5LQ Episode 266: Church Buildings and Design –

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Dave Milam, vice president of strategic design at Visioneering Studios. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: What are the new trends when it comes to churches and their use of space? What are the most common mistakes churches make when they enter into a building program? What research does Visioneering do before a church moves forward with a plan? When revitalizing and replanting, what should churches do to their space before relaunching? What are best practices for making a move, celebrating, and transitioning well? BEST QUOTES “Constantly I am hearing churches say we need more lobby space, we need more community space, places where people can just sit and talk.” “One of the biggest mistakes I see is churches not locking down that number – this is how much money we are going to spend, not a penny over – and really holding the team that they hire to that number.” “What’s the smartest next move for us based on what we can afford?” “If you do a capital campaign, a church typically can raise two to two and a half times their annual giving in a two-year capital campaign, if they use a consultant. If they don’t use a consultant it tends to be one times their annual giving in a two-year campaign.” “For every person in your church, you typically need about 50 square feet in your church building.” “It’s possible that really what the building needs is just the new vision and new leadership.” “The last thing I want is for a church to sacrifice ministry or staffing dollars to build a building or fix carpet.” “If you are a larger church and you have been gifted a building for a campus, then it is worth doing a full on evaluation of the people flow, the space requirements, the carpet, the branding, the whole ball of wax.” “There are so many opportunities to celebrate when the process is happening. It’s super critical to make sure the church is doing that, because when they are celebrating together they notice what God’s doing.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 conference  Visioneering Studios