Churches...Before You Build

Chapter 2 – Before You Begin

FRAMEWORK

The vast majority of people in leadership positions in churches throughout America have at least some knowledge of the building program process. To make best use of that knowledge, it will be helpful to construct a framework of the overall process so that we can build on it with additional insights. This framework will outline the overall process and then allow us to drill down into the specific aspects of each stage. Most building programs begin with the recognition of the need. There is the suspicion that the ministries are being limited by the current facilities. Or perhaps there is a vision for a new ministry that cannot reach its full potential because of inadequate facilities. Once the need is thoroughly communicated and accepted by enough people in the congregation, the spark to get the ball rolling is ignited, producing the energy to make it happen. 

Since there are so many aspects and approaches to conducting a building program, the first thing to do is to develop a common understanding of the elements that typically make up a building program. Each of these elements will have different nuances depending on the specific decisions you make throughout a program. This view of the overall process will allow you to plug in what you know and explain the balance of the process.

There are a number of ways to describe and outline a building process. Sometimes there are multiple words to describe the same facet. For instance, the drawings used by the subcontractors and contractors in construction can be referred to as working drawings, blueprints, construction drawings, construction documents or building plans. We want to begin with a common understanding of some of the terminology.

The framework we will use involves three aspects: Phases, Events and Activities. Phases will be the broad sections of a building program that are generally linear in time. The Events are the major occurrences within the Phases, and the Activities are the actions that go into making up the Events.

PHASES

We will begin by dividing the entire process into four phases. The phases will run in chronological order and, in general, the next phase will begin about the time the previous phase ends. These phases do not necessarily divide the entire process into four equal time components. In fact, their length will likely vary dramatically. There are occasions when there could be substantial time between any two of the phases, but they will not normally overlap significantly.

We start with the PREPARATION PHASE. It encompasses the point when the church leadership has the sense that the facilities are constricting the ministry and it wants to see what changes, if any, should be made. This is when the church will begin to organize to move forward in the building program, filling key committee positions. It is time for gathering information about where you are and where you have been. This phase could overlap one of the others. There are times when a church moves into the subsequent phases and realizes there is additional preparation that needs to be done.

Next is the PLANNING PHASE. If the Preparation Phase is looking at the past and present, the Planning Phase is when you begin to look to the future. This is when you begin to involve industry professionals, often from outside your congregation. They will help you quantify and prioritize your programming needs and begin to put them on paper in the form of preliminary designs. This is when you find out whether new or enhanced facilities are the answer to your ministry needs. Here you begin to consider building solutions to determine what it will take to meet your needs and accomplish your objectives.

The DESIGN PHASE comes third and begins when specific plans take shape and when significant dollars are invested to move ahead with construction documents, civil engineering, surveying and site testing. This is when you secure official church approvals from your denomination and/or church body 24 to spend money to design building plans. Also needed at this time is approval from local government panels, including planning and zoning, architectural review, health, water and building boards. Everything that is required before beginning construction is completed in this phase.

The last part is the CONSTRUCTION PHASE. This is when the contractor breaks ground. It requires input from the church to coordinate with the industry professionals to deliver what has been dreamed and designed. The end of this phase is traditionally marked by the occupancy of the new facilities and celebrating a new beginning in the life of the church.

COMMON EVENTS IN A BUILDING PROGRAM

Six events are common to nearly all building programs: Select a Building Committee; Engage the Professionals; Design the Project; Obtain the Funding; Construct the Project; and Celebrate the Completion. Select the Building Committee is the first event, and it occurs in the PREPARATION PHASE. For the time being, we will use this as an all-encompassing term referring to all the committees engaged for the building program. It nearly always involves two committees: building and finance. Depending, however, on the denomination, the building committee could be just the pastor and his staff. For large churches, I have seen multiple committees that might include building, finance, communication, colors, sound and video, furnishings, site development, construction development and others.

Whatever its size and makeup, the building committee will be responsible for the administration of the project. It will engage the professionals and work with them to design and build the facilities. It is also responsible for communication throughout the project to the church leadership, the congregation and the community. This committee is typically responsible for obtaining any church approvals necessary as dictated by the specific church government. Some organizations don’t require congregational approval, but getting a vote of confidence from the church body is still a good idea.

The next event is to Engage the Professionals. It occurs in the PLANNING PHASE. This refers to all industry professionals who will play a role in the project. The way their services are engaged can vary widely on what is typically referred to as the “project delivery system.” For instance, one project delivery system would be contracting with an architect, putting it out to bid and then selecting a contractor from among the low bidders. Another project delivery system might be bringing the architect and contractor together from the beginning in a design-build approach. Some churches may consider serving as their own general contractor. These and other project delivery systems will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 6.

