Meet Pastor Bob. He is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of somewhere, anywhere, everywhere. His church is not just Presbyterian, but also Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Nazarene, Independent, and so on and so forth. In short, he is my pastor and your pastor. He is my father, who was a Wesleyan pastor for over twenty-five years. He represents any leader of a church or ministry who has or ever will consider a facilities expansion or building program. He is the embodiment of every person who has led a growing organization and who has felt a leading from the Lord to explore how physical facilities may serve as a tool to further the growth, influence, and ministry of the church.

I have spent the past twenty-three years working with “Bobs” and their teams to navigate the rough waters of facilities expansion projects across the United States. I worked with these ministries to navigate issues related to land and site selection, zoning and re-zoning, master planning, architectural review processes, schematic design coordination, construction document coordination, value engineering, funding and financing, construction, post-construction, and just about everything in between. During that time I was blessed to serve over two hundred ministries, helping to explore and implement their facility needs and wants.

Many of these projects required significant prayer and soul-searching to determine the real needs and motivations behind such an endeavor. I have worked with many “Bobs” who have huge vision; it was sometimes unrealistic, but at least they had vision. In those cases we had to take the time to dive deep into the issues associated with the vision as well as the significant aspects of financial capability and practicality of the vision.

These were not always pleasant processes, but when the church was willing to invest the time, energies and resources to work through them, the results were remarkable. Not only did I witness churches making the right choice for their situation, but I also saw hearts melted, saw visions set on fire by the passion and the coming together of God’s people for a united purpose. This is what drives me, what keeps me up at night, what makes me crazy at times.

But my passion is not drawing plans, digging dirt, building buildings, or maintaining  completed structures. What I am passionate about is assisting churches, ministries, and their leadership to be true stewards of the things with which God has entrusted them, which include but are not limited to dollars, buildings, people, and ministry opportunities.

The master planning process is not merely a formal exercise to add more meetings to an already-busy church calendar; it is the foundation of any expansion program. This process must not be passed-over or short-circuited. The data you develop will serve you and your team well now and long into the future.

There are a lot of perils in a master planning process. Your dream can get derailed if your facilities vision is too grandiose. People far from God who could have been reached by your ministry will remain far from God as a result. Families who could have been knit back together at your church will remain in conflict because you were not able to build important facilities. Your church could struggle to remain unified and focused because of financial bondage. To be sure, the stakes are high.

For more on Pastor Bob and the Master Planning process, check out Successful Master Planning: More Than Pretty Pictures.

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