In one sense, I’m unqualified to write an article about church building programs. I’ve never had any training in construction. My seminary experience was sadly lacking in instruction on building codes, labor law, and money markets.
However, as an amateur who’s found himself involved in one minor and two major church building projects in the last four years, I have learned some things. My qualifications:
In 1980, our church added eighteen hundred square feet to the Christian education and fellowship hall.
In 1982, we converted one of the rooms added in the 1980 expansion into a modern kitchen.
In 1983, we expanded our sanctuary by sixteen hundred square feet to more than double our seating capacity.
My purpose in writing this article is to help you recognize and overcome some building blocks should you some day find yourself up to your ears in blueprints and sawdust. Building blocks naturally fall into four categories: people, money, plans, and construction.
People: Who’s in Charge Here?
1. Don’t stereotype—you might miss the leader you need. As we approached our first building project in 1980, one of my great concerns was to find a person qualified to head up the program. I had only been at the church a few months and did not yet know the gifts of the people. I hoped to find a contractor in the congregation or else get one from the United Methodist church down the street in exchange for a high draft choice and an usher to be named later. I envisioned a kindly, tough, dedicated, competent man with a number of successful buildings under his belt who would head up the program as an act of Christian love.
One day, however, I visited a middle-aged widow who had been more or less uninvolved in our church for several years. After we had chatted a bit, she began to talk about her lack of participation. She said, “They keep asking me to bake cakes, and I don’t really like to bake cakes.” Then she looked me right in the eye and said, “But I’ll build you a building!”
Not every capable builder has a contractor’s license. Janice had been a teacher for a number of years in a one-room school in the mountain community where her husband served as forest ranger. After they moved to Oroville, they built their own house out of adobe bricks they made by hand. When the first church buildings were erected in the early sixties, Janice served on the building committee while her husband served as chairman of the board of trustees. She listened and learned and prepared herself to take a major role in any future building projects. Handling investments after her husband’s death gave her a keen understanding of how to use money.
Since I was new to the church, I didn’t know her background. But when I reported her offer to the older members of the session, they urged us to accept without delay. God provided the leader we needed: a kindly, tough, dedicated, competent woman who could head up the church building program as an act of Christian love.
2. Don’t build weakness into the building committee. A building committee must be able to make decisions quickly and carry them out effectively. This precludes appointing prima donnas or weak links.
When we were gearing up for our first project, I let my pastoral concern overcome my common sense and urged that certain people be appointed to the building committee because it would be “good for them” or because they were “eager to serve.” Only the patience of the chairman kept my pastoral concern from derailing the project. I needed to recognize I also had a pastoral obligation to the people who were putting hours and energy into making it happen, and that to build weakness into the building committee was to sabotage their best efforts.
“Pastoral” appointments may be appropriate for the choir robe or flower selection committee, but they have no place on a building committee.
3. Give ample opportunity for input. Before we expanded our sanctuary last year, the chairman of our property commission surveyed the congregation to learn what it wanted in a new building. We got some excellent ideas and learned that the congregation was willing to support a more expensive project than the one we were considering.
While construction progressed, we had a knowledgeable member of our session at the building site both before and after worship to answer questions and hear suggestions. As a side benefit, we found that a construction project attracts men to the church like moths to a porch light. Some who have had their religion in their wife’s name will come to worship for the privilege of being able to walk around an uncompleted building and talk about rebars, stresses, design, and traffic patterns. The Spirit moves in mysterious ways.
4. The pastor has a unique role. The pastor is the only person in the congregation who is trained to think about the building theologically. Others are much better with concrete and class sizes, but the pastor needs to ask, “What are we saying about ourselves and the Lord we serve by the way the building is designed?” The type of seating we choose, the placement of the Communion table, the choice of windows can all make theological statements.
One of the advantages of our smaller sanctuary was that we had clear windows on the sides so the congregation could see outside and the world could see inside during worship. Unfortunately, heat and glare problems in the new, larger sanctuary were unsolvable except by using colored glass in the side windows. But we made sure that people going by would still be able to look into the church through the clear glass in the narthex. We want the world to see us at worship and feel welcome to join us.
Money: The Root of All Buildings
1. Get people on board. Construction requires money, and money comes from people. It is, therefore, important that people feel ownership of the project. This means clearly communicating to the congregation the need for the new building and involving them in making it happen.
During each of our building-fund pledge campaigns, we trained callers to visit those requesting further information. As it happened, no one requested more information, but knowing it was available helped allay fears.
