended a post modern service with multiple "stations" where you could take the Lord's Supper, pray at the foot of a large cross, pray with like-minded people, or enjoy the teaching of one of the pastors. While at first I found it a somewhat disconcerting experience, that quickly morphed to a one of a deep spiritual experience that I was sad to have come to an end.

We talk about churches being relational. Most churches today have the forced "meet and greet time" where we are all encouraged to turn, great and shake hands with someone. In my personal opinion its a somewhat shallow experience and not one that fosters true communication or relations. Then, after our 2 minutes of "relating", we spend the next 45 minutes looking at the back of their heads. Its no wonder that many wonder why they don't connect better with visitors.

Church seating fanning out nearly 180 degrees, with the pulpit as the center point, does at least let us see the faces of others that are worshiping with us. How uplifting it is to see the faces of people in true worship. And by being able to see each other during worship, we get to know people a little bit, even if somewhat removed.

So, back to my question, which is the title of this post. How would Jesus sit? We know that they used to sit together, sometimes even reclining against each other. I encourage us all to get outside the box and start designing sanctuaries and classrooms that are intentional in their design to create relationships with each other, and our Lord.

Capital Campaign Communication Materials

2007-10-12T22:08:00.001-04:00

As a capital campaign consultant I understand the important role of communication materials. A church capital campaign is like a three-legged stool in that there are three foundational elements that need to be addressed: Intellectual, Emotional and Spiritual. The campaign materials that you create are an important element that help communicate the information and excitement of a capital campaign and provide an additional avenue to educate the congregation on the spiritual aspects of giving. The ultimate success of a church capital campaign is dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit moving people to make an appropriate faith response to a Kingdom need, not how well we speak or how fancy our materials. That said, if you are asking your congregation to give hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, you should provide communication materials that rise to the occasion.

As a part of my consulting services, I provide the graphic art design for all of the communication pieces. This offloads the church having to spend a huge amount of time and money getting someone to design quality materials. I am able to provide churches with a "menu" of over 150 themes, multiple logos and type faces and can offer a complete communications package in hours or a few days instead of weeks. The church campaign committee makes selections from a flexible "menu" of options and then supplies the text for each of the pieces.

I have delivered a complete set of printed capital campaign materials in as little as 4 weeks from the time the church first sat down to select their options. My secret? Catalyst Faithworks. They have a complete line of capital campaign materials with hundreds of themes, logos, fonts and templates of everything from commitment cards to 4-page brochures and newsletters. They provide the word count for each piece, the church supplies the text and as fast as the church can approve the proofs they can move it through their process and provide either camera ready artwork or they can coordinate printing and ship the completed campaign to the church. The provide the highest quality service and product and at a price that is a small fraction of what it would cost to create the materials from scratch. Before you ask, no this is not a paid endorsement - I really like the service and the people. Give them a call and ask if Steve at AMI Church Consulting services is a happy client.

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Turning Around a Church Building Program Gone Bad

2007-10-12T21:30:00.001-04:00

As the poet Robert Burns so accurately stated, "The best laid plans of mice and go oft awry.". Even more so, plans go even more awry when they are not so well laid, especially in church building programs. If your church building program gets into hot water, or never seems to get off the ground, it may be time to regroup, and that my mean getting some outside help.

Building programs that never really get off the ground are certainly not uncommon. I know of churches that have had regular meetings for years (the record is 11 years) without managing to build anything. I heard of another church that went on long enough to have 2 building committee chairs die in office. If your building program is much talk and little action , it will inevitably be found to suffer from one or more of these four conditions:

Lack of real need,
Lack of good process,
Lack of effective leadership, or
Lack of faith.

The first and last are between you and God. A good consultant can help with the other two.

A building program that is in hot water nearly always will get there through a lack of proper planning. The three biggest mistakes that churches make in this regard are unrealistic expectations, failure to count the cost, and failing to objectively understand their needs.

