The answer is, they don’t have to!

I want to begin this article by saying that sometimes churches do need completely custom building plans in order to accommodate their unique needs or geographical issues.   However, many times the church building plans a church may require are very similar to plans already used by one of the approximately 400,000 Christian churches in the USA.

If these plans already exist, why do architects charge to design churches from scratch?  Other than the fact that the project may require a totally unique approach, there are couple of potential of answers to that question.

It may be the that the architect does not have a significant number of church building  plans on which to base new church plans.

When considering an architect  you should usually only consider those that specialize in church design. What many people, including architects fail to realize, is that churches are different than either residential or commercial buildings – they have very unique requirements that are not always apparent to a designer that is not extremely experienced in church design.  The church also needs to insure that the church designer has design experience with churches in the size, budget and type of facility that your church will be building.  There is a lot of difference between an architect that has designed some churches and a church architect. Also, an architect with experience at building large, downtown, ornate facilities for traditional main-line denominations may not be the best fit for a church looking to build a cost-effective $500,000 multi-purpose building in the country.  For more information, read Preparing to Build.

It may be the that the architect is ” tweaking” an existing set of church building plans and not telling you.

I’ve seen enough church plans over the years to recognize that many church building plans are simple variations on a theme.  I have seen sample plans in promotional materials from two architects that were pretty much carbon copies of each other.  The simpler the building, the more likely that the floor plans needed are similar to something that has already been built. Let me be very clear – there is nothing wrong with taking an existing floor plans and modifying them to the needs of another church.  In fact, this is a commendable approach as long as the church is not being charged as if if were original work and no one’s intellectual property rights are being violated.

You can probably save 40-60% on your church building plans.

Using plans from previous church building programs, the church should be able to get full working drawings (including mechanical, electrical and plumbing) for  about half of the “street rate”. Unless you have some very unique issues, for a 15,000 square foot church building plan, the fee for the architectural plans should probably cost no more than $45,000 – $60,000.  Sadly, it is not uncommon for the church to be asked to pay $90,000 to $120,000 or more for this work.

Here is a realistic example.  The church gets a quote on church architectural services for a 10,000sf building.  The cost for your church building plans are quoted at $70,000.  Using a pre-designed plan, modified to your needs and local building codes, and sealed by a licensed architect, the cost could easily be be less than $35,000.

Let us help you save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you would like to save money and time (both precious commodities) on the design of your church, please contact us for a referral to one of our recommended sources that can help you save precious time and money on your church design and church building plans or click this link to view nearly 200 church building plans from another of our church web sites.

This is a very important question, and one worthy of an accurate response.  Everyone wants to know how much it costs per square foot to build a church.  The REAL answer is this: All I or anyone else, including your local builder, can do is guess (we professionals call this "estimating") - until there is a real set of church plans. Anything else is just a guess, and not one you can hold someone to, at that. 

Can an experienced church builder look at a concept drawing of a church plan and get pretty close on cost?  

Yes they can.  I have been blessed to be be uncannily close on several projects - simple because, like a builder, this is something at which I have experience.  However, when you talk to someone who does not specialize in church construction, or worse, someone who gives you a lowball estimate just to try to get a business relationship going, the church can end up in trouble.  There is no way most churches know if their builder is really honest and capable until it is too late. To make it worse, most architects don't really know what a church will really cost to build - ask just about any builder and they will probably tell you the same thing.

Most churches push their budget to the max in order to build all they can afford.  A church can easily into the design process and spend several ten's of thousands of dollars on plans based on a bad guess or deceptive estimate. When the church gets the real construction bids and find out they can't afford the building, they then have to pay even more to have the plans redrawn.  This is not only a waste of money, but of time and momentum.

There are two ways to solve this problem:

The first is to NOT do the tradional Design-Bid-Build approach where you don't find out how much the building will cost until after it is designed.  A better approach is to put together a team consisting of the architect, engineer, and builder to work the process together, getting pricing estimates all during the design process so that by the time the building is designed, it is also priced.  This is commonly referred to as the team build approach. Team build differs from design/build by virtue of the fact that both the architect and the builder work for the church, an important distinction.

The second way is through the use of a new church plan offering that allows churches to buy detailed plan sets from previous building programs for only $895.  Starting with any one of the 200 or so church plans on ChurchPlanSource.com, the church can find a plan that is very close to what they want to build in size and general seating capacity.  The church can then buy detailed blueprints in PDF format and submit them to a builder for pricing.  

