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.

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.

.. Reduce Cost and Risk

... Raise Money for Building

.... and much more

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

Pastors are taught a variety of things, including how to exegete the Word, pastoral care, church planting, and church growth strategies - but no one teaches them what to do when they are successful and need to build church facilities. We are here to help.

Your church will never undertake a task that is more demanding or complicated in terms of cost, risk, and effort than in a church building program. However, those in your church are largely unequipped by either training or experience to lead the church in a building program in a optimal manner.

The purpose, therefore, of our church construction consulting ministry is to equip and guide your church in building the best building for the ministry in a manner that will:

Reduce:  Uncertainty, Cost, Effort, and Risk

Increase:  Satisfaction with the finished project, Unity and concurrence in the body of Christ while building, and Financial support for the project.

Please visit the About Us page for more information about our consulting ministry.

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.

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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First and foremost is that there is a difference between an architect that has designed some churches, and a church architect. Designing churches is different and working with church folks is different. What ever church architect or firm you select should specialize in churches. The church architect you select should have designed dozens or even hundreds of church plans.

Secondly, the church architect you select should have experience in designing churches that are of the size, style, and complexity of the church you need to build. Just because the firm of Dewey, Cheatam & Howe has designed a few cathedrals or edifices for mainline downtown churches, does not mean that they are the right church architect to design your multi-purpose family life center. As you search for a church architect, make sure you ask to see work from other projects of the type, size, and cost of your program.

In a Q&A session with a church yesterday, I was asked yesterday what were some general qualifications that the church should look for or consider in hiring an architect. In addition to the above tips, I suggested that they look for an architect who attends church. I even suggested they may consider asking how often they attend. The reasons for suggestion this were two-fold. For one, its always better to do business with a fellow Christian when possible. Secondly, and even more importantly, is how well can an architect design a church when they don’t attend?

As a church building consultant, I have been blessed to come to know several architects who specialize in church construction. You could save yourself a lot of time, effort and money, by contacting me and letting me put you in contact with the right church architect.

For additional information on question to ask church architect candidates, you may download an excerpt from my book, Preparing to Build, in the form of an article entitled 75 Questions to Ask When Hiring an Architect.

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There is a growing trend towards design-build, which, while better than design-bid-build, is not the best method in terms of lowering cost and risk. In a typical design-build model the church hires a builder by who, in turn, hires an architect who does the design work for the builder. The drawback, however, is that the architect works for the builder, not the church. This can put the church at a disadvantage as the possibility exists that the builder and architect can make design decisions that benefit the builder and architect (i.e. raise their profit), and not the church. In many cases, design-build has a drawback similar to that of the conventional general contractor model, a fixed price closed book contract where the church does not know all the costs of the building program and cost savings go to the builder, not the church.

Diametrically opposed to the sequential, and somewhat disjointed, design-bid-build delivery model, is the team approach using a construction manager. The team approach integrates the church, builder and designer together at the beginning of the design process to work in parallel throughout the design and construction process. This parallel team method provides the church with a number of advantages including: time savings, less duplicated effort, a design whose cost is counted throughout the development process, and a building design that is a collaborative effort rather than the product of a somewhat disjointed and adversarial process. All of these benefits add up to significant savings in time, cost and effort while producing a superior result.

If your church is planning to build, it will greatly benefit from having an “ideal model” to emulate. In the best church construction scenario, the church will have begun preparation to build well in advance of the design and construction phases, and accomplished two very important tasks. First and foremost, it should complete a needs and feasibility in order to objectively understand what it needs to build, what it can afford to build, and how to pay for it. (A needs and feasibility study is a prerequisite step for both architectural design and raising money through a capital campaign.

The capital campaign is the second task that the church should begin as far in advance of building as possible. Among other benefits, a capital campaign will help raise money for the up-front costs of building and potentially reduce the amount of money that needs to be borrowed. It would be in the church’s best interest to get a church building consultant, either from within their denomination or an independent consultant, for both the needs and feasibility and capital campaign. Both of these important tasks will be greatly enhanced by the wise counsel and experience of an outside consultant who is both experienced and objective.

This brings us to the model that will save the church the most time and money, reduce its risk and stress, and has the highest probability of providing the best building solution. The ultimate model for church construction is one with a consultant involved early in the process to determine needs and feasibility and execute a capital campaign who is working in a team consisting of a licensed architect and a construction manager working in an open book method where all costs and accounting are open to inspection and is working for a fixed fee.

The further away the church gets from this model, the greater the potential amount of cost, risk, and time the church will experience in their church building project. It is also important to remember that there is a lot of difference between an architect (or builder) that has done some churches and a church architect (of builder).

To get the full 4-pg article that describes this in more detail, you may request a copy from the author by using this contact form.

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