I have been a part of rescuing building programs that were stalled or in hot water. Depending on the situation, the church may need to back up and do a full needs and feasibility study or at least an assessment to see where the building program got off in the weeds and to make the necessary adjustments to get it back on track. Having an outside authority come in and lead the church though an analysis not only helps get the church building program back on track, but will also help restore the confidence of the church membership. This analysis may require changing the scope of the building program to one the church can afford, or it may just help highlight and confirm what the church felt it needed, but did not have the objective evidence on which to make an informed decision.

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Count the Cost of Church Construction

2007-09-07T18:15:00.000-04:00

One of the things that fails to concern me is the general lack of financial skills in the leadership of many churches. If I had a dollar for every time a church of 50-100 people contacted me wanting to build a church of a million dollars, I could make a payment or two on a church building of my own. I guess what brings this to mind is a call I had (again) today with a church of 55 people who wanted to build a 10,000sf multi-purpose church facility. A conservative price tag for the project was a million dollars and it had never occurred to the leadership that they could not afford it. When I told them the probable cost of the project there was stunned silence on the other end of the phone for several seconds.

In the hopes of setting the record straight for some other folks before they get themselves in trouble, let me share with everyone some basic idea of pricing. Excluding the price of the land or site development costs, a building project is going to cost $85 to $200 a square foot, and that is a church building of simple to moderate complexity and style. It only goes up from there. As of the date of this post, every $100,000 of mortgage debt will cost the church somewhere north of $800 per month, or $8,000 per million.

So, before your church decides to get into the design process, or put a concept before the church, it would be in everyone's best interest to count the cost.

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Cheap Fix for Church's Acoustical Problems

2007-08-12T16:20:00.001-04:00

A local church recently moved into their new facilities. sanctuary is multi-purpose, with the permanent, and larger, sanctuary yet to be built. This multi-purpose space has a nice hardwood basketball court type flooring, a high ceiling and hard, flat, tall and parallel walls typical of multi-use space.

Like most similar spaces, the acoustics leave much room for improvement due in large part to sound bounce (reverberation). Sound from the speakers goes out nicely over the congregation, kits all of these nice hard surfaces and bounces (echos) all over the room. This echo greatly impacts the listening experience, making music less clear and vocals much harder to understand.

There are a number of solutions that will help remedy this, many of them quite expensive. I was quite intrigued by a number of posts on the internet talking about using Sonotubes(R) to diffuse sound to keep it from bouncing around. Sonotubes are not some magical acoustic treatment, they are the tubes contractors use as forms for pouring concrete pillars. Like a paper roll tube on steroids, these industrial grade cardboard tubes, when cut in half and mounted on the wall, diffuse the sound, scattering it instead of echoing it, greatly improving sound quality. Carefully cut in have and mounted to the wall, they look like architectural treatments. To see the concept, see www.jdbsound.com/work/art558.html.

While you can have an audio consultant come in and solve the problem, many churches have little money after a building program to spare, so here is the "poor man's" solution.

Get a number of Sonotubes (new not used) and carefully cut them down the middle. Typically you will use either the 18" or 24" tubes. Dress the cut edges so they are straight and smooth. Working from the pictures from the web site above, place the Sonotubes against the walls directly across the room from the stage area and on the sides as needed. What you are trying to do is to break up the large flat wall areas with the diffusers. One church I read about placed the tubes on boards and leaned the boards against the walls, moving them around and experimenting to get the best sound. Once you know the location and spacing, then the church can permanently mount them to the wall, usually flush to the wall. Paint the tubes the same color as the wall and voilla, instant sound improvement and architectural treatment! It was even suggested by a friend that you could put lights in them like a large wall sconce to provide indirect lighting.

That said, the best way to solve these types of acoustical problems is to avoid them in the first place by getting an Audio/Visual engineer involved during the design process. However, if you have already built and need an inexpensive solution, this may work the trick.

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God is a God of Order

2007-08-01T23:14:00.001-04:00

The scriptures say that God is not the author of confusion. I had the pleasure of presenting the results of my needs and feasibility study today to a congregation that has needed to build for several years. In analyzing church and Sunday school attendance, it was apparent that this church had "hit the ceiling" several times on capacity over the past 10 years and then dropped back in attendance, always oscillating up and down past their maximum sustainable limit.