Once the church determines it can afford the building, the changes to the plan are made to make it the church's own.  The key to making this work is to find a building that is as close as possible to what the church needs.  Non-structural changes to room layouts and reconfiguring space will not greatly affect the price of the building, so the church can have construction drawings completed with the confidence they know the final price.  Even if the building needs to be resized soemwhat, the cost per square foot for the church will be approximately the same.  If it cost $100/sqft to build a 10,000sqft building, it will probably be the same price per square foot to build a 9,000 or 12,000sf building based on the same plan. Personally, I find these sample plan sets to be very helpful.  All too often churches don't believe me when I tell them how much a building project will take.  They are always sure they can get it done much cheaper.  For churches with unrealistic expectations, this is a great way to confirm if they can actually build it for what they believe.  If they can, Praise God, if not, they have lost very little.  (I may not have been able to keep them from shooting themselves in the foot, but I did at least switch them to a lower caliber that made a smaller hole. LOL)

If your church is in a hurry for whatever reason, it can have church building plans in hand in days instead of weeks or months. The full sample plan set in PDF format can be used to:

Get an accurate cost, or better yet, a firm bid, from a builder.


Be submitted as part of your inital loan application package.


Used for a preliminary plan review meeting with your local building department.


Uses as a planning document to communicate desired changes, and much more...



Go to ChurchPlanSource.com for more information and pricing.

Millions of dollars every year are wasted on church building plans that churches cannot afford to build. Many churches let the church building project define the budget, instead of letting the budget drive the design of the church. This simple transposition of steps in the process takes a toll on churches in terms of cost, time, effort, enthusiasm, and support for the project.

Design is part of the building process. Counting the cost does not mean sending your plans to the builder for an estimate. Counting the cost means understanding what you can afford before you begin.  There are a great number of church building plans available, and any number of church architects that will create more, but knowing what you can afford is a necessary step before you concern yourself with design.

This new portal provides access to stock building plans from experienced church architects. Visitors are able to view church building plans by building size or seating capacity. If a church desires, a free consultation to help identify the most appropriate plan for a church’s needs and budget is available. If the church desires to purchase one of these stock plans, an order can be placed with the church architect that supplied the plans.

Most of the plans on the site may be purchased “as-is” from previous building programs and then brought up to local building code (for fee) either by the church architect that originally designed the plan, or by an architect of the church’s choice.

As one developer put it, “this is a real blessing to the church and will save a great deal of time, and effort, not to mention money.” In addition to allowing users to download preliminary plans, the site offers referrals to church building and capital campaign consultants, financing sources, and builders.

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For a brief explanation of why church design costs are often unnecessarily high, see this explanation on this church architect’s web site. The long and short of it is that architects often price church design projects as if they were doing all the work from scratch, when in many cases, they are taking plans from previous projects and, due to the wonders of Computer Aided Design (CAD) they are able to make changes and save the revisions without having to do everything from scratch.

Several firms now offer stock church plans for as low as $5,000, but don’t think this is going to be the total cost of your church design. While these are wonderful prices and will save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in design, any set of stock plans will need to be modified to meet local, state and federal building codes. Changes to the floor plan to alter the layout to the churches desires will also add to the cost, however, with all these changes, the church can expect to save 50-80% over the cost of custom plans.

Stock church plans will certainly not include site plans or civil engineering; and what is offered for the price varies from firm to firm. For instance, as of this writing, both DigitalChurchPlans.com and ChurchPlansforLess.com offer as-is, uncertified plans with prices starting at little as $2,995 while ChurchDevelopment.com offers plans that are customized to the churches specifications and approved through the permitting process for a cost that is significantly less of customized building plans. With the uncertified plans, the church purchases the building plans and has the them modified to their needs, either by a local architect or the firm providing the plans.

In addition to saving huge amounts of money in the design process, the church will save weeks or months in the design process. The as-is, uncertified plans offer an additional benefit in that the church can submit plans to contractors for bids much earlier in the process and for a much lower investment in time and money. This is especially important as most churches underestimate the cost of construction, so getting a price based on actual plans that are very similar to what will actually be built will give the church a reality check before they spend (typically) tens of thousands of dollars on plans that they cannot afford to build.

For information on a service that will take the church’s building needs and search all available sources of existing plans, I offer a church building plan search.