2. Use the tax laws to help raise money. We have a fairly wealthy family in our community. The wife is a member of our congregation, but the husband is not, and attends only rarely. While visiting with the husband one afternoon, I learned he was sponsoring a Vietnamese refugee family. I suggested he could accomplish the same purpose by letting the church take over and expand the sponsorship, and he could get a tax benefit by contributing to the church for this program. In the back of my mind, I was hoping he would recognize the Christian aspects of his generosity.
After consulting his tax lawyer, he agreed to my suggestion, which was approved by our session.
Two months later, to my surprise, I found a check for ten thousand dollars in the mail to kick off our first building campaign. Several months later, at his wife’s suggestion, he agreed to match dollar for dollar everything else that was contributed to the building program. You can imagine what a spur that was to the congregation’s giving. Although we numbered only 115 members, we were able to build a $70,000 addition debt-free. He later explained that he had made the initial gift and subsequent matching offer because “for once a preacher made a practical suggestion that would save me money!”
Not every church will have such a large contributor. But every church can benefit from the tax laws. At the very least, stretch a pledge period over as many tax years as practical in order to allow people to take maximum advantage of their giving when facing Form 1040.
3. Invest wisely. From the start of a pledge campaign to the time the final bills are paid, a lot of money can accumulate in a building fund. Wise investment of this money for maximum yield with maximum security can generate a considerable amount of interest. Even with the current lower interest rates, we are earning about three hundred dollars a month in interest from our money market account. For us, that is the equivalent of an additional fifteen giving units.
4. Protect your church. One of the astronauts in the Apollo program was asked if he felt there was any danger of equipment failure during his upcoming moon flight. He responded by asking the reporters how they would feel knowing that every part of the spacecraft had been supplied by the lowest bidder.
A contractor bidding a project is taking a risk. He never knows for sure what he will run into. One definition of the low bidder is “the guy who wonders what he left out.” In such a situation, it’s important for a church to take steps to protect itself from contractor failure.
This is something we almost learned the hard way. We didn’t require the contractor on our fellowship hall expansion to furnish a performance and payment bond. This bond, issued by a bonding agency for a fee close to 1 percent of the contract, is a guarantee that the contractor will complete the construction according to the specifications and in a workmanlike way for the price agreed on in the contract. In case of contractor failure, the bonding agency brings in another contractor to complete the project for the stipulated price and absorbs the cost of the change in contractors.
As it happened, the contractor for our fellowship hall declared bankruptcy shortly after completing construction. Fortunately, the woman chairing our building committee had insisted that the contractor provide lien releases from all suppliers and subcontractors to the church before we gave the contractor our final payment. These lien releases kept the suppliers and subcontractors from coming to the church for their money after the contractor declared bankruptcy. Fortunately, we avoided problems, but I will never enter another building project without requiring a performance and payment bond. It’s well worth the additional cost.
5. Keep good records. Good records can save you money. Some contractors will make promises while seeking a contract that they may find difficult to remember after construction has begun. For example, the contractor on our first project agreed to install an extra door as a part of his bid. The door was not in the original plans but was required by the county for safety reasons. When time came to install the door, however, he denied ever having agreed to install it and demanded additional money for the “extra” job. Fortunately, we had taped the initial interview with him for a member of the committee who was absent. Being confronted with his own promise on tape had an amazing impact on his memory and saved us almost four hundred dollars. From then on, we got everything in writing.
Planning: Hurry Slowly
1. Take the time to do it right. There is no substitute for proper planning before starting a building. There is no substitute for time to do proper planning.
One area where this is true is in checking plans. There is a story about a group of designers who brought plans for a new Vatican office building to Pope John XXIII. He looked at the plans for a few moments and handed them back with the question “Are they angels?” The designers had neglected to put any bathrooms in the new building. The most unlikely things can be left out.
In our most recent sanctuary construction, we found the architect’s plans did not include a way to prevent rain water from cascading off the roof onto a sidewalk. We had to install a runoff gutter as an expensive addition.
Some contractors will deliberately bid low on a job in anticipation that the owner will make enough changes after the job has started to ensure a hefty profit on “extras.” In some cases it is cheaper to let the work go on without the change and then go back and make needed changes as a separate contract.
Once made, plans need to be trusted. Buildings under construction have an amazing way of visually shrinking and expanding. The initial scratches in the dirt will look much smaller than anyone anticipated. The instinct is to demand that it be made larger—much larger! Once the framing is completed the building will have grown tremendously—completely oversized. But just wait. Wallboarding and painting will shrink the building again. Unless an initial error in measurement was made, the building will turn out to be the size that was ordered. It is important to trust the measurements, not the senses.
