Why your church needs a strategic plan for your new facility project

As the saying goes, failure to plan is a plan for failure. There’s a reason why banks are foreclosing on church facility loans at a record rate: failure to create fiscally-responsible building plans. (Reuters) The hallmark of any successful project is having a thorough plan ahead of time. Churches considering a new facility solution need a strategic plan in place before anything else.

What every church facility strategic plan needs

A good church facility strategic plan begins with the primary spiritual direction from God because it’s God who builds His kingdom. Without God’s direction, none of this matters. It then involves wise practical steps that address the financial feasibility, unique congregational needs, and community context for the new facility. The new church facility needs to serve both the current attendees and those who the church hopes to reach in the surrounding community in the years to come.

It’s important for your congregation to understand the vision and steps of the strategic plan. The Aspen Group has an excellent article on how to create buy-in for a church building project. A solid strategic plan and buy-in will help your leadership team and building committee navigate any bumps along the way as the plan is implemented.

How Development Advisors helps churches create strategic plans

What sets Development Advisors apart from a volunteer project manager, architects, or other church facility expansion experts is our ability to help churches understand what is achievable. We do sometimes stretch our clients to consider more possibilities, but we never put our clients in harm’s way when it comes to budgeting and planning for the future.

Development Advisors works with churches to develop a strategic plan during Phase 1 of the construction process. Phase 1 includes three important areas of focus:

• Project Vision - God gives the future vision of the local church to the church’s leaders. Development Advisors takes this vision and helps articulate the future facility program (building size, parking and related space configurations) in initial building concepts. This facility program starts with the ministry needs and desires for worship, teaching, discipleship, recovery, and fellowship.
• Financial Plan - Development Advisors documents existing and future financial resources and helps predict the likely capital giving potential and the future capacity to support debt resources. We help estimate the appropriate amount of debt financing necessary to accomplish the Project Vision without hindering the church’s future ministry goals.
• Budgeting - We create a pro‐forma budget based upon the Project Vision that is then reconciled to the church’s available financial resources. As the project is further defined, we continue to provide turn-key budgets for project planning and execution.

All three of these steps help Development Advisors and the church identify a Facility Goal for the future church facility. The strategic plan is one of the biggest reasons why churches trust Development Advisors with their next facility project. We can provide third-party expertise and accountability to best serve you and your congregation as you consider expanding into a new facility. 

Development Advisors, LLC is a full service commercial real estate development services organization with a passion for serving churches. This aligns with our principals personal values as followers of Jesus Christ. We provide A to Z services including strategic planning, financial feasibility, site/building selection, capital campaign direction (hiring the right coach), financing (as owner's representative), project team selection, land entitlement, project management and construction management (as owner's representative), FF&E and AVL procurement, and move coordination. Should you wish to discuss your vision with us, please contact Mr. Scott McLean at 303-534-3344 x103 or at scott@developco.com. God Bless.