Conventional building and church growth wisdom tell us that a church is effectively full when it is at 80% of capacity, and this church certainly bore that out, with Sunday school at 80% of capacity, sanctuary seating at 85% and parking at 80%, the church just could not grow. The church knew they needed to do something, but was split almost 50-50 on how to address the question.

Enter the church building consultant. Within 90 days, the pertinent data on attendance, finances, land and ministry needs was collected and analyzed along with information that came out of personal interviews, congregational and community surveys and demographic studies. In the final analysis, neither of the two proposed solutions would have provided any long term growth to the church. This was not the fault of the church, for they had no real experience or training that would have equipped them for this work. They did not have was the experience to understand the proper questions to ask and to then evaluation the answers in a manner that would indicate the proper building strategy.

Knowing what process to follow, what questions to ask and what the answers mean brought the church from disorder to order, with a firm and sensible plan for the future, in just 3 months and will equip this ministry to make a greater impact on their area and win more souls for the kingdom. If you don't have this type of expertise in your church (and few do), there is no shame in getting some outside counsel; after all both Moses and Solomon got outside, expert help for their building program.

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Save on Church Design Using Pre-developed Plans

2007-07-29T17:07:00.002-04:00

Churches can save 50% or more on the cost of church design services by utilizing church building plans from previous building projects. Churches today have the option of buying existing plans from church architects at huge savings over custom designed plans. While options like this have been around for several years, this is a concept that is just coming into its own.

For a brief explanation of why church design costs are often unnecessarily high, see this explanation on this church architect's web site. The long and short of it is that architects often price church design projects as if they were doing all the work from scratch, when in many cases, they are taking plans from previous projects and, due to the wonders of Computer Aided Design (CAD) they are able to make changes and save the revisions without having to do everything from scratch.

Several firms now offer stock church plans for as low as $5,000, but don't think this is going to be the total cost of your church design. While these are wonderful prices and will save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in design, any set of stock plans will need to be modified to meet local, state and federal building codes. Changes to the floor plan to alter the layout to the churches desires will also add to the cost, however, with all these changes, the church can expect to save 50-80% over the cost of custom plans.

Stock church plans will certainly not include site plans or civil engineering; and what is offered for the price varies from firm to firm. For instance, as of this writing, both DigitalChurchPlans.com and ChurchPlansforLess.com offer as-is, uncertified plans with prices starting at little as $2,995 while ChurchDevelopment.com offers plans that are customized to the churches specifications and approved through the permitting process for a cost that is significantly less of customized building plans. With the uncertified plans, the church purchases the building plans and has the them modified to their needs, either by a local architect or the firm providing the plans.

In addition to saving huge amounts of money in the design process, the church will save weeks or months in the design process. The as-is, uncertified plans offer an additional benefit in that the church can submit plans to contractors for bids much earlier in the process and for a much lower investment in time and money. This is especially important as most churches underestimate the cost of construction, so getting a price based on actual plans that are very similar to what will actually be built will give the church a reality check before they spend (typically) tens of thousands of dollars on plans that they cannot afford to build.

For information on a service that will take the church's building needs and search all available sources of existing plans, I offer a church building plan search.

Intro to Church Design & Construction

2007-07-29T15:48:00.001-04:00

I've been threatening to do this for a long time, so I am starting this Church Design & Construction blog to provide a forum to share some of the experiences and things I learn as a church building consultant. I have been involved in ministering to churches that planning to build for nearly 8 years. It all began in a small town far far away as the building committee chair-person for a church plant. One of the first things that I did once I was "volunteered" for the role was to start researching on the Internet for information on church building. 10 years ago, their was precious little information to be found, but I eventually found a ministry orientated group of men that provided some guidance in the process. From the time they first appeared in our church to help train and lead the building committee in the process, I began to be drawn to providing this service for other churches.

Today, just over a decade later, by the grace of God, I am a published author and a successful church construction and capital stewardship campaign consultant. The purpose of this blog will be to share tips, real-world examples, information, and guidance on church design, church construction and church financing; to help the church in its mission to win souls for the Kingdom of Christ.