The benefits of a Needs and Feasibility Study for any church contemplating a building program are multi-faceted.  Here are some of the benefits as noted in the church needs and feasibility presentation on our website.

Higher Level of Satisfaction:

“We did find a strong correlation in overall satisfaction with the building project if a feasibility study was conducted. The disappointment, however, is that only one-third of the churches conducted a feasibility study.”

Reduction in Risk:

The application of experience and due process by someone experienced in church design, church growth, and church construction cannot help but reduce risk.

• Financial risk.
• Risk of disunity.
• Risk of poor results, or even failure.
• Risk of losing confidence or momentum.

Improved Functionality:

• Based on objective factors, not subjective ideas.
• Based on prioritized needs as quantified by surveys, interviews, and analysis.
• A balance of space that is correctly proportioned to maximize long term value at the lowest cost.
• Increases the effectiveness of ministry.

Reductions In:

• Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).
• Stress and undue wear and tear on church staff.
• Costly mistakes.
• Time spent planning.
• Wasted time and effort.

A needs and feasibility study is the key to maximizing the church’s satisfaction while minimizing the risk in building.

A needs and feasibility study provides:

• A plan for execution,
• Unity to the church, and,
• The foundation for the next steps of design, financing, & construction.

A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. - Proverbs 1:5

The problem with learning from your own mistakes is that it can be very painful, and sometimes expensive.  This is especially true in church construction.  In building a church, mistakes can be very costly, and not just in terms of money.  While a mistake in construction or financing can end up costing the church tens of thousands of dollars, mistakes can also have other very serious consequences.

Mistakes in construction often lead to expensive corrective measures, but can also have an impact on your church and its mission.  Not following a good process can make the who building program take longer and be more of a burden to the leadership and the church.  Not correctly addressing the real needs of the church can hinder people getting behind the program, creating division and a potential lack of financial support.   Mistakes in the design phase, if caught, must be corrected (if possible) in the construction phase.  Depending on the issue, this can be a very expensive proposition.

A mistake in building design may also prevent growth or hinder ministry in particular areas.  Unfortunately, mistakes in building design often do not manifest themselves until after construction of the church is complete, sometimes several years later when portions of the building become maxed out while other areas are under-utilized.

The best solution is to learn from the mistakes of others.  The services of a church building consultant can provide your church with invaluable experience and insight that will will help prevent mistakes and greatly increase your overall satisfaction with your building program. Your church will benefit from the best practices that are the result of learning from not only the mistakes but also the right decisions of other churches.

Through wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; By knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong, Yes, a man of knowledge increases strength; For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, And in a multitude of counselors there is safety.

Proverbs 24:3-6

In order to determine a meaningful value that one might use for cost comparison purposes, you have to first determine what goes into the definition of cost per square foot. One person may say the building cost for a finished project was $85 a square foot and another may say $145 and they may both be right!

How can two answers so very different both be right?? As a recent president so glibly demonstrated, the answer depends on how you interpret the question. To evaluate and use cost per square foot as a meaningful measure, you have to know what went into the cost calculation. For instance, were design fees, site work, permits, construction interest, utility tap fees, and other expense items that were not part of the “building”, yet necessary to the project, calculated into the cost per square foot? In our example of two people giving diverse yet accurate costs to build, the difference is in what they factored into the building cost. Without knowing exactly what is factored into the cost, cost per square foot numbers are meaningless at best and deceiving at worse.

Design considerations and location sometimes can make huge differences in cost per square foot. A simple 15,000 square foot single story building in rural South Carolina will cost far less to build than a similar building in metro Washington, DC or Orlando, FL. A simple yet well built building may cost less than one-third that of a similarly sized cathedral with ornate design and construction. Another design issue that is often overlooked in the cost per square foot calculation is building height. A 10,000 square foot building with a low roof is much cheaper to build than the same building with a 25-foot ceiling height, such as you might find in a multi-purpose building. Even simple things such as roof pitch can make a difference. One moderate sized church project was able to save $28,000 by changing the roof pitch from 8:12 to 4:12 pitch.

These are only a few of the many variables that can affect the cost per square foot in building a church.

• Total Square Footage – there are economies of scale in bigger building projects
• Location – If you were to build the same building in New York City or San Francisco as you did in Augusta, GA, the price could vary by over 40% for the same building. Building in a rural area could make the spread even greater.
• Style and Amenities – Dramatic architectural elements, features and amenities can substantially drive up costs without adding to square footage or functionality.
• Total Volume – High walls and ceilings, and steep pitched roofs add to the cubic footage of the building without changing the amount of square feet of building.
• Special Considerations – Site work, utilities, legal fees, land costs, soil types, single or multi-story: All these factors and more can effect the project cost and therefore the cost per square foot.

Site work is a large and extremely variable line item. One church may have $50,000 of site work and another, for a similar sized building and parcel, may have $250,000. For this reason, you should probably not include site work in the building cost. However, this brings up an interesting point. What the church needs to focus on is total project cost, not building cost.

Overly focusing on building cost per square foot can be misleading at best and dangerous at worse. The building is a certainly a large part of the project, but it is far from the whole project. Professionals familiar with church design can get into the ballpark of cost per square foot (once the church has done some preliminary needs analysis and a concept plan is developed), but the church needs to remember to focus on the total project cost, not just an arbitrary and poorly defined number assigned as the building cost.

The above was is an excerpt from Preparing to Build, Chapter 5

Good process would dictate that the church understand what it needs to build and can afford to build prior to getting into the design of the building.  Once the needs and ability of the church are determined through a needs and feasibility study, it will be possible to develop a project plan that best meets the needs within the constraints of the budget.

“There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.” – John Ruskin

For more sage words, see these John Ruskin Quotes.

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 image of the cross in the clouds appeared and disappeared in a matter of seconds, but serves to remind us of a couple of things.

1. That is by the grace of God that the sun rises anew each day, and with the new day, His grace and mercy are renewed as well.
2. And that soon, Jesus will return again, the “SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. “

Take a moment and enjoy the SonRise.