Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Worship Facilities Magazine, Jan/Feb Issue 2010

Children’s spaces are powerful components for drawing in adults too.  Along with room to accommodate group worship and more intimate-sized classrooms, representatives for Ogden, Utah’s Building God’s Way (BGW), a network of Kingdom building services with a new innovations unit that focuses on the creation of children’s and youth spaces, reports that, overall, children’s spaces must be built with quality to draw in families.  BGW consultant Pastor Terry Bates, for examples, says, “Young families are evaluating where they will place their children in ministry based on a facility and children’s ministry area that equals or exceeds the quality of their home environment.”  And he adds, “Eighty percent of the growth occurring in churches today comes from young families – under 30 year olds – who have young children, and they are making their way back to church from their childhood upbringing.”

By Carol Badaracco Padgett

Dan Cook first developed the foundation for the PCS program in 1995 during the development of Christian Heritage School in Riverdale, Utah. This experience impacted Dan as he watched God work in the lives of local contractors – through the blessings found in giving and supporting kingdom building work. The original program Dan founded in 1995 has now incorporated many additional elements and has been renamed BGW Pre-Construction Stewardship (“PCS”).

The Benefits

There’s not an organization in America that has had more success in raising money from “in kind” contributions than Building God’s Way. The signature BGW Pre-Construction Stewardship (PCS) program provides opportunity for those within an organization and outside of the organization to participate in this process, which takes the “in kind” movement to a totally new level. While the process is far more than Gift in Kind, one element of the program is just that. Gift in Kind, as the name implies, are gifts of product, services, and discounts provided by those who partner with the congregation in the construction process. This broad appeal to a wide audience allows your ministry to raise more money while building new relationships that you can continue to cultivate after the capital campaign is completed.

The great advantages of the PCS program are as follows:

• It Builds on Linkages: Members within a ministry generally know people who have links to the construction industry. Often these individuals may be family members, life-long friends, neighbors, business associates, etc. The links we have with these individuals often go outside the ministry. Many of these individuals would welcome the opportunity of participating in the ministry capital project through participating in this program.  The gift registry program also allows your membership and community to provide tangible gifts to furnish the facility through BGW | Supply’s below market prices on leading products.

• It Expands Your Potential Donor Pool: Typically campaigns focus internally upon those individuals within the ministry to gain support for their funding initiative. The BGW Pre-Construction Stewardship program focuses on those inside and outside the ministry who share your vision and who have a unique capacity to help in many different ways – including wisdom on how to build the most economical way

• It is Easier than Giving Cash: Suppliers, professionals, and manufacturers often find it easier “to give out of their inventory than out of their pocket book!” This program allows a unique partnership opportunity wherein they can give or substantially discount product and services. And we focus on sequencing and timing of labor to increase the opportunities for savings in partnership with the general contractor and subcontractors.

The Results

The PCS program is designed to leverage construction industry relationships found within your organization. While the process is somewhat complex it is very effective and logical to the way we should be constructing our buildings.  Many construction firms are implementing many of these elements today in order to bring real value to their clients. While the process has great results, it clearly works more efficiently in the faith based realm because of the potential for prayer, trust, linkage and strong relationships.

From Good News, Etc., San Diego County’s Christian Newspaper, April 2010

Building a church is more than just designing and building a beautiful worship facility, it’s about reaching people, changing lives, strengthening families and impacting communities while building God’s kingdom.  On Tuesday, April 27, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Building God’s Way (BGW) and their Southern California exclusive partner-builder Erickson-Hall Construction Co. (EHCC) are sponsoring an open house, tour and free luncheon at Mission Hills Church in San Marcos. All pastors, church planters and ministry leaders are invited to learn how to grow, fund and build their ministry vision.

“Our Ministry of Construction philosophy,” said Daniel W. Cook, AIA, NCARB, founder of BGW, “will empower you for outreach and community building during the process. BGW Services has been impacting Christian communities nationwide since 1998, challenging ministry leaders to lead by vision, to increase ministry and to build stronger relationships. We’re dedicated to the expansion of ministry through growth strategies and funding solutions — leading to the construction of new facilities for churches, Christian schools/colleges and ministry organizations.”

Remodeling an existing structure or building a new church facility from the ground up does not have to be painful or excessive in cost — with a little research, assistance from experienced professionals, prayer and God’s timing.  In the church building marketplace, Design-Build and Design-Assist are the primary delivery methods that have been used successfully for years. There are significant advantages to these two delivery methods, yet their basic differences make Design-Assist (a construction delivery method derived from a holistic team approach where all decisions are made collaboratively with the owner, architect and builder from the start) a much more attractive building delivery method to church building committees.

As a leader in Southern California church construction, Erickson-Hall has leveraged the benefits of the Design-Assist delivery method by partnering with BGW. The result of this partnership is a premier design and construction program created to assist in the process of turning Southern California ministry visions into a reality.

