Construction(and maintenance) Costs: The Trend is UP

I have been doing a lot of research on the current trend of construction costs.  I make it a point to have a better than average understanding of the trends that impact construction and building costs as it impacts all of our clients and all churches considering any type of construction project, renovation, remodeling or even general maintenance.  There is no escaping it when prices increase. It impacts our budgets…plain and simple. So, it does not do us any good to bury our head in the sand and pretend that we may not spend more for our construction projects and maintenance.

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Simply Strategic Stuff – Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of our series of “Simply Strategic Stuff”.  As I mentioned last time, these are taken, with permission, from the book Simply Strategic Stuff by Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens.  I strongly recommend that you pick up the book as there are 99 great insights…and we will only be addressing a handful as part of this series.

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Simply Strategic Stuff: About Church Building

Over the past 14 months I have been blessed to develop 2 new relationships with some pretty cool guys (pun intended).  They are both prolific writers and brain-iacs in the church world and I am honored to be associated with them.  They are Tim Stevens, Executive Pastor at Granger Community Church and Tony Morgan, Pastor of Ministries at West Ridge Church.

I follow both of their blogs (links on their names above) and suggest you do the same.  They have also written some great stuff…including a series published by Group publishing.  Of the series they wrote, I have really enjoyed “Simply Strategic Stuff!”.  Their insight and recommendations are excellent and easy to understand and apply.

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At Just the Right Time…

Do you believe that God is in control of your life?

Do you believe that God’s timing is always perfect?

I have believed these in my “head” for years…but must admit that I rarely lived life with a complete understanding or acceptance of these realities.  I have heard so many sermons and teaching on waiting on the Lord…or that His will and timing are always perfect.  I have said the words and used them to convince others, but am not sure that I have really grasped them and embraced them like the air I breath.

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Subrogate vs. Surrender – Which is it?

I have a tendency to get hung up on the meaning of words…and when I do, the use of the words skew my perspective.  For example…coming from a pastor’s home, I have always struggled with “churchy” words like justification and atonement.  I know it sounds silly…but I have some kind of weird gene that does that to me…goofy, right !?

Well, the other day, I was sitting in bed thinking about how I have to surrender my life to Christ everyday.  I actually started doing a prayer journal about a year ago that I write in twice a day.  In the morning I list/pray about things that I must “turn over” and at night I list/pray about the things I am thankful for.

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I know a guy….or “we have a guy…”

How many times have you hear a church leader say, “I know a guy who can X” or “we have a guy…”?  I was recently talking to my friend Michael Trent (The Third Place guys…you know…pink shirt and spiked hair….love ya man!!!) and he had this great idea of compiling a list of the stories that many of us have heard and actually lived over the years about “the guy”.

This might be “the guy” who:

1. Can get work donated at our church

2. That works in the coffee department at the grocery store and thinks he can run our Third Place

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Elevation Church recommends ministrEspace software

This just in from Beth Brown at Elevation Church about ministrEspace:

Elevation Church is blessed to be growing so rapidly.  Our work environment is highly energetic and fast paced.  When we moved into our newest facility, we began to have a lot of activities happening during the week.  We didn’t have anyone specifically designated to reserve spaces in the facility and, needless to say, things would occasionally get a little confusing and messy.  Tim introduced us to Ministrespace, which gave us a great communication tool to manage the schedule for the spaces we have.  The website is easy to use for all our employees and the ability to have a public schedule available to everyone saves us a lot of time and resource.   It also puts the responsibility on our staff to plan ahead and reserve the space that they need in advance.  We’re forming good habits!  I would recommend this program to any growing church or organization interested in saving money on headache medicine for their staff.

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Book Review

The following is our first book review on Amazon.  It is from an architect in Florida:

“With “Successful Masterplanning”, author Timothy L. Cool provides church leaders and church planning and building committees with a brief, succinct, and accurate overview of the church masterplanning process. Dealing at times with relatively complex matters, the book is written in an accessible, entertaining, often humorous style. It is apparent from the “real world” examples and anecdotes that the author has extensive, “hands on” experience with church development. The book concludes with a handy recap and two very useful appendices. Representing a very modest investment, this book has the potential to help church leadership teams realize significant savings during most aspects of the development process.”

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Successful Master Planning: More than pretty pictures

After over 8 months of writing, editing and editing (by the way, did I mention editing)…my first book has been released and is available on Amazon.

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Meet Pastor Bob…he may be your pastor

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.

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