It is also important to take the time to check out contractors. As in any profession, some contractors are competent and honest; others are not. A bidding list needs to be developed based on a contractor’s previous work and from personal contact with previous clients. We have found it helpful to receive bids only from a select group of investigated, invited bidders rather than having open bidding. This way we can be confident that the low bidder will also be able to do the job we expect.
2. Try to anticipate areas of delay. We received quite a surprise from the local utility company when we were ready to start our most recent construction. The gas meter for the church was right in the way of the new north wing. It needed to be moved to permit the earth to be excavated and the slab to be poured. The gas company, however, told us that they would not be able to move the meter for at least eight weeks, which would have prevented us from building at all that year. We would not have been able to get a roof on before the rains began.
Fortunately, the building supervisor was experienced in dealing with utilities, having worked for a Southern California utility for over thirty years. He told the gas company we didn’t need a new meter for eight weeks, but we needed the old meter moved right away and that they could either move it themselves “or pick it up off the street the next day.” They found a way to squeeze us into their schedule.
The most unexpected things can come up. City governments and other local agencies can throw up endless roadblocks. Officials don’t even agree with each other. I have learned that it is easier for a bureaucrat to say no and then listen to reason than to say yes and then discover he’s made a mistake. Jesus said, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” Translated into governmentese, that means, “Let your yes be rare and your no mean ‘Convince me.’ ” I have learned that assertiveness is the best policy with government agencies. You can often get everything you want if you take the time to convince and demonstrate a sensitivity to their problems.
City and county workers are human, and they respond in a natural, human way. A person who takes an interest in their problems will find a reciprocal interest. Approval of our recent application for a use permit hinged on whether or not the city would demand we pave our parking lot immediately and install an overhead fire extinguisher system in the sanctuary. Either requirement would have meant financial derailment for our plans. Fortunately, a number of church members and I have been very involved in and supportive of city government. We discovered a flexibility in agencies that we wouldn’t have if formal channels were all we had to work with.
Assertiveness is sometimes hard for pastors. We have a hard time reconciling it with servanthood and forbearing in love. I have learned from laymen it is very possible to be forbearing and loving and kind toward government employees—but only after you get their attention.
Construction: Therapy for Edifice Complexities
1. Watch your lines of communication. One of the most frustrating experiences is having too many bosses. It is essential that only one person from the church be authorized to negotiate with or give instructions to the contractor and that any communication with individual workmen be done through or with the permission of the general contractor. All congregational questions, concerns, and ideas should be directed to one designated church representative. This prevents confused and sometimes contradictory instructions and keeps the builder from playing church members off against each other. If all communication comes through one dependable, tactful person, the contractor can never say, “But the other guy told me . . .”
2. Build good relationships with the workers. The availability of cold water, the present of a plate of cookies left over from the Sunday coffee time can do wonders. Each worker can provide a range of job quality and still be within the architect’s specifications. A happy worker is more likely to turn out his or her most craftsmanlike product. More than that, the church has the opportunity to witness to what it is and what it believes by the way it treats those who work on its buildings. Showing personal care and a word of appreciation can make a great difference in the completed building and could make a life of difference for the worker. Being kind while the building is going up could bring the workers and their families inside when it is finished.
3. Be able to make quick decisions. It is impossible to anticipate everything in the plans. Thus, a person or a small group of people must be authorized to make decisions that would not change the basic cost, purpose, or design of the project. The cumbersome process of waiting for an entire committee or church board to meet can bring considerable delay in construction and give a contractor gray hair and a bad attitude.
Remember that only rarely will your job be the sole project a builder has going. He needs to be able to move quickly to allow subcontractors to do their jobs in a limited period of time, because subcontractors will also have several simultaneous jobs under way. Building a building is something like a dance. It requires the ability to think on your feet and make quick decisions. Above all, it requires that whoever is in charge for the church know what he or she is doing and then be given all the authority needed to do the job.
A pastor involved in a building project is faced with a very special danger. Part of the danger is the amount of time it takes to do the job right. Meetings can be both incessant and lengthy. But the greater danger is the amount of rubbernecking a pastor can devote to a building—spending time watching the workers that would be better devoted to study, prayer, calling, and the other pastoral duties. The only compensation for this lost time is that more good sermon illustrations come from building programs than from a trip to the Holy Land. Some may call it rubbernecking or sidewalk superintending. I call it sermon preparation.
David Wilkinson is pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Oroville, California.
Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
