When a church’s membership outgrows its worship space, congregation leaders often struggle with the decision on whether to expand the current facility or build a new church. Regardless of the direction taken, detailed planning helps to establish goals, stay on budget, and ensure thorough and well-managed communication with the fellowship.

New Church Construction Tips

Read on for nine tips to help your congregation successfully build a new church.

1. Establish a Building Committee Within Your Fellowship

The success of a new church construction project often depends on the building committee. The church building committee ensures that the goals of the new church construction align with the church’s vision and mission statements. The church building committee takes responsibility for establishing the budget, and hiring of the architect, builder, or design-build team.

It is important that the committee regularly communicate the progress of the new church construction to the congregation. Committee members do not necessarily need to know how to construct a church building; that’s the job of the architect and builder. They just need to know how to successfully plan and implement a project.

2. Determine the Goals for Your New Church Building

The success of a church building project requires the congregation to identify the specific goals for the new building. Polling church members as to what they feel the current church space lacks. Understanding what lacks in the existing church space helps the building committee establish the goals for the new facility. For example, if the church lacks accessibility features such as church handrails or ramps, it would be worthwhile to discuss adding these features to the building.

3. Setting the Budget for Your Church Building Project

The church building committee must establish a realistic total budget for a church building project. The cost of future operations and maintenance should also be considered. For instance, building an energy-efficient church, with a product like Fox Blocks insulated concrete forms (ICF), provides monthly savings on utility bills. Furthermore, ICF construction creates durable and low-maintenance churches, which reduces long-term expenses.

4. New Church Building Design Ideas

Many new churches are smaller buildings and ministries that serve the immediate neighborhood and community. Also, new church designs include more indoor and outdoor community spaces where people can connect between services; connections that encourage people to take part in the church community.

5. Security and Resiliency Concerns with New Church Construction

Sadly, recent church shootings (15 since 2012) have made security a crucial design consideration in new church design and construction. The church building design should include defensive strategies to protect the church members, minister, church staff, and worship teams, in the event of an attack. Fox Blocks provides a reinforced concrete structure as a secure, safe and resilient building envelope against all weather events.

6. Consider Design-Build for Church Building Construction

Design-Build construction method involves the architect and builder, working under a single contract, as a team. If a church building committee hires a design-build team, the committee only manages one contract and one responsible party. Also, the design-build method minimizes change orders, which hastens the building project, and ultimately saves the church money.

7. Choosing the Site for New Church Construction

Church leaders can often get overwhelmed when searching for the perfect site for their new church. Several principles for evaluating and comparing potential locations include location, adaptability, parking, and price.

8. Research Building and Zoning Codes for the New Church Building Site

Before selecting a building site for your new church construction project, always check the zoning codes, building codes, and street and utility requirements. Fox Blocks complies to all building code and concrete structural design criteria for all building types and sizes. Fox Blocks product and support is available across the country.

9. The Benefits of Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) for Building a New Church

When planning, designing, and building a new church, addressing increasing concerns towards safety, the environment, structural durability, and the health and comfort of the occupants can challenge church leaders. ICF wall systems address all of these concerns. ICF construction creates energy-efficient, healthy, durable, acoustically pleasant, and disaster-resistant churches. Moreover, churches save money because ICF installs quickly and easily.

For all of these reasons, many of today’s church leaders, like those at the Phoenix Diocese in Arizona and the Whitewater Crossing Christian Church in Ohio, turned to Fox Blocks ICF construction for their new church construction projects.