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Your church needs a new vehicle and it's up to you to get it. If thoughts of spending weeks pouring over safety ratings, tonnage allowances, passenger seat configurations, and the gas versus diesel debate leave your wheels spinning, let the experts who've navigated this route take you on a ride through the process.

When local churches formed an interfaith hospitality ministry in Raleigh, North Carolina, Hayes Barton United Methodist Church couldn't participate. It wasn't their theology that kept them away, rather their lack of transportation. "We didn't have a large enough vehicle to participate in those programs," says L. Merritt Jones, chairman of the transportation committee.

The church uses their fifteen-passenger van to transport their youth to the Appalachia Service Project each summer, but to accommodate everyone they had to rent four more. Jones became aware of media reports that fifteen-passenger vans were unstable under certain conditions. "We studied those reports. We also saw that the YMCA and the school system no longer used vans to transport children. We were concerned about that."

After researching the options, Hayes Barton decided to buy a Champion bus from a local dealer. "The biggest advantage [over the van] is that it's more stable," says Jones. Though longer and wider than the van, four back wheels make the bus safer. Large mirrors and a special camera aid in backing up.

Rear seats fold up to make room for wheelchairs, and a lift ensures passengers get on and off safely. Special seat belts hold the wheelchairs in place and retract when not in use so disabled passengers are safe in an accident. "We also have a fire extinguisher, a first-aid kit, and emergency triangles to put out if the bus breaks down," says Jones.

At United Methodist Church of Chillicothe, Missouri, pastor Asher McDaniel was also concerned about the fifteen-passenger vans frequently used by his seniors and youth. "Every Wednesday we pick up children at schools in town and bring them to church," said McDaniel. "Safety is our primary concern."

After looking at five different companies, they chose the Ford Glaval Universal, available for around $78,000. McDaniel's bus came fully loaded with reclining seats and a dvd/videocassette player with multiple screens. "The features we got were the ones we needed for our ministry but I would recommend them to anyone," says McDaniel.

"Buses have heavier design criteria," says Peter Beren of Mid America Coach, where McDaniel bought his bus. "Anytime you're dealing with a steel frame bus you're dealing with a much higher survivability rate if, God forbid, you have an accident." With all-steel construction and rollover protection, it is particularly crashworthy. The weight and the center of gravity are all in compliance with Ford manufacturing standards, as well as federal rollover standards. Vans do not have to meet all of these standards.

"Ford included a nice emergency service package. They will come out and change the tire or fill it with gas," Jones was surprised to learn. "That's very comforting—I didn't expect to get that on a bus."

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