So would you rush to your mechanic to repair a heart valve?  Would you call up your attorney to change your spark plugs?  Would you seek your doctor’s advice in handling a civil lawsuit or traffic ticket?  Would you just choose to diagnose the problem, come to your solution and act alone?

Only in churches or other houses of worship or non-profit organizations, do we often decide that we can best do it ourselves.  Many are the stories of pastors, boards and leaders who have cost the church hundreds to millions by one bad decision or a chain of them.  If only, they had sought Expertise.

Don’t be fooled.  All expertise, like all degrees, is not the same.  Do your homework.  Ask the right questions.  Seek recommendations.  Check backgrounds. Validate presentations and promises.  Ask for information in writing.  Tour completed projects.  It is like kicking the tires. Once you have chosen the Expertise that meets your needs and fits your style, you will find out that Expertise is inexpensive.  Just ask the ones who did it themselves.  It is true for cars and construction!

Saving money by cutting corners always cost more in the end.  Not knowing what was not included in low bids costs you.  Not being familiar with codes and regulations or high efficiency solutions does it every time.  Hire Expertise and at the end you are sure to get Money Back on your next project.

Experience offers stability, but may limit flexibility.  Experience tends towards cautious calculations, but may not capture untapped potential.  Experience magnifies the glorious history, but may overlook the aging demographics or changing landscape.  Experience may tend to desire to recapture “what was” or attempt to maintain “what is” rather than to embrace “what can be.” Sounds familiar?

As a pastor, is experience costing you?  You know that you have the right people in place, but no church construction related experience.  You are missing answers, objectivity and productivity.  What counters this is to meet experience with industry “Expertise.”  You need good people who do this every day. Outside professionals can take the time to understand who you are, where you are and where you want to go and then present a clear path and sound plan to get there.  Your smart folk are then convinced by the facts.  Decision makers get it.  Number crunchers figure it.  Passionate people are assured.  Creative types see it.  Leaders follow.

Compensate by bringing in expertise: the kind that delivers.  It is far less expensive to pay for knowledge than to trade opinions around the table.  Take it from pastors and leaders with the experience of having hired outside, industry professionals, it can be the turning point to get your project moving!

How many remember the display or beautiful architectural renderings either framed or featured on the church bulletin that never made it off of paper?  How many churches have run into extensive, unplanned cost overruns and run out of accumulated or borrowed funds?  Too many!

How many began with a “do it yourself” approach? There are successes and exceptions, but we hear the stories much too often.  Very devout, committed, prayerful and even Spirit-led pastors and leaders often err in the area of capital campaigns and church construction.  What’s the issue? Inexperience.

Bible Colleges and seminaries courses do not prepare pastors for this.  Seldom is there mentoring or networking among pastors to make up the difference.  So, if you feel a bit lost, uncertain, stressed or out of your comfort zone, you are not alone.  If you feel like it takes you away from what you do best, you are probably right.  A: Don’t try harder or meet more.  Instead, seek outside, trustworthy, proven assistance from Experts with track records of delivering competent and cost-effective results.  This could be a professional campaign company, an architect and construction management company.

What’s your story?

“Experience is expensive.”  Often church leaders are chosen and relied upon to make construction-related decisions because of their church or corporate experience.  Sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes not.  Experience in other areas does not always translate into understanding the uniqueness of church construction.  Experience informs and influences our thinking, but may also hinder our objectivity or creativity in both facing the challenges and considering the options of construction projects.

“Expertise is Inexpensive.”   When a church hires an expert, it gets more than experience.  It gets a knowledge base, wealth of information, broad perspective, critical thinking, industry secrets, current trends, best practices, specialized skills and a network of partners that amounts to an INVESTMENT, rather than an expense.  Hiring a church construction expert with experience is the most prudent decision that a church can make as a wise steward and good business decision.  It saves money!

Although there are many excellent Architects with experience in designing churches, they are not typically equipped to assist the church in such vital areas as ministry mission or establishing an all-in project budget.  Architects are experts at designing facilities but not at accurately estimating construction costs.  Starting on design too early often results in expending unnecessary funds on drawings that are not feasible or affordable.

Before securing an Architect’s services, it is critical to first determine the church’s future needs and financial capacity before showing something in print that may not be adequate or feasible for the congregation.  It is critical that the church design a building that fits its ministry rather than having to fit ministry into a building that is not conducive to its style.

