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Your church may have to spend a lot of money on new software, electronic music equipment, choir robes, or a security system. Such purchases will stretch your budget, but they'll also stretch your skills in engineering, computer science, fashion, and physics.

Most pastors or church administrators don't qualify as experts in those areas, of course, but they could make up for lack of expertise by making the following preparations for big-money decisions:

1. Appoint the Right Committee
A church that's researching a product will usually ask a member who is familiar with the product or technology to be on its purchasing committee. If the committee consists of two or three such members, the influence of the committee could shift to people who understand little about the daily workings of church ministry.

John Keller, membership-care pastor at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, Minnesota, suggests picking committee members who are knowledgeable but not biased about a product, open to looking, and willing to work as a team. Variety of experience is also important. A technical guru may not be as helpful as someone with office experience, he says. Similarly, an entrepreneur or small-business owner may have a better understanding of the church's needs than the CEO of a large company.

Make sure that the committee is balanced by including staff members who fairly represent the church's needs.

2. Sales Materials Aren't Enough
You can't choose the right piano or the best software by just looking at brochures. Even a software-demonstration diskette can be misleading, warns Ken Emert, minister of administration at Scottsdale Bible Church in Arizona. Emert avoids being inundated by advertising material by first asking for a list of needs from his church, then calling churches similar in size to see what they use, then asking select vendors for materials.

Example: Scottsdale Bible Church needed a new phone system. Emert began the search for one by asking people at a staff meeting what phone features the church needed. Next, Emert began calling other churches to find out what systems they used and to ask for their recommendations. After narrowing a list to four vendors, Emert began soliciting bids, thereby saving himself the hassle of reading dozens of proposals.

Bob Arthur of Fellowship of Life Church in Cheshire, Connecticut, uses the Internet to research big-ticket products for his church. For example, when his church needed a printer, he began pulling up the Web sites of printer manufacturers.

According to Arthur, such Web sites offer far more than a Yellow Pages directory, which is usually local and limited to names and addresses. A company's Web site contains a lot more information: product listings, photos, prices, and news on the latest products. "It saves a lot of time and eliminates the necessity of talking to a salesperson," Arthur says. "I can then organize my information and make a more informed decision as to a product or vendor."

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