More Lessons From Building Two Buildings

4. Do not let the architect drive the entire process. I am not a big fan of the traditional model for building a facility. We let the architect drive the process on our first building, and it was a mess. I am not knocking architects because they are great when they are in their element. I have learned that architects draw buildings; they don't build buildings. I always want the general contractor to drive the process. I would never build again with the architect driving the process.

5. Bring in an outside capital stewardship company who can help you raise the necessary money to see the vision come to pass. Before we built our first facility, I had never been a part of a capital stewardship program, so I knew I needed outside help. It was worth the dollars we spent to partner with a company who could help us navigate through having a successful Spirit-led campaign.

6. It will take longer than you think and cost you more than you planned. Pastor, be prepared for this! Don't get stressed out because you missed your projected move in date. On both of our buildings, we missed our projected move in date. On our second phase, we were planning on moving into the facility by the end of 2008. Of course, we didn't make the date because things happened outside of our control. It took longer to get the final building permit than we had anticipated. If you talk to any pastor, the story is almost always the same, the building took longer to build than we thought and cost us more than we planned on spending.