If you are a pastor thinking of building a church or ministry facility, one of the very first steps would be to establish a building committee, to lead and guide the design and construction process.
But how do you choose the right building committee team members?
The first thing would be to determine what the function of your committee is. Will they be more of an owners representative or more for visionary purposes only?
Owners Representative Committee
For a committee to take the place of an owners representative you will need to look for these types of qualities in the committee members:
- Decision Makers
- Good Character and well respected by the congregation
- Supportive of the vision and mission of the church
- Good listener, humble, problem solver not a problem starter
- Building experience is helpful but not a must
- Accountability.
Visionary Committee
Look for these qualities in the team members for this type of committee:
- Church involvement
- Accountability
- Dependability
- Servants heart
Selecting Your Building Team
When it comes to selecting your building team, you’ll need to hire various parties for your building project.
Civil Engineer & Architect
Important question to ask:
- Have they built churches before?
- Can you see their designs? Do they match with your vision for the building?
- Are they reputable? Follow up with references and previous church clients.
- What are their fees and how to compare fees?
Building Contractor
Important questions to ask and points to consider:
- Have they built churches before?
- Don’t just settle for seeing pictures of their work, actually go see their work if possible. In this way you’ll see the quality and craftsmanship months and years later.
- Speak to references and previous clients. Ask about their responsiveness, how they dealt with changes, communication and quality of work.
- Make sure to identify all the costs not just the basic fee
- Be careful with dollar per square foot figures
- Investigate how financially stable is the company?
