The CharestCorp Blog

by David Stanford, AIA (reprinted from Church Solutions Magazine)

Whether you are a church administrator or a member of the clergy, you are likely beginning to feel the effects of the current recession. Tough economic times can put a real strain on contributions to your church’s building funds. However, the same economic climate can increase attendance, as families find comfort through spirituality and faith support groups.

When congregations begin to feel the strain of greater attendance and decreasing revenue, church leaders are wise to develop a master plan to address the future growth of their facilities. A good master plan begins with an evaluation of what your needs are today, balanced with what you believe your needs will be in five, 10 and 20 years. By sitting down with an architect and working through each stage, your church can create a plan that meets today’s needs yet is flexible enough to realize tomorrow’s vision.

The first step in developing a master plan is to review the current needs of the congregation. If the existing facility is not meeting your requirements, determine if an addition is the answer or whether it’s time to build a new facility. During the planning phase, having an architect work with you will help determine the best course of action within your budget.

In many cases, church leaders will find that they don’t need more space but need the ability to perform multiple activities within it. One way to address this issue within a tight budget is through the use of multipurpose facilities. Multipurpose buildings, either as an addition or part of a new facility, are an effective way to maximize your building fund dollars and to ensure the church is using space efficiently. Through good design, multipurpose spaces can achieve many of the same functions of spaces designed for single use. For example, church meeting halls can be used as main gathering areas; or through the use of partitions, can be converted into additional classroom space. It’s also possible - through the integrated use of movable platforms and specialized seating – to configure a contemporary worship space into a practical fellowship hall. With so many choices to consider, it’s a good idea to select an architect that has experience designing these types of religious facilities. The architect be familiar with specific design techniques that will provide the very best use of space.

After reviewing your current needs, a good master plan will help provide a road map for the future of your facility. Design a space that will grow with your congregation for the foreseeable future. A design plan that anticipates the expansion of certain spaces, including the sanctuary, will ensure that you don’t block yourself in as church membership increases.

It’s also important to choose durable building materials from the beginning. A tighter budget often encourages church leaders to cut corners during the construction phase. However, this can be a costly mistake in the long run. In most cases it is better to bypass ornate interior selections, like stained wood treatments or precious metal embellishments, for better exterior materials. There’s an old saying that a house is only as strong as the foundation upon which it rests. This is true for churches, as well. During the master planning phase, an architect can help you determine the appropriate site and material selections for the long-term sustainability of your facility. You’ve probably seen buildings that use cheap exterior skins – they usually do not look very good after 10 years. Materials like masonry, cast stone and stucco hold-up very well over time and, when applied correctly, can bring out the external beauty of the building and surrounding landscape.

Through value engineering, it is possible to incorporate HVAC, lighting and plumbing systems that can provide utility cost savings over time. Sometimes options like geothermal HVAC or water reclamation systems cost a little more on the front end, but are well worth the expense over time. Your regional climate and soil type are factors to consider when choosing an appropriate system.

As you begin to think about opportunities to cut initial costs within your church’s interior, it is important to know which items are costlier to replace at a later date. Having your facility prewired during construction, even in areas that may not initially be used, is an effective way to ensure that future use will not be limited. It can be a very difficult task to rewire areas that are not easily accessible and the labor costs can outweigh the benefit. Moreover, by using high-end sound cables and speaker wire from the beginning, you will be able to upgrade audio-visual equipment through the years without losing compatibility.

An experienced architect will also recommend working with an acoustical consultant during the earliest stages of planning. Getting the sound right in a religious space is essential to creating an enjoyable worship experience for church members. There are numerous material combinations, from ceiling tiles to wall paneling and sound-deflecting paint, each can be used together to achieve the best results.

Finally, when budgets are tight remember to be practical. Work with your architect to develop a plan that will allow you to upgrade the space when economic times are better. Flexibility is the key to a good plan. While times are tough today, they’ll surely get better. And your church will be better off by implementing a good plan today.

David Stanford is a principal with Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford Architects in Fort Worth, Texas. In a career spanning more than 26 years, Stanford has received numerous commendations for his work in religious design, including awards from the American Institute of Architects, Associated Builders and Contractors and the Texas Masonry Council.