BGW has leadership teams that are knowledgeable and experienced to bring excellence and good stewardship to ministry organizations. These teams work through an integrated approach, creating seamless solutions to streamline the process. The architectural team, builder and owner work together (Design-Assist Method) in what BGW calls the Trinity Partnership that starts with the vision from God. The results of this team approach are consistent high quality, timely delivery, godly relationships and reduced costs on construction, operation and maintenance.

A recent successful Design-Assist project that was completed last year by EHCC and BGW is the 25,000-sq.ft., New Hope Community Church. It is set amidst San Diego County’s Otay Open Space Preserve on a nine-acre site in East Chula Vista. This worship center captures the elegance and comfort of a craftsman commercial architectural style and fits well into the surrounding community. It features a 5,712-square-foot auditorium with full stage sound and lighting system and seating for 900. The auditorium converts into two volleyball courts or one full basketball court. The clerestory windows provides natural light while the bell tower, metal roofing, stucco and stone trim add impressive architectural prominence.

Owner representative of New Hope Community Church, David Digiambattista, struggled to take the first step in constructing the new facility until he met with a team of confident liaisons at BGW. Digiambattista quickly learned the complexity of any project requires experienced players and teamwork to be implemented effectively. If you would like to learn more about building a church, EHCC and BGW are co-hosting the showcase/open house luncheon at Mission Hills Church in San Marcos on April 27, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For reservations, contact Sara Leposke at (760) 796-7700 or sleposke@ericksonhall.com. For information, visit www.ericksonhall.com or www.bgwservices.com/regional.

Showcase & Mini Seminar

Cornerstone Community Church

208 Fig Tree Road | Chowchilla, CA

Thursday | May 6th | 10am-2pm

(includes lunch & brief presentation)

click here for directions to Cornerstone Community Church

This event is sponsored by Building God’s Way and BGW Builder Partner, Hilbers, Inc.

WorshipFacilities.com Newsbyte – March 2010

A conversation with David Sims and David Dennison of Building God‘s Way, Ogden, Utah

By Carol Badaracco Padgett

Left: David Dennison, director of finance and underwriting, Building God‘s Way, Ogden, UT. Right: David A. Sims, JD PhD, president and CEO, Building God‘s Way, Ogden, UT

WF Newsbyte: What does your company offer, briefly?
Sims and Dennison: Building God‘s Way | Financial assists church and Christian ministries [across the country] by providing comprehensive, coordinated and creative funding solutions analysis, consultation, advice and financing options for securing mortgage financing for construction, refinance, purchase, debt consolidation and renovation projects.

WF Newsbyte: Tell us about the Funding division of Building God‘s Way. How are that division and the company overall uniquely qualified to help church leaders with successful project funding?
Sims and Dennison: Building God‘s Way (BGW) has three funding divisions: BGW Forward in Faith (capital campaign services for churches across the country, headed by Rev. Terry Bates); BGW Financial (capital finance and consultation for churches, schools and non-profits around the country, headed by David Sims and David Dennison); and BGW Development (capital campaign and development consultation, headed by Jerry Twombly). [BGW] also serves its clients‘ comprehensive economic, stewardship and endowment needs through BRS Consulting Inc. (http://www.brs-consulting.com), an independent company located in Little Rock, Ariz., headed by Rich Jensen.

Building God‘s Way | Financial is uniquely qualified to help local churches, schools and other ministries successfully fund their projects through its creative and coordinated consultative approach financing. We currently work with over 45 lenders throughout the United States that prefer to partner with ministries by serving their financing needs. Our lender base represents all of the major market segments of church finance, including national and regional commercial banks, private equity funds, Christian credit unions, investment banks, broker/deals (church bonds) and others.

WF Newsbyte: Do other builders offer these funding services—why or why not? And what‘s the advantage of having a builder who also offers a program for funding a project?
Sims and Dennison: Most builders do not have an internal financing division, although many may claim to. Builders recognize the value of having an internal funding mechanism since the most common reason that a construction project doesn‘t make it to completion is usually lack of financing.

Building God‘s Way | Financial works closely with our 25 BGW builders and architects to help determine the project parameters for our clients based upon borrowing and fundraising capability in addition to possible cash contributions. We have found that this coordinated approach has greatly served the Kingdom by helping to ensure that the local church and other ministries do not over-extend themselves financially and, ultimately, the financing is available when the time comes to begin construction.

WF Newsbyte: Just as your building efforts help a church reach out to and minister to a community, do your funding services help in this effort too?
Sims and Dennison: Many times Building God‘s Way | Financial will partner with the local church to create a program that allows the local church congregation and others in the community to provide the necessary financing to complete a building project. This financing structure provides the unique opportunity for the congregation and community to unite together to fund the expansion of the Kingdom of God while personally receiving the financial benefit of the church mortgage.

