Frequently Asked Questions
Facility Planning
1. If we are interested in a consultation, what should be our next step?
3. What if our church wants only a facility plan without the other elements of the consultation?
4. How far in advance do we need to schedule a consultation?
5. Do you provide architectural services?
6. How do most churches pay for their consultations?
1. If we are interested in an Integrated Planning Consultation, what should be our next step?
Before scheduling a consultation, we ask that your church do three things, though not in any particular order:
- All
the members of your pastoral and program staff,
your church's governing body (board, council,
session, deacons, consistory, etc.), and the
committee or task force responsible for facility
planning (vision committee, long-range planning
committee, building committee, etc.) need to
read When Not to Build.
- Then
these leaders must determine whether they are
united in wanting to use the philosophy of
ministry and building use described in the book
as a basis for developing a strategic plan for
the congregation. As a prerequisite to
scheduling a consultation, we require that there
be consensus or near consensus among the leaders
that this is the direction the church wants to
go. There should be a sufficient level of
consensus that no doubt exists about the
church's will to implement recommendations
growing out of the planning process. If one or
more key leaders whose support is essential to
implementing a plan are not in agreement with
the When Not to Build principles, you are
not ready to schedule a consultation. To do so
would risk your developing a plan that you would
not be able to implement, wasting your time and
money and wasting our time.
- One of our team members needs to talk personally to your senior pastor (unless you are between pastors) to make sure that your pastor understands the nature of the consultation (its focus is ministry effectiveness, not facility planning) and to make sure that your pastor enthusiastically supports the purpose of the consultation. If you are without a senior pastor, a consultation may still make sense. In that case, the staffing dimension of the consultation, especially clarifying what to look for in a senior pastor, will become a key part--perhaps the single most important part--of the consultation.
2. Our leaders have read When Not to Build and are mostly in agreement with it. But there are some options that you mention in the book that we are not willing to consider under any circumstances. Are you still willing to work with us?
Give us a call and we'll talk about it, but there's a good chance our verdict will be that you are not ready for an Integrated Planning Consultation. Not because we think any of the particular methods described in the book are essential, but because we are interested in working with churches that are committed to doing whatever it takes to be more effective in fulfilling their missions. When holding on to a certain tradition, whether it is pews, or traditional Sunday school, or a certain worship time, or a certain style of worship, is more important to a church than fulfilling its mission, we find that there's not a lot we can do for such a church.
At the same time, we are very intentional about being sensitive to the culture of the church and making recommendations that build on the strength of that culture. We do not recommend ministry methods that we don't believe could succeed in a given church, and when traditional approaches are being effective, we try to build on those successes. But when a church says that there are elements of their culture that they will not consider changing "under any circumstances," that tells us that their highest value is not fulfilling their God-given mission, but preserving the church's culture.
While such a church may not be ready for an Integrated Planning Consultation, if you want us to work with you to help the church become focused on mission, rather than preserving heritage, we can work with you on that with the goal of later scheduling an Integrated Planning Consultation.
3. What if our church wants only a facility plan without the other elements of the consultation?
The focus of our work is ministry effectiveness, not facility planning. For us, facility planning is a valuable tool we use to help churches to minimize the time, money, and energy invested in facilities so those resources can be redirected to ministry.
Occasionally we get calls from churches that say, "We don't need help with ministry planning." We find that the churches that are most effective in ministry are churches that are constantly seeking help with ministry planning and equipping from many sources. When a church is fearful of outside influence on their ministry plans, there is not much we can do for them. We do not do facility planning for such churches
Rarely we receive a request for facility planning from a church that is experiencing sustained, vigorous growth. With such a church we will focus proportionately more attention on facilities and less on ministries. It is just as important for such churches, however, that their facility planning be done in the context of an integrated plan that includes ministries, staffing, and finances. If the Integrated Planning Consultation does not seem right for such a church, we can explore the possibility of a Custom Consultation.
4. How far in advance do we need to schedule a consultation?
The self-study phase of an Integrated Planning Consultation takes about a month. Then your consulting team needs two to three weeks to digest your self-study before the on-site visit. So, from the time you call to schedule your consultation until the on-site visit will usually be a minimum of 6 to 8 weeks. We are sometimes booked as much as six months in advance. So, a general answer is that your on-site visit will usually come two to six months after you secure a date. Your payment of the first installment secures your date.
5. Do you provide architectural services?
While our team includes architects, none of them will serve as the architect for your building project. Rather, we develop your facility concept to the point that, once you have fine-tuned it, it will be ready for you to take to a local architect. We believe you will be better served by working with a local architect who is accustomed to working with your local regulations and officials. Also, we want to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. We want it to be perfectly clear that our facility recommendations are motivated solely by what we believe is in the best interest of the church, and that our team members have nothing to gain financially from your implementing those recommendations. If you wish us to include a master site concept plan as part of your consultation, that can be included for an additional fee.
As you work with an architect not trained in WHEN NOT TO BUILD principles your architect may try to persuade you to spend more on construction than our plan recommended or may modify the design in ways that has unintended consequences. To avoid these costly problems, you may wish to:
- Require
each architect you interview to read WHEN NOT TO
BUILD to be considered for your job.
- Ask one of our facility specialists to guide you through the implementation of your facility plan. Facility consultation can include screening architects and engineers, reviewing technical drawings, answering technical questions about your construction options and the construction process, and working with your architect and contractor to control costs and make sure any changes to the design do not have unintended negative consequences.
6. How do most churches pay for their Integrated Planning Consultations?
Most churches use the building fund. Even though facility planning is only one of four components of the consultation, and ministry is the most important component, we think this is a good way to pay for the consultation. Why? Because it is probably the best possible investment of your building fund, as the facility planning component typically reduces building costs by many times the cost of the consultation.
Some churches have financed the consultation with special giving, or have simply written the consultation into their budget. Some smaller churches (under 100 in average worship attendance) have received funds from regional denominational offices to help with consultation costs.
As you can see, our approach is not to try to convince churches they need our services. On the contrary, the approach that seems to work best for us is for us to wait until a church is eager (or desperate) enough for help that they seek us out, and then to screen those churches to determine which ones are really ready for the work we do.