People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
Thinking of Building?
by James W. Moss, Sr.I am so old I saw three legged milk stools in use. I think of that three legged milk stool when a church thinks of building.
The first leg: Is there a need? A church should only build if there is a legitimate need. In the old days, it was suggested to keep your people in debt so they would keep working. The implications were to keep building whether it was needed or not. The cost of construction and interest expense has risen appreciably. Unneeded debt can hinder ministry potentials. It has been my observation that recently churches are really reluctant to give their consent to build if there isn’t a genuine need. The first step in building is to identify a real need.
Here are some key questions.
 | Is the annual average worship attendance 75% of the comfortable seating capacity of the sanctuary? |
| Do you have more than one worship service on Sunday morning? |
| Do you have empty parking spaces on a Sunday with good attendance? |
| Do you have sufficient room to conduct small group ministries? |
| Do you have a regular flow of visitors? |
| Do your people feel crowded? |
The line in a popular movie is, "If you build it, they will come." Unfortunately, that is not necessarily true of churches. Architectural evangelism only works for a short time if at all. Building a facility does not guarantee growth. In fact, a number of churches build and then immediately go into decline. Sometimes it is because of conflict over the building. At other times it is because the building wasn’t what they thought or needed. Sometimes the old building, though much smaller, was actually more functional. Remember: we want the ministry to shape the building and not the building to shape the ministry.
The second leg: What will we build? It has been my experience that a group needs to pretty much identify what they want to build and then give those instructions to the architect to design the desired building. Frequently, designers know bricks and mortar but not churches. On many occasions, I have had the difficult assignment to tell churches that the building they have just spent major dollars on will not enable them to do what the designer promised.
Build so the space will have multiple uses. It is no longer feasible to build a space that can only be used one hour a week. Use moveable partitions as opposed to permanent walls as much as possible to make the building’s use as flexible and as functional as possible. I encourage chairs as opposed to pews in worship areas. That makes the area more flexible. Note, however, that good chairs may actually cost more than pews.
The third leg: Can we ask for the money? It is amazing how many churches will complete the first two legs and are reluctant to touch this third one. Have you ever tried to sit on a three legged milk stool with one leg missing? It is nearly impossible. I have frequently been asked, "Did you ever hear of a church that went bankrupt?" The answer is "yes!" Churches go bankrupt regularly. Frequently those buildings can be bought for pennies on the dollar.
The reason it is difficult is because of the amount of money it takes to build today. Depending on the style of the building and the nature of the community, it can cost from $75-$100 for each square foot in a project where the contractor does all the work. The monthly payment is about $900.00 on a 20-year mortgage for each $100,000.00 borrowed. That is the first money that comes into the offering plate each month. That is taken out before benevolences, staff salaries, or program costs are taken out. Each dollar given up front will save one dollar in interest expense on a 20-year mortgage.
Our conference requires a church to have one-third down on any building project. That rule was passed years ago but was very wise. It helps churches reduce the cost of debt. An unwritten rule is that a church should never borrow more than three times it’s annual income. A church whose annual income is $100,000 should never borrow more than $300,000.00. Even that load will push a church to the wall. My general rule of thumb is that if you are going to try to raise more than $200,000, then you will probably need a professional fund-raiser.
Though, I’m not a fund-raiser and defer totally to those with that expertise, I have recommended project giving. Make a list of various costs including something as high as $50,000 and another at $25,000, etc. This implies that you are expecting that someone will make a major gift. You can expect that the top 10 donors will give at least 50% of the money contributed.
Is your church thinking of a building project? Answer the three questions posed as the three legs of the milk stool. Then make your decisions.
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June 27, 2001. Volume 4, Issue 7. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.