If you saw an increase in your regular attendance over the holidays, how did your church building hold up?  Was there enough parking?  Was every seat full or was there standing room only? Did you have enough classrooms for all of the extra needs?  These are questions to ask as you begin to reflect on 2011 and its highlights for your congregation and church space.

Building a church building or renovating a current space is a comprehensive decision for a church to make.  Answering the questions above can begin to shed light on the possible needs your church space might have in the coming years.  This could be finding new ways of how to best utilize your space as well as the possible need to plan for a new church construction project.

A new building may be in your church’s near or far off future.  As you reflect this New Year, calculate what building or renovating your dream church might take on our planning calculator.

A church deciding on whether it should take on debt for a construction project is something we come across in almost every church building project that we help plan. There is no straight answer to this question, as it is something personal to each church. As Eden Religious Facilities better understands your church’s vision, needs and annual giving, we will have a clearer picture of what your church’s financial benchmarks should be. Additionally, if you decide to take on debt, we know what factors are important to lenders when financing your church project. Lastly, at Eden we have great relationships with many different level fundraisers in the Midwest to help you raise money and structure your campaign to help finance your church building project successfully.

Videos are an effective tool to show many of the projects we have had the privilege to work on over the years. Furthermore, videos are also a great way for you to market your church, faith, and building to current members and others in the community. Eden Religious Facilities is available to help put together a video for your church. You can use the video to share your beliefs or however you see fit after your construction project. This is a resource we offer, believe in and have available at your disposal. Eden Religious Facilities is happy to help you share more about your church in this way with others.

Having been a part of a growing church community here in Indianapolis for the last seven years, I’ve seen first hand the importance and value the feelings trust and confidence are in a church construction company like Eden Religious Facilities. The work we do at Eden Religious Facilities affects many lives of those who attend a growing church as their existing worship space changes. But our work also affects many others who we won’t even come into contact with during a church building project: the future church members and the general community.

Something unique Eden Religious Facilities offers beyond trust and confidence and our experience and expertise in church construction projects is the direct link to the partners in our business. During all of our church construction projects church leaders and members will have direct access to our three partners and at one point all three partners will be working on a part of the project themselves. We truly believe in the work we do from the top down and are proud to work this way and offer these value propositions.

We understand the importance of your construction project and the involvement of your entire church community.  We are eager to be involved in each step, to guide you and your church members with confidence and ease as we view ourselves as the guardians of your church building project.  Our goal is to simply help you plan your dream church building or renovation and to see that dream to fruition.

We are currently consulting for a church in the area and are thrilled to be a part of this special process with them.  Churches truly build the pillars in communities and we believe our solid partnerships help build them successfully.

When building churches or religious based schools there are often gifts in kind. Certain companies tied to the project in some way might offer their services to the church or school as a gift in kind.  This is value given to the organization if they can perform the certain scope of work.  We ask those offering a gift in kind to define what is their bid and gift of kind separately.

By overseeing this process we ensure gifts in kind are just what they are, helping to complete the project on time and giving you peace of mind.  This is just another aspect of the church construction process Eden Religious Facilities oversees to make sure we are being the guardians of your project.

The impact of music in churches was recently a topic of discussion in a USA Today article found here. How different churches utilize music tends to depend on their denomination and sometimes church size but the ultimate theme is music is used to worship and praise God.

We know the importance of sound in a place of worship and we work with your team to create the best meeting place in terms of acoustics. For some projects we even suggest that a sound engineer be included to review the building design and ensure sound is tuned to the best quality.

Construction sites can be dangerous. To ensure everyone’s safety we have established various project controls for each and every project we complete. For each project the local superintendent is on site when any activity is being completed.

The crucial responsibilities of the superintendent include the following items among others:

• construction built to blueprints and specifications

• management of all contractors on the work site which includes their safety programs, policies, and procedures (along with Eden Religious Facilities’)

• weekly safety meetings, OSHA forms updated/posted, standards enforced

• day to day communication with subcontractors

• reporting on crucial activities and progress

Beyond this, there are various reporting measures such as daily and weekly reports, both in writing and with photographs. Reporting like this allows us to diligently oversee each project to ensure the church building process is safe, cost effective and on time.

When you are planning a project or just investigating the needs of your ministries and congregation, you need to have clarity about cost. I could spend a month telling you about churches that have jumped into the project with no real data on the “True Cost” of a new project. If you are growing, the sanctuary is getting tight, there are no parking spots left and people are shoulder to shoulder in the lobby after service, your natural reaction is to investigate a larger space.

A church that does not know their design and construction options will hire an architect to program and design a new facility with no thought to the knowledge and experience of the group that will be building the actual facility. This happens all the time all over the country when churches design a facility first, and then send it to several general contractors to bid after the design is complete. A high percentage of these situations end in a project price that stalls or stops the project all together.

This very problem is why we use the proven process of design build. Design build process assures a solid planning phase that includes all the design and constructions professionals, with all the costs associated with their services. This insures there are no surprises and no delays in the completion of the building project. Bottom line, Eden Religious Facilities delivers a quality facility while meeting budget and schedule.

Try our cost calculator to get a good idea of what it might take to build or expand your facility.

Having been in the church building, construction, and consulting business for over 20 years we have seen it all in terms of finance and construction costs.  As guardians of your project we say, do not write that check.

Why?

Because churches do not always get the best deal. Knowing this and other pitfalls when building a church building we suggest, only spending the money that absolutely needs to be spent now. By doing this, costs can better be kept in check and kept to the agreed upon budget set by the church building committee.

Sticking to the budget, keeping construction on time, and answering questions from church members are all things Eden Religious Facilities team members do daily while managing church construction or remodeling projects.