WF Newsbyte: Give me an example of a church that, in the past year, has used both your building services and funding services. Describe the project for us.
Sims and Dennison: Recently, Building God‘s Way | Financial and our partner Building God‘s Way builder in California, Hilbers Contractors, partnered with Yreka Church of the Nazarene in Yreka, Calif., to provide building and financing solutions. Yreka Church of the Nazarene had worked with Building God‘s Way to design and build a 12,000-square-foot facility with a construction cost of nearly $1.5 million. With the assistance of Building God‘s Way | Financial, the local congregation and community were able to partner together to provide the necessary financing to fund the construction of their new worship facility. The local church received over $250,000 of gifts from church members and others in the community, with the remaining financing provided through an internally placed bond program. The financing process allowed many in the community who were not members of the church to partner with Yreka Church of the Nazarene by investing in the expansion of the local church.

WF Newsbyte: What‘s the most important ingredient in getting a church project funded—in raising funds from a congregation? What must they understand for the project to be successful and economically viable?
Sims and Dennison: There is a unique mixture of ingredients that Building God‘s Way | Financial looks for and helps the local church identify and achieve in order to fund an expansion project. Some of those ingredients include a capital campaign in which church members faithfully and sacrificially give to a building fund, structuring the financing in a way that allows for the optimal level of debt service/mortgage payments compared to the annual budget of the local church, and many other aspects that the church needs to undertake in order to prepare themselves for financing.

Specifically, Building God‘s Way | Financial works with the local church to structure the financing and project parameters in a way that ensures that the ministry will undertake the appropriate project size that will not jeopardize other core ministry initiatives.

Interested church leaders can visit BGW’s website at www.BGWFinancial.com and request a free Funding Solutions Analysis (FSA) for projects. For questions, contact either David Sims at (501) 442-3585 or David Dennison at (719) 264-9906.

www.BGWFinancial.com

Check out this Youtube video showing what BGW Studios can do with virtual tours of sports facilities:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTpuTNOkcxM

By Pete Hammond, with thanks to Gordon Mehling

Against all odds, Nehemiah always got the job done.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could work in an environment totally under your control? Where nothing ever happened to ruin your day, cramp your schedule or challenge your life? Sorry, it’s not going to happen.

We live in a broken world. And we are called to be faithful in spite of difficult circumstances. In other words, sometimes we just have to hang tough. Just like Nehemiah.

His career started out innocently enough as a cup-bearer in a pagan King’s government. ¹ , His job was to make sure the boss wasn’t poisoned. It was a cushy situation (as long as he didn’t make any fatal mistakes).

But when Nehemiah heard that his hometown had fallen on hard times, he talked his boss into a leave of absence, ² , went to Jerusalem, and started rebuilding the city walls. ³ , In Modern terms, that made him a building contractor. That’s a tough job even today. But for Nehemiah, it was a nightmare.

For months, he was surrounded by hostility, death threats, employee problems, and a chronic shortage of resources. Not to mention the fact that he wore a lot of different hats. Just look at his résumé:

First, Nehemiah designed and implemented an international materials acquisition system. ⁴ ,

Secondly, we see him performing site inspections of construction projects. ⁵ ,

Third, he was personally responsible for organizing the work force into manageable units recruiting such unlikely construction workers as goldsmiths, women, and perfume-makers. ⁶ ,

Fourth, Nehemiah deployed an armed defense around the city’s perimeter. ⁷ ,

And that’s just the beginning.

As the project neared completion, Nehemiah set about the business of re-settling the re-walled city including the negotiation of land rights, the taking of a census, and the development of food distribution and fiscal policy. ⁸ ,

And then came the hard part.

The moral and spiritual state of the Jerusalem Jews had become so desperate that Nehemiah felt compelled to try and turn them around. Of course, managing a development project is one thing. But telling people how to run their lives is quite another. It wasn’t easy but as always, Nehemiah got the job done. ⁹ ,

What was the secret of Nehemiah’s strength, savvy and endurance? Certainly he must have been born with considerable mental and physical gifts. But there’s more to it than that. In the opening verse of Nehemiah, we are presented with a vivid picture of a man in constant contact with God. ¹⁰ ,

All Quotations from the New International Version A Man who committed every circumstance to Him, sometimes while it was still happening. In other words, the key to Nehemiah’s character is perfectly simple and could be imitated by anyone.Pray. And pray some more.

At the end of his book, Nehemiah closed with a prayer that rings with the satisfaction of a job well done:

“Remember me with favor, O my God.”

A refreshingly honest petition from a tough, hard-working man.

¹ Nehemiah 1:11

² 2:1-8

³ 2:11 ff

⁴ 2:8

⁵ 2:11 ff

⁶ 3:1-32

⁷ 4:13, 14

⁸ 11:1-24, 7:4 ff, 5:1-19

⁹ 13:25

¹⁰ 1:4-2:4

All Quotations from the New International Version

Reprinted from Networks, March 1988 “Pete Hammond is a PCUSA elder, a veteran InterVarsity staff member who directs the Marketplace® division, and is the creative developer, team leader and chief contributor to the new Word In Life Study Bible. He and his wife Shirley live in Madison, WI. and commute to Chicago regularly to see their grandchildren.

–

Article courtesy of Story Construction.

As Cornerstone Church in Ames, Iowa grew, they knew an addition to their existing facility was in their future. They wanted to find a design and construction team that could meet a contemporary worship mission that uses drama and theatrical productions to reach their members and the community.