The first common event in the DESIGN PHASE is to Design the Project. In the PLANNING PHASE the building committee selected a project delivery method and engaged the key industry professionals to lead them through the design of the project. Some of the early steps in the design process could be considered part of the PLANNING PHASE. In that phase, the design professionals will have worked with the building committee to develop a need and desire summary of what the project could accomplish. This programming statement is often a narrative that puts the building committee and design professionals on the same page by outlining the direction the design will take.

After programming, the entire design process can be divided into four parts. 

1. Preliminary/schematic design: the early stages of the design where you work back and forth to plan the project. 
2. Design development: A preliminary design is further refined for code implications and site characteristics. 
3. Construction documents: They serve as the drawings that will be used to secure permits and construct the actual facility. 
4. Construction administration: assistance through the construction phase. It also includes the civil engineering and site design to develop the property. We will look at these in more detail in Chapter 7.

At the end of the Design the Project event, there will be a need to Procure the Permits. This is becoming a more and more significant part of the overall building process as regulations are skyrocketing, particularly in densely populated and coastal regions. There are still some areas of the country where minimal documentation is needed to obtain a building permit, but that is now the exception to the rule. More often, site development approvals are required, which can lead to lengthy processes involving water management, utility tie-ins, parking, site lighting and setbacks. It may be necessary to get variances for relief, for instance, on parking or height requirements, which will necessitate another approval process. There also may be the need to rezone a property in a separate process. Sometimes approvals by separate architectural review committees are required, especially in historical districts. Your industry professional should be able to help you navigate this web of approvals to go on with construction.

Perhaps the single most common event is the necessity to Obtain Funding. It may simply be done for cash or involve a more complex loan arrangement, but whatever the project is, it will require funds (in the DESIGN PHASE before construction can begin). The most common arrangement typically includes a combination of cash and conventional financing. But there are other approaches. Another factor is the fundraising program that could be done in-house or through a company that specialize in capital stewardship campaigns. You may have a mandate to build for cash or be willing to explore an unconventional approach to financing. Either way, funds will be necessary. We will outline some of the approaches in Chapters 5 and 8.

The CONSTRUCTION PHASE is obviously where you Construct the Project. The specific activities that the church will undertake in this are largely dependent on the project delivery method selected and the role of the industry professionals. During this phase, a financial system will need to be set up to account for and approve invoices as the construction progresses. There also needs to be a process to handle adjustments requested or required during construction. Normally, a thorough job in early phases will help to avoid excessive adjustments throughout construction. Quality work in the earlier phases determines the overall success of the project, since the CONSTRUCTION PHASE is simply carrying out what has been dictated.

The final event in the CONSTRUCTION PHASE and in the entire process is to Celebrate the Completion. This is the point at which you occupy the new facility and begin to use it as intended. This is also normally referred to as the dedication or consecration. It is a celebration because it represents the culmination of the efforts of many people. It is the physical manifestation of the dreams of those who have sacrificed time and money. It is a time worthy of celebration.

PROJECT CONTROL TIME LINE

The focus of a building program tends to always fall on the CONSTRUCTION PHASE. That is understandable because of the investment of many hours and meetings over months of planning and then seemingly endless weeks of permitting, where you wondered, at times, if anything was moving forward. As the facility comes out of the ground, the excitement and anticipation reach a peak as the congregation begins to see the reality of what it has heard about, pledged toward and dreamed of. It is also when the vast majority of the dollars are expended, usually about 90 percent of the cost of the entire process. 

The focus on the CONSTRUCTION PHASE may be understandable, but it is somewhat misplaced. By the time you reach the construction phase, the project itself is essentially set in stone. During construction, the industry professionals are constructing what has already been determined. Unless there is a major challenge that forces significant changes on the project, the only adjustments to the building will be relatively minor. To a great extent, the church is locked in to what the project will be long before the CONSTRUCTION PHASE begins.

This time line graphically depicts the amount of control you have over the nature, scope, focus and quality of the project. It doesn’t mean that the project could not be abandoned or dramatically changed in its latter stages. The reality is you won’t. The congregation becomes invested financially and emotionally in what it will be getting with this new facility. As that investment grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to change course, even if you’re currently on the wrong one. Therefore, the focus should be on the earlier phases.

