Our Mission & Story
Our Mission
To build God's Kingdom by translating the vision of Christian organizations through innovative, stewardship-driven design.
We believe that God owns this business and we are simply His stewards of it for a season. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that everything we do as a company honors Him. Our vision is for every design we complete to result in high quality, cost effective buildings that become dynamic ministry tools in reaching people for Christ.
Kingdom Impact
From the beginning, BGW has been deeply committed to showing ministries how to impact workers on every job site with the love of Christ, a firm commitment that has become the heart of BGW and has reached thousands through a program called The Ministry of Construction. We are also grateful and proud to provide financial support to some amazing Christian non-profit organizations through our partnership with The Genesis Fund. The Genesis Fund is a national movement focused on proclaiming the hope of the Gospel in some of the most disadvantaged areas of our nation, targeting communities afflicted by poverty, addiction and violence.
The mission of The Genesis Fund is to equip, inspire and lead local church communities to become fully embedded and engaged in their local communities. They accomplish this through church planting, pastor to pastor coaching and training, organizational strategic planning and next generation leadership investment. Through this partnership, we have been blessed to support ministries and non-profit organizations across the country that are making a tremendous impact for the Kingdom, including The Tim Tebow Foundation, iWork4Him, Challenge Golf Association, the Finally Home Foundation, True North Kids and others.
Our Story
The BGW concept originated from the personal mission of Founder Emeritus Dan Cook and his calling to transform the broken “world’s way” of design and construction. In 1995, Dan took a leave of absence from his architectural practice to devote himself full- time to building a Christian school in Utah. This project proved to be pivotal in the founding of BGW, as everyone involved saw God do amazing things through the devotion and faith of a small group of people.
Many of the foundational concepts of stewardship and ministry that make up the unique BGW approach today were first conceived during this project. Following its completion, Dan made the life-changing decision to give up his secular architectural work and commit the company solely to designing and building Christian churches and schools.
BGW began design on its first project in 1998 for Lakeland Christian Academy in Winona Lake, Indiana. Growth was slow and gradual during the first few years, but the company experienced tremendous expansion in the early 2000’s as ministries around the country began to learn about this uniquely different approach; an approach that was focused on delivering the highest level of stewardship, God-honoring relationships and intentional ministry focus.
Architect Don Mahoney joined BGW as a partner in 2003 and brought a wealth of design experience as the owner of a successful firm and former President of the American Institute of Architects local chapter. Now the President and Principal Architect at BGW, Don has become a leader in the field of faith-based architecture and has been recognized with a number of national church design awards.
BGW is now an employee-owned company and in the spring of 2022 the firm completed design on its 1,000th ministry-based project. Over the years, BGW has worked with ministry organizations across 41 U.S. states and 3 foreign countries. Headquartered in Ogden, Utah, the company has experienced tremendous growth in the professional development of its staff in recent years, expanding from 2 licensed architects to 8. BGW is also staffed with a talented and experienced support team of designers, drafters and project managers, as well as personnel in the areas of business development, accounting, and administration – all of whom have a passion for helping ministries to maximize their Kingdom impact.