Some of the things churches should carefully consider, prior to hiring an architect, are:

• Vision/Style of delivering ministry at the new/revised facility
• Projecting attendance trends
• Projecting financial trends (income and expense)
• Borrowing capacity
• Construct-ability of the site
• Formulating an “All-IN” Project Budget with both Hard and Soft costs

Developing a Strategic Plan that addresses these issues allows a church to proceed with confidence that it will neither build ‘too soon, too small’ nor beyond the Church’s ability to service debt and maintain the new space.

From my years of experience in Pastoral Ministry, I am convinced the most efficient and cost-effective way to handle church-facility expansion and relocation is to first engage objective expertise to develop a strong Strategic Plan.  It will save the church time and money that can be invested into kingdom ministry.

Another historical practice utilized by churches is to hire a single company to design and build the new facility.  Proponents of this method assert its innate advantage of having only one point of contact throughout the process of designing and building the project.  There is, however, a distinct liability disadvantage to the church when utilizing this process.

The best method of ensuring maximum effectiveness in building a new church is to independently hire both an architect and a contractor at the beginning of the design process.  Architects are in the design business, not the cost-estimating business.  Contractors understand cost but are typically not proficient designers.  Bringing both to the table during the design process allows the church to take full advantage of the strengths of both, without the disadvantages of historical methods.

There are excellent demographic forecasts available for churches to consider.  Before designing a facility that will likely last multiple decades into the future, churches should consider what the community will look like in the years to come.  For instance, an aging population may indicate the ability to partner with a retirement facility.  A prediction of accelerated growth in international immigrants may indicate an opportunity for a native-language ministry.

Another issue to consider is the technical savvy of community residents.  A demographic population that readily embraces and utilizes technology may require significant investment in Audio/Video/Lighting components in a new facility in order to attract those residents.  It may also indicate an acceptance of video satellite venues as a growth strategy, an option that is much less expensive than acquiring property and building new and larger buildings.

An effectively designed facility will align a church’s culture, ministry focus and leadership style with community demographics to produce maximum kingdom significance.

• Worship Center seating capacity
• Education/Children’s areas
• Parking

Insufficient space in any of these areas will limit growth in the others.

The church I came from relocated because its campus was out of balance.  When the huge auditorium was built in the 1980’s, it had insufficient support facilities.  The church attracted large crowds for special days and events but could not consistently sustain a full Worship Center on a week-to-week basis.

Parking capacity was added and resulted in almost immediate increase in weekly attendance.  However, limited nursery space and lack of a permanent elementary children’s area acted as a lid on attendance.  When an adjacent building was purchased and converted into children’s worship space, attendance again increased until that building reached capacity.

A new campus was designed and built to accommodate a balance in the key areas.  While the new Worship Center seating capacity was about 1/2 the former facility, additional seating venues were added including dedicated PreSchool, Elementary and Youth areas, as well as a Chapel to house a service with traditional music.  Weekly attendance doubled in 5 years after moving to the new facility.

It typically takes about 1000 days from a church’s decision to relocate until a new facility is occupied.  With good planning and execution, it can occur more quickly, but 1000 days is a reasonable estimate considering time for design, fundraising, permitting, construction, etc.  Depending upon the current facility’s capacity to accommodate new attendees, doing nothing could hinder growth or halt momentum.

It may be wise to consider small changes to the current facility that can occur quickly and provide for continued growth during the relocation process.  Adding parking or expanding room for added seats in the Worship Center or Children’s area may provide for continued or even accelerated growth by capitalizing on the natural excitement generated during a building program.  A careful cost vs. benefit analysis will assist the church to determine an appropriate dollar amount to spend.

It is amazing how many churches we come across that have a full set of architectural plans for a new facility sitting in a closet.  Having gone through the process of programming, designing and fund-raising, for some reason the project was shelved and never built.  Overwhelmingly, the primary reason for halting was lack of sufficient resources to complete the project.  Sadly, the loss of credibility suffered by pastors and church leaders in such a process can paralyze the church’s future growth, and sometimes results in a change of leadership.

Often, a new building was programmed and designed by an architect and church representatives, hoping for a construction cost below some pre-determined amount.  Once the plans were completed and put out to bid, the cost to build came in so much higher than the original estimate that even value-engineering could not bring it into an acceptable budget amount.

Churches are wise to secure the services of an independent Owners-representative with expertise in pricing to assist during the preparation of a comprehensive project budget and construction cost estimating from the very beginning of the programming and design process.