Does your church need a new building and you don’t know where to start?  That is a very common problem among churches and many times a lot of time lapses because they don’t know where to begin.

THE PATH THROUGH CONSTRUCTION CAN SEEM DAUNTING, BUT:

Your Church Rep will develop a plan suited to meet your individual facility needs. We offer our development expertise in:

• Reviewing site issues
• Developing a building budget
• Assisting you with concept drawings
• Providing a construction cost analysis
• Discussing ways to virtually eliminate cost over-runs
• Recommending contractors and lenders
• Securing photo ready concept drawings

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How then do we get started? 

Hold on a moment! Brother Jones, one of your wisest building committee members, has the answer to that… 

 

“Well, Brothers and Sisters… I’ve been through this before and the first thing we need to do is hire an architect.”  

 

W-R-O-N-G!! You don’t start with an architect… you start with a Needs Analysis and Feasibility Study, which follows on the heels of defining your ‘ministry mission’.

 

“We’re here to reach parents and young children for Christ,” or, “we’re here to reach the college community that surrounds us.” These are examples of a church understanding their ‘ministry mission’.

 

Things are not as simple as they use to be. There is now a better way… a way that will get you there more successfully, and, with fewer potholes along the journey.

 

Now that we understand that our first need is to define our ministry mission, we must ask ourselves, “What tools will we need to meet our objectives?” This question will bring us to conclude that a formal Needs Analysis and Feasibility Study is required if we are to be faithful in our due diligence.

 

 Such an in-depth study will cover some of the following issues:

 

• Interviews and questionnaires with staff and lay leaders regarding readiness to build.

 

• Financial analysis to assist with project scope and to determine the need for a capital campaign.

 

• Site analysis to uncover possible issues such as impact fees, utility capacities and soil suitability.

 

• Church growth analysis to satisfy lenders should financing be required.

 

• Recommended building parameters consistent with concern for meeting both short and long term space requirements. 

 

Many more issues will be covered, in depth, in a full blown Needs Analysis and Feasibility Study.

In order to produce a good in-depth study, the assistance of an experienced consultant is critical.  Be sure to engage one who specializes in Needs Analysis and Feasibility Studies for churches. Typically, this consultant will offer you an abbreviated (preliminary) version costing between $5,000.00 and $7,000.00, requiring about one month to complete.

 

 Following your review/approval of the “preliminary study”, the consultant will suggest a full-blown study costing approximately $15,000.00 and requiring about 90 days to complete.

 

Looking ahead, without a crystal ball, can seem like a daunting task…master planning, stewardship campaigns, design, construction, forming the right team, zoning issues, selecting the right contractor, budget monitoring etc., etc. These concerns are always driven by the church’s desire to observe the best possible, appropriate, stewardship.

 

Times have changed… it’s not so simple any more. 

 

Early in my ministry I was called to pastor a small church on Cape Cod. The building was small, built in the mid-1700’s, a very traditional-looking building complete with squeaky hardwood floors. We were blessed to have one central floor heater but no restrooms, just a path out back to the privy.

 

I’ll never forget the day we tore the building down to make way for a new one designed with modern restrooms and various kinds of great conveniences. The wrecking ball swung into the steeple and down it crashed with the fury of a tornado, complete with the old cast iron bell.

 

 I was standing out front on the sidewalk next to one of the elderly founders of the church, a sweet old lady, Sister Maude. As the bell fell in the debris, tears welled up in her eyes, “but Pastor, we must save the bell for our new church…” 

 

As a young pastor I couldn’t have cared less about the bell. I was focused on how our new building was going to help us accomplish our goals in the community. However, I deeply respected Sister Maude because of her influence and faithfulness to the fellowship. I knew that her passion for ministry would shortly contribute to the success of a new building. And, I knew that we had to make provision for the bell somehow, someway…and we did… giving it a place of honor not far from the entrance, where it could be seen by all who came and went.

 

Bells, organs, pews, hymnals, whatever items are part of the history of the local church, need consideration before total abandonment.

 

 A wise District Superintendent once told me, as I was about to take a new pastorate in another town, “Dick, buy into the history of the church… it will make your adjustment easier.”

 

What am I trying to say here? Simply this… change does not come easily. 

 

Some of the “older folk” have been committed to the church for years, having seen it through the good and the difficult. These people need to be heard. 

 

The Needs Analysis and Feasibility Studies are the perfect forum for their voices to be heard, without necessarily affecting the overall vision you have for your ministry in that place. When your heart burns with passion for expanding your ministry and new construction is needed, move on it! 

 

Although you want to see your building project complete, we must always remember that you are doing it to honor the Lord, and therefore it must be done correctly and cost effectively. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To summarize this chapter…“There’s a path”… you need to know where you’re going before you can ever expect to arrive at your destination. You do this through the medium of a Needs Analysis and Feasibility Study. 

 

Obviously, you must determine and support the driving need required by the mission you have undertaken. This is the need to which you can refer in congregational meetings and planning-committee sessions. 

 

Understanding your corporate ministry need will direct everyone in the decision-making process. You will likely be asking repeatedly “is there agreement among the leadership?” If the answer is “yes” then you need to know why you’re headed this way. Is it consistent with your ministry mission? Will it allow you to accomplish your vision?

 

This process, although it may become tedious, even slightly painful at times, will ultimately drive the program forward with passion and excellence. The Needs Analysis and Feasibility Studies will not only bring clarity, but further allow you do define your ministry mission. 