It is a common question, “Why can’t we just buy one of those pre-made buildings and save a bunch of money?” The simple answer is that you can and you will…..until you realize it does not meet your needs. That’s when the bleeding of money starts. A “One size fits all” approach almost never works in real life and I wonder why people think that it will work with something as complicated as a building.

Our Architectural division has proven again and again that clients save far more money designing only what they need and not trying to redesign an old plan or pre-made building. I am not talking about saving thousands, I am talking about the possibility, depending on the size of the project of saving millions.

With churches it is essential that the person who is drawing the church needs to have a spiritual connection with the client in order to understand the Mission Critical Ministries of that congregation so they can design Mission Critical Facilities to meet it.

So I thought providing the bio of CharestCorp’s head Architect James Tomlin would be a good read for those interested in looking for a ministry building that fits them like a glove and is affordable to boot.

Enjoy!

James Tomlin: Church Architect

“James Tomlin is an Architect who specializes in the design of evangelical ministry facilities.  Growing up in California’s Central Valley, he knew from an early age that he wanted to be an Architect.  He began his career twenty years ago, after graduating from the School of Architecture at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.  Starting out as a draftsman at a small firm in the Central Valley, he soon began coordinating the design of several new elementary school and high school projects there.  He moved to the Desert to partner with a college classmate who started his own small firm, and together they worked on a variety of educational, commercial and residential projects, including straw-bale buildings.  It was there that he had what he calls a “desert experience”, becoming a born-again Christian and, later, a husband and father.  Moving with his new family to the Central Coast, he joined a small firm there as Project Manager, in charge of several educational and commercial projects. He also became a Registered Architect with the State of California, and a member of the American Institute of Architects.

He found his niche in church design about 8 years ago, when as a building committee member for his church, hired a firm from Utah that specialized in church buildings.  In turn, this firm hired James in 2001 to be Project Architect in charge of the design of over 40 new facilities for evangelical ministries across the country.

After playing a key role in the rapid growth of this now nationally-known church building program, James left their headquarters in Utah to fulfill his longing to be a local architect again with a small church design firm in the Central Valley.  Here, James had control over each phase of several church projects, from programming and master planning through documents and construction.  It was also here that he became aware of the NACDB, and made contact with CharestCorp last year.  From this contact came the opportunity for him to join CharestCorp as their staff Architect, and within a year he became a Certified Church Consultant.

Now he is on his way to becoming a LEED Accredited Professional with the US Green Building Council. James looks forward to being a key instrument in fulfilling CharestCorp’s vision of building 50 churches by 2020 using their proven design-build project delivery method.”

Floods. Earthquakes. Fires. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorist attacks.

Any major disaster event – whether natural or manmade – puts the affected city or community into crisis mode. This is when the facilities that house essential services like police, search and rescue, fire fighters, paramedics, dispatch call centers, data centers, and government agencies, become hubs of emergency response activities. These buildings must be designed and built to withstand massive seismic and wind forces, to have reliable and redundant operating systems, and to have uninterruptible power supplies, so that they can continue to support any and all response activities throughout the crisis. Therefore these facilities are critical to carrying out the mission of the emergency response, which is to save lives and restore order to the community.

So how does this relate to churches?

Death. Adultery. Divorce. Apostasy. Disease. Alcoholism. Domestic abuse.

Any major emotional event – whether external or internal – puts the affected church or group into crisis mode. This is when the facilities that house ministry services like prayer, counsel, fellowship and worship become hubs of emergency response activities. A church building must be designed to endure social pressures and tolerate cultural movements, just as it is designed to withstand environmental forces and structural loads, so that it can continue to provide appropriate surroundings as well as sheltering support for the response activities during the crisis and throughout the ministry of the church. Therefore we see this kind of facility being critical to carrying out the mission of the church, which is to glorify God by saving souls and being a bulwark in the community.

Here is a compelling example of a major emotional event that actually resulted from the ministry of the church: “Stop talking about Jesus” was the cry of one young woman who faced compounding issues within her own family. What kind of church facility would be most appropriate for a person in this condition: a cruiseship or a battleship? One offers a temporary escape from her reality, the other offers the armor to fight her battles and win. One offers fun, entertainment and comfort; the other offers only that which is critical to the mission of her church.

The difference between these two philosophies of church architecture is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. In the coming weeks, I will be writing more about designing appropriate surroundings in your church building, and about creating a church facility that is a bulwark in your community.

-James Tomlin, Architect, Certified Church Consultant