I visited a pastor who had recently finished a relocation project with another firm. During our visit, he recounted his experience. The church hired an architectural firm that it believed would provide creativity and a high profile design. Unfortunately, the church focused on the exterior appearance of the facility, while the functions of the building became an afterthought. The pastor knew they were on track for a building they couldn’t afford and one that wouldn’t effectively meet their needs. But it was a captivating picture of what the church could look like, and the committee was sold. The congregation embraced the design, which added to the agony when the pastor’s fears were realized. The project had to be redesigned, which cost time and even more money. Even the redesign ended up 15 percent over-budget, and all because it was too difficult to shift the momentum that had developed early on.

At the beginning of the project and throughout the PREPARATION PHASE you have total control over where you want to go with the building program. Gather information and assess needs early in the process. You have complete freedom to decide the size, type and location of the facility. You can still easily consider relocation or not building at all.

In the PLANNING PHASE you begin to think in general of the type of facility you might need to address the ministry needs. You are beginning to work now with the industry professionals to develop a program of needs and wants, and you are beginning to discuss the type of facility that might be best for the ministry of the church. Things begin to take shape a little bit here, but you still have tremendous flexibility with what you want to do since nothing has been shown to the congregation and there has been only a relatively minor financial investment thus far.

Then you encounter the DESIGN PHASE. This is where the direction of the facility is determined. In the early part of the DESIGN PHASE you are reviewing preliminary drawings in a process where each new drawing further develops the scope of the facility. At some point you feel comfortable enough to show preliminary drawings to the congregation, which begins to buy into the direction. Upon agreement of the preliminary drawings, you authorize the design professionals to go ahead with the construction documents. At this time, you are probably committing the largest amount of funds to date and you have decided the scope, type of facility and level of quality. Now your flexibility of control is diminished greatly.

While the majority of the dollars are spent during the CONSTRUCTION PHASE, it is the DESIGN PHASE that determines the scope of the dollars to be spent. During the CONSTRUCTION PHASE you can save some dollars by deciding to adjust the finishes or get a better deal on windows. But there is relatively little that you can do by then (short of a major overhaul and redesign) to save money. The largest amount of dollars to be saved does not occur in the CONSTRUCTION PHASE. Potentially, the project could fluctuate by a few thousands of dollars in the CONSTRUCTION PHASE, but tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars will be saved or spent in the PLANNING and DESIGN PHASES.

NOT-SO-COMMON EVENTS IN A BUILDING PROGRAM

Here is how to make the DESIGN PHASE successful. The DESIGN PHASE will be successful in matching the facility to your ministry needs and budget if some additional steps are taken in the PREPARATION and PLANNING PHASES. That leads us to the not-socommon events in a building program.

There are four events that are too often overlooked or taken for granted. They may be seen as unnecessary because the church does not understand the impact they have on determining the success of the project, or they simply may not have occurred to the church to carry out these events. The administration or exclusion of them will affect, positively or negatively, the success of the project.

The first not-so-common event occurs in the PREPARATION PHASE. It is key to Understand Who You Are. At first glance this seems overly simplistic. Perhaps you have attended the church for decades – of course you know who the church is. But do you really? Do you know what trends have taken place in the demographics of your congregation and how they compare with other churches in your denomination or surrounding area? Do you know what population shifts are going on in your community? Do you know what goes through the mind of a first-time visitor? It is important to know the answers to these and other questions to truly know who you are. Chapter 3 has been committed to discussing this issue.

Understanding who you are is also important when you Plan the Ministry Direction, another not-socommon event in the PREPARATION PHASE. Once you really know who you are in the context of your community and what you believe God desires for your church, then you can begin to plan the ministry direction. You can evaluate your current ministries to see whether they are maximizing their potential. You determine what ministries are integral to the mission of the church and what new ministries should be added. It is a proactive process to understand where ministry opportunities exist. This is the step where the church purposely stops to understand from God exactly what their ministry should be. Hopefully, it is a time to think outside the box and not just blindly continue to do things because that is the way you have always done them. You may very well end up with similar ministry goals, but it will be an understanding that brings you greater resolve and commitment. We will go into more detail in Chapter 3.

The next not-so-common event that occurs in the PREPARATION PHASE is to Establish the Budget. I’ve learned that this is the one misstep that is responsible for the majority of church construction disasters. Some churches take the approach that this is not necessary since they will just design and build what they believe God wants them to do, and he will provide the money. I certainly have no dispute that God can provide in a miraculous way, but I believe most of the time he chooses to work through his people. Budgeting is an assessment of where you are financially and determining what you will spend for the building program. We will discuss this more thoroughly in Chapter 5.