 

As you work through the process, a sense of confidence in proceeding with the next step will become evident. You are on the road toward accomplishing God’s direction for your church. 

 

Jesus speaks of a Needs Analysis and Feasibility Study in Luke 14:28… “for which of you wanting to build a tower doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost…”

A thorough Needs Analysis and Feasibility Study will point you in a direction and show you the best possible way to get there. When due diligence is exercised, with prayer, God honors it. He makes what previously may have seemed impossible, possible!

 

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It is quite obvious that the process of securing outside financing is significantly more complex and cumbersome than simply writing a check against the church’s bank account.

However, many church projects are made possible by outside lenders. In fact, most church building programs utilize this method of financing.

Should you choose any of the several options involving outside financing, this chapter, hopefully, will help you understand some of the steps you will have to take in order to complete the process.  

However attractive a financing program may appear, be prepared to spend considerable time and effort in preparing the documentation which any lender will require in support of your application

Before proceeding, we need to recognize the basic prevailing philosophy employed by all lenders, especially as it affects churches.  First, remember that all lenders are in the business of lending, and, they expect to earn a profit for their financial backers! With profit as their primary goal, the lender must practice a reasonable amount of caution when choosing the applications which should be accepted and funded.  Even with their most credit-worthy borrowers having an established history, lenders are usually very careful to collateralize the loan to their advantage. 

It is reasonable to expect that, when faced with a loan application from a church, a conventional lender is going to become super-cautious.  The reason…simple…no lender wants to be in a position of ever having to foreclose on a church, in the event that the re-payment obligation should not be met.  Foreclosure would spell “bad publicity” for the lender, especially if it was a local bank or credit union.

So, in order to avoid that “worst possible scenario”, lenders tend to set their comfort level higher when they consider loan applications from churches. They accomplish that by setting lower loan-to-value ratios, higher than normal interest rates or increased points for the loan. 

Don’t jump the ship just yet!

You will be pleased to know, however, that there are financial institutions which specialize in church loans… they actually view them as low risk loans. I recently spoke with just such a church lender.  His company has been in business for fifty-two years during which they had only foreclosed on one loan.

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Wikipedia defines value-engineering as: “A systematic method to improve the “value” of goods and services by using an examination of function. Value, as defined, is the ratio of function to cost. Value can therefore be increased by either improving the function or reducing the cost. It is a primary tenet of value engineering that basic functions be preserved and not be reduced as a consequence of pursuing value improvements.”

What does that technical language mean to you as your church considers a building program?

Simply stated, it means that when value-engineering is employed, you can enjoy more square feet of functional space in your new building, because budget is driving the design process as opposed to the design process driving the budget. An experienced church building consultant, working with an architect and general contractor, will integrate value-engineering principals into the design. This exercise alone will save the church thousands of dollars in a typical building program.

I recently met with a large building committee at a church in central Florida where the decision to build a new worship center had been made years earlier. Unfortunately, they had made the mistake of hiring an architect who knew nothing about value-engineering. The result was that the project was over-budget by about a million dollars.

I addressed the group, armed with a Power Point presentation that included an alternate design for their building incorporating the existing floor plan. Our design would bring the entire project to completion within budget. The group loved it and was eager to move ahead. 

A problem arose because of one of the committee members … an architect (not the design architect) thought the new look of the exterior would not blend in with the existing building. (Bear in mind that the only noticeable change in the exterior would have been to use a metal roof of the same color in place of the architectural grade strip shingle that had been proposed.) 

The senior pastor was noticeably shaken with the change in the committee’s attitude after the architect had injected his ‘poison pill.’ The pastor then spoke to the building committee regarding the expanded ministry they could enjoy as a result of my proposal; however at that point, I knew it was futile. 

This is a good example of an “expert” getting in the way of progress and possibly robbing the church of the excitement associated with growth in ministry, through facility expansion.

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In the church building business, a church building consultant working on behalf of the church as the owners rep, will focus on building issues that would exasperate the non-professional and resolve them quickly.  In the church building business, the experienced owners representative, the building consultant, will drive schedule compliance which results in money savings.

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Churches considering building often make a common mistake.  They hire an architect without consideration for securing the services of an experienced consultant first. Result…wasted money, time, and demoralization.  Simple solutions exist.  Give a building consultant a first look. 

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Have you tried to personally give your car a tune-up lately? Like working on your car, in the business of church construction, things are not so simple anymore!  Most often churches spend considerably more dollars than they need to when going about the building process.  Most architects think of church design as just another customer who wants to see my flair.  Wrong!  Most churches want to maximize square footage and can deal with less fluff if it will result in maintaining budget.

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What does experience have to do when hiring a church building consultant or owners representative? … Everything! Experience is a great teacher if the track record is there. Hire a consultant that has a long list of satisfied clients.

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Why consider a church building consultant? You need a good consultant because your building consultant will provide the church with an objective point of view. I’d look for a consultant who has a general contractor’s license and one who has actually built several churches.  These guys save churches money and aggravation.

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A good church building consultant will not only save you money but will also preserve your human resources.  Typically an experienced church building consultant will save you twice what you pay him through his experience in dealing with general contractors and engineers.  Over-design is the usual culprit, followed by excessive change orders, which a good consultant will help you avoid.

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