1. Plan For Facilities From Day 1 – If you just planted, in 5-7 years you’ll need a building or a new job!
2. Build A Long Runway – “Church Building - How long does it take…really?
3. Track Everything – Good financials and attendance numbers put the bank’s bean counters at ease.
4. Define “Healthy” Early - If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time. Understand what the metrics of healthy are for your church.
5. Measure “Healthy”- What gets measured gets done.
In the last few weeks I’ve met with a couple of pastors who’ve managed to dig their church out of, what seemed like, certain financial ruin. These men made me realize how closely tied vision and money are in building the church as well as church building. Think about it. How many organizations have you seen kill it who stunk at managing their cash-flow and balance sheet?
Bottom line: If your church is going to change the world, YOU have to be a next level money manager. At church and at home.
What makes your church stronger? How do you measure it? Is it being bigger? Growing faster? Giving more? Baptizing more people?
All of these are metrics churches use to measure strength. Your church probably has a few of these along with other, better, metrics to help you track progress. With those metrics in mind answer this, can your church grow stronger through disruption? Should it? Disruption can take on many forms in a church, however, there are few things we willing do that cause disruption like adding ministry space.
Here are 5 ways to leverage church construction for a stronger church:
1. Hire pros like you hire staff - I always encourage churches to hire people to partner with during construction using the same methods they use to hire staff. The people leading your project will fill a critical ministry leadership role for 2 to 4 years, which is longer than the average tenure of most church staff. If you wouldn’t hire someone to be on staff, don’t hire them to lead your project. Continue Reading…
Ok maybe this isn't an official law but maybe it should be. The Costa Concordia was only a few hundred yards from where it should have been. Given the number of miles they'd traveled, how much of a problem could it be to deviate from the path a few hundred yards. Apparently huge!
Pastors, that's why a little flirting may not seem like a big deal now but can causes a 3 mile island situation if it isn't eliminated. Great news! You guys have the opportunity to crash your job and your marriage in one simple step. Nobody wakes up one day and says "today's the day I throw it all away". You have to understand the path that leads to destruction and then determine if you're on it or not.
I have no doubt Captain Francesco Schettino had crisis decisions made for him by people farther up the food chain. To reach his leadership level he must have been drilled on emergency procedures and systems, but apparently he never committed to them. We'll never Continue Reading...
The last couple days I've been working with a client who hired us after there master planning stumbled with the original architect. The plan was radically different from what the church could afford. The problem was compounded when, based on the church's margin and ability to repay a loan, we discovered their true affordability was actually about 65% of their original estimate.
Here are a few leadership principles we need to execute well as we redesign their building and their expectations. These are good steps to consider any time you have to lead a change of direction.
1. Explain the journey
Not everyone is going to know the whole story so you have to make sure people understand the path that led to where you are. If they don't understand the problem, chances are, they won't buy in to the solution. No buy in equals no change.
2. Take responsibility
It's often easy to look back at a decisions you've made and say "that wasn't very smart". However, Continue Reading...
1. In the future, what role will bookstores play in the church?
The church bookstore will be a tool or vessel that helps to fulfill the mission of the Pastoral leadership and the unique calling of that particular congregation. Church owned stores will serve as the bridge for Christian retail from what has been primarily Independent stores. As the retail environment changes and the number of bookstores on the landscape decreases, the church bookstore’s role will be to fill a need in the local community of believers by providing a gathering place for fellowship and a source for discipleship materials.
2. What strategies offer the greatest impact for church based bookstores?
Church bookstores need a plan for success just like any other retail establishment. Here are some thoughts:
A CHURCH IS READY TO BUILD WHEN:
The Debt to Income Ratio is 1 to 3 or better.
Debt will impact what you build! If you debt now, it will impact your upcoming project. If you have too much when you’re done, it will affect the Sunday morning message and the monday morning staff meeting without a doubt.
Right now you have to decide what your relationship with debt is going to be. I’ve spoken with churches who build debt free and those who are comfortable using debt as a tool to reach people. Whatever your philosophy is, make sure its concrete before the opportunities arise.
The existing debt gets handled in one of two ways prior to construction. 1. it gets paid off or 2. It gets rollled into the new loan. If you’re church has a long enough runway, I’d reccomend paying off the debt as the first order of business. Paying off debt isn’t exciting and it’s dang hard to get people passionate about but getting debt free. But the journed to getting debt free can shift the church into the right frame of mind heading into a critical season of building and stewardship.
Rolling the existing debt into the financing of the new project is also possible but every dollar you roll over is a dollar that doesn’t get used for something related to ministry purposes. If your debt to income ratio is above 1 to 3, meaning you have $1 of debt for every $3 of income I’d highly recommend you take the time to eliminate some of the debt while taking a strong inventory of the systems that drive your giving before you start spending money on church construction.
If you have an aggressive plan of attack forr you debt and it’s working great job!!! But don’t start touring churches for ideas until you below the 1 to 3 ratio or lower.
If, on the other hand, you’ve been sitting on that debt for a while what’s the reason for it? What has taken priority over having your church be financially healthy. Be honest…. then take action
I covered this a little in Part 2 but it’s worth a deeper dive.
More often than not these days, the bank(s) you work with are going to be more interested in your margin than your equity, cash position, or anything else. You may have 6 million dollars coming in, but if it goes right back out they’ll see that as a stumbling block for debt service.
You have to be able to repay what you borrow
Focus right here: While the bank can tell you what you CAN afford, it’s your responsibility to determine what you WILL afford. Many times their CAN afford will eat up every bit of margin you have. If we only learn one thing from the financial meltdown, hopefully, it’s to take responsiblity for our own affordability. Continue Reading…
Why $1,200 you ask? Because it seems to be the average giving per person in healthy churches we build for. (There are also some national stats that put the number in this ballpark) In the course of a normal year I have approximately 80-90 significant conversations with churches at various stages of preparing for church construction. Any time a church gives me their total attendance number (Men, Women, and Children) I make a guess at their annual budget based by multiplying their attendance by $1,200. Often I’m within the margin of error on my guess. When I’m not in the ballpark I’m usually high, meaning the average per person is lower than $1,200. That’s when I start asking more questions about the financial health of the church. Most of those churches don’t have enough margin to secure enough financing to cover what they need to build. If you don’t have margin you CAN’T build.
Don’t build until you’re healthy!! Building a new facility to get a church healthy is like having a baby to save a marriage. Continue Reading…
“Because the Baptists build one” isn’t a compelling reason for your church to build a family life center or a sanctuary or anything else. If a church needs a new facility the first thing to build is MOMENTUM. Many churches massively underestimate people’s desire to do more, and give more to their project. As a result many a grand vision dies in the capital stewardship phase of the project.
To excel during and after a building project a church must tie the project closely to the future impact the facility will enable the ministry to make. At the same time, involving more people in the pain points and limitations of the current facility drives involvement in the solution.
Here are a few questions to answer before you take off: Are you maxed out in your worship area? Are you in at least 2 services, if not more? Are there more kids in the nursery than there is available oxygen? Are people driving into your church and driving out because they can’t find a parking space or a place to sit? Did you have a family life center but now you have a sanctuary that looks like a family life center? All of these problems are the basis for creating a compelling reason to build. Again, when people experience the pain of a problem they often become involved in the solution.
Don’t fear the pain…..embrace it! Continue Reading…
Hi, My name is Richard and I’ve spent the better part of the last decade serving the church through leadership and consulting roles with the Catalyst Conference and Injoy under Dr. John C. Maxwell‘s guidance. Learn more about me »
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