The last not-so-common event that arguably occurs most often in the PLANNING PHASE is to Develop a Master Plan. A master plan is an overall site plan of development that maximizes the ministry possibilities of a church’s entire property. It seeks to balance worship, education, fellowship and parking when the entire site is developed. It is a living document that is to be revisited and revised with changes in a given church’s ministry direction. It can be overlooked as unnecessary “because we are just planning to add some educational expansions, so we will just put it here.” However, by first looking at the master plan possibilities, the church may find that the best location for that educational facility is different than originally planned. The master plan can save money by enlightening a church as to what it could do in a current phase that could help down the road.

An important activity that should occur in this event is to Investigate Site Specific Issues. This is something that ultimately happens, if not purposely then by default. There are times when church projects go all the way through planning and design and begin the permitting process. Then they find out they are in an area that is not zoned for churches, and the rezoning process can set the project back for months. Had the church and the industry professionals conducted a code investigation in the PLANNING PHASE, then they could have started the rezoning process with the PLANNING and DESIGN PHASES so that no time was lost. Today, wetland restrictions are a common issue that must be investigated so that you are aware of the exact amount of your property that can be used. Sometimes the building can be designed in violation of setback or height requirements. If those are not determined until the permitting event, there can be considerable costs and time lost to make the adjustments. When the code investigation is done in the PLANNING PHASE, it will improve the integrity of the preliminary design and eliminate most surprises that could hit a church in the DESIGN and CONSTRUCTION PHASES. We will look at all these issues in more detail in Chapter 7.

EVENTS IN A BUILDING PROGRAM

The last event to consider has, in part, been mentioned. In the Common Events in a Building Program, Celebrate the Completion was discussed. It was referred by that name because that is what most congregations do. They celebrate the completion of the building program. I agree it is an appropriate time to celebrate, but I would suggest celebrating the beginning. The end of construction is not really an ending, but rather a beginning. The whole purpose for the building was to build the impact of the ministry. It seems to me that should be the focus of the celebration.

ACTIVITIES

There are several activities that will take place under events mentioned above. These activities are accomplished to achieve a positive outcome in each event. The success of these events in the first three phases determines the success of the overall project. Some of events such as Procure the Permits and Investigate Site Specific Issues have already been mentioned.

To understand who you are, the steps will be to Review Your History, Analyze Your Surroundings and Take a Look Inside. This understanding then forms the foundation for you to be able to Plan the Ministry Direction. These steps include Developing the Mission and then Determining the Strategic Priorities to accomplish the mission. It also includes Assembling the Pertinent Data to go forward into your building program.

The Selection of the Building Committee is an important event because it involves the individuals who will communicate the mission to the industry professionals and administer the next three phases. For that to be successful, it is important to make the right Selection of People and leadership of the committee. The leadership of the church must Decide on the Structure of the committees and subcommittees that best fits the leadership capabilities and opportunities presented by the building program. The people selected can Plan the Committee Activities that are described in the next two phases but also include communication and securing church approvals.

To Establish the Budget, you must Establish Financial Parameters that will become the guidelines for the project. A Decision on a Capital Stewardship Campaign is pivotal because that can have an impact on the financial parameters. The committee must also do an early Investigation of Funding Alternatives to put together the financial plan.

The committee will Engage Industry Professionals to form the balance of the team that, along with the building committee, will lead the building program. The first step in engaging industry professionals will be Identify the Industry Professionals that will be necessary for your project. Then you must Understand the Project Delivery Methods to be able to decide on what method best fits your needs. Then you must Know Your Contract to avoid costly mistakes due to misunderstandings and disputes.

After the industry professionals are engaged, they will work with the building committee to Develop a Master Plan. They will Conduct the Strategic Investigation mentioned above to understand the opportunities and limitations of the site. They will work with the building committee to understand the ministry direction and the building needs identified by the ministry direction and Develop a Program Statement that, in general, would address those needs. They will then Do Preliminary Design work, which begins to put lines on paper outlining what was developed in the program statement with an eye on the budget.

When the preliminary work is completed and the industry professionals move into Completing Design Development, you will then enter DESIGN PHASE. The industry professionals will then Produce the Construction Documents that will be used to Procure the Permits and complete the facility.

During the DESIGN PHASE it will also be necessary to Obtain the Funding. To obtain the funding, the committee will Select the Funding Approach that best meets the needs of the church. They will then Prepare a Financial Package that will be used by the lending institutions to make their final evaluation before providing the funds.

These are the specific Activities that make up the Events, which occur within logical PHASES in the building process. This is the framework we will use to explore in the following chapters what it takes to achieve a successful building program.