Designing and building new ministry facilities can be exciting. Developing the right ministry tool to facilitate your God-given vision is infectious and motivating to the church.
However, over a 40-year life cycle of that new or repurposed facility, design, and construction costs are only about 20% of the total. Most of the “ownership” cost is in the operational expenditures and daily care.
As church facility professionals, you want great design and quality construction for your clients. You also want a facility that is well maintained, establishes a life cycle plan, is effectively utilized, and avoids deferred maintenance that can adversely impact ministry and outreach.
Smart Church Solutions can help you fill the gap in an end-to-end facility stewardship plan. We specialize in the areas that may not be your focus. This is how our collective efforts provide churches with the best holistic approach to the design, construction, utilization, and maintenance of their ministry facilities.
Pre-Construction Package
Our pre-construction package includes the following elements:
Facility Condition Assessment
Before you begin the design process for a church with existing facilities, it is prudent to understand the existing facility's condition. Key elements to understand may include items that need funding as part of the larger facility initiative and components at “end of life” that may need to be replaced. In addition, we recommend identifying areas of the facility that may be suffering from deferred maintenance, especially if there is going to be a renovation project that may address said items so that efforts and resources are not expended prematurely.
Life Cycle Assessment
We have developed a robust process and software tools to assist churches in identifying all components of their facilities that have life cycle implications. A clear understanding of these components is critical for a church as they plan the financial impacts as they approach the end-of-life and the potential replacement costs.
Post-Construction Package
Our post-construction package includes the following elements:
Facility Utilization
A key element of effective facility stewardship is intentionally utilizing the designed and built environment. If the facility will not be used as intended, why build it? Our eSPACE Event Scheduler is the most effective and efficient tool for planning church events, schedules, setups/teardowns, and resource allocation on the market. Our church-centric approach makes eSPACE the best facility scheduling tool available to your clients.
Management and Maintenance
The eSPACE Work Order & Asset Management module is an unrivaled tool. It helps clients manage and maintain the facilities that their team has developed for them. About 70-80% of the cost of owning a church facility is in operation costs. This includes utilities, general maintenance, janitorial, and facility staffing. For the facility you developed for your clients to continue functioning and operating as intended, they need a tool to help them. By offering this product after your project is complete, you are giving them a jumpstart. Therefore, you are practicing exceptional stewardship.
Life Cycle Planning
After any church facility project is complete, there will be many new items, systems, and components. What is often overlooked is that they will not be new forever. And you will need funds to replace and repair them. But how much will be required? When will it be needed? How much should we budget to ensure we have funds to cover these costs?
Our Life Cycle Calculator is the best tool available to churches for this planning. We can even assist your team in uploading the data that you will already have assimilated for the project. Most of this data will be in your warranty/owner's manual. Why not add it to a proactive tool to assist the church in managing its inevitable capital renewal?
Get Your Construction Package
If you want to offer clients a solution to the long-term stewardship of the facility, a construction package is ideal. To learn more about accessing and utilizing these resources, reach out to our team to start the conversation.
