3 Intentional
Strategies for Stewarding Your Ministry Facilities
In an unscientific “survey” by Sam Rainer and myself
(ok…actually it was more of just a conversation and not a survey) we believe
that over 99% of all churches meet in a facility. Some may be an owned facility…others
rented…others may be schools or store fronts, while yet others are homes. In fact, if you have an Internet based
church, your servers and other IT infrastructure are likely housed in a
physical facility.
Based on the above, as well as the fact that we have deep
convictions that everything on earth belongs to God, and as such we are
stewards of what He has entrusted to us, we must look long and hard at the
means and methods by which we steward the ministry facilities God has blessed
us with.
Here are 3 intentional strategies for this stewardship
initiative:
1.
Use them
– God did not provide you with these assets and resources to have them sit idle
for hours or days on end. Physical space was meant to be utilized to fulfill a
cause…in the case of the church, to fulfill a vision and mission. Can you
imagine developing an office building but only allowing occupants to use it one
day a week? This responsibility must come with an intentional means by which to
facilitate the use. How do you create
opportunities for groups, inside and out, to have appropriate space from where
to assembly?
2.
Financial
Prudence – We see this strategy being 2 pronged. First, do not encumber your church (and its
mission) with excessive debt. With that said, I am not a “no-debt” disciple,
but I am a believer in prudence when it comes to appropriate debt and its
impact on the ministry. Secondly, future
financial planning. Are you setting
monies aside for the life cycle impacts of facility ownership? If you are not retaining $1-2/square foot annually in a capital reserve
account, you will find yourself falling woefully short when the HVAC system
needs replaced or the roof has aged out. A capital reserve fund is NOT a rainy
day fund. These are real costs that you
will incur. Period!
3.
Care for
them – Over a 40 year life cycle of a building, the cost of operations will
likely exceed 70% of the total cost of ownership. When you couple the cost of construction,
interest and operations (utilities, general maintenance,
housekeeping/janitorial, etc) the cost of interest and construction pale in
comparison to the cost of operations. If you spend $4M on construction of a
building, you will likely spend over $13M
to operate it within that 40 year period…WOW…that is a huge responsibility!
But here is some great news, eSPACE, a Cool solutions Group
Company, has just released a new (and affordable) software application to
assist you to be intentional…effective…and efficient in these areas.
Imagine an application that includes
>
Inventory Management – Track what you have in stock> Vendor Management including a new Vendor Portal
> User Portal for ease of requesting Work Orders
> Calendar view of Work Orders
> Document Library
> Robust Report Builder
> Unlimited Users Included with Advanced Packages
> Responsive Design/Mobile Friendly
> Single Login when subscribed to Work Order Management and Event Scheduler
> Fully configurable
If you have a facility and are intentional about stewarding what has been entrusted to you...you owe it to yourself to check out this new application HERE.
Tim Cool is founder of Cool Solutions Group, and has assisted nearly
400 churches, (equating to over 4 Million Sq Ft) throughout the United States
with their facility needs. He has collaborated with churches in the areas of
facility needs analysis, design coordination, pre-construction and construction
management as well as life cycle planning/facility management. Cool Solutions Group is also the developer of
eSPACE software products including
Event Scheduler, Work Order Management and HVAC integration.
Tim is also the author of three books, Successful Master Planning: More Than Pretty Pictures, Why Church Buildings Matter: The Story of Your Space and Church Locality, co-authored with Jim Tomberlin as well as a manual series entitled “Intentional Church Series”.
Tim lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife of 31 years, Lisa,
and supports his triplet college students at Appalachian State University.
@TLCool
