Building a church is not as difficult as people try to make it. My partner & I have built over 400 churches in 30 States. We have proven time and time again that designing and building a church is the easy part. The hard part is gathering people who understand and share the vision of the Senior or Lead pastor.
This requires a senior/lead pastor to follow the Jesus model by disciplining and ministering on a personal basis with a senior staff of committed men/women who have dedicated themselves to help a church fulfill its vision and mission. Once leadership fully understands the heartbeat of the Pastor, they can then translate his vision to the congregation. Unfortunately, many good visions get lost in translation when a Pastors team decides to pervert the God given vision with bits and pieces of their own desires. This is why it is essential to have dedicated men/women who are ethically faithful to be supportive to a core vision even when it does not reflect what they themselves are seeing. If a church leader cannot faithfully follow their Pastor, then they should resign their position.
A major difficulty is getting people to actually support the vision of the church. Many times I have found conflicting visions within a congregation. The Pastor has a vision but his vision is polluted by various parasitic leaders. (leaders who have never done anything on their own, and suck the life out of the church and the real God called Pastor) These leaders are nothing more than what Ed Young Jr. defines as "Church Pirates" http://www.edyoungblog.com/2008/05/church-pirates.html; they use the credibility given to them by the Senior/Lead pastor to create their own little circle of followers. They use subterfuge to drop hints of strife and division against the Pastor. Even while they are stabbing their Pastor in the back, to his face they are declaring their unwaveringly support. The Apostle Peter spoke plainly of this problem: 2 Peter 2:12--But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; KJV
Sadly, the church is caught in a tug of war over which ministry leader they should follow.
I remember a church where the Pastor had demonstrated his leadership ability and grew a powerful church of soul hungry people. His problems started when he hired a "Builder Developer" who had promised the moon but ultimately delivered nothing. Sadly, the church paid this charlatan almost $200K and ended up with nothing.
Finally after several years the Pastor was able to release himself legally from this nightmare and overcome all these previous obstacles and obtained a loan. Then, using another architect, he was ready to finally build the church. When my friend announced that he was going to start pushing dirt on the following Tuesday major problems developed. First, two women who were discipleship leaders immediately turned against the Pastor and used their influence to cause a major split in the church. When this happened it caused a domino effect and sadly many of the people who had been crying for a new church, left the following week. Other influential leaders saw the Pastor in a weak position and also rose up against him. Suddenly, my friend found himself with mounds of dirt but no members. My friend church did not die as some churches ultimately do; my friends church was murdered in its prime by selfish church leaders who usurped and transplanted the will of God for their own purpose.
As a church builder who has successfully built hundreds of churches, I find that it is imperative that a church be unified around a clear vision and have ethical people who are committed to the ministry. How does one really know if they have a level of commitment to build a church? My suggestion is to test the waters by having a capital campaign program. If it is successful with all goals being met, then that is a good sign of unity. If a capital campaign fails, then the church should hold off until they have the unity to move forward.
A Pastor should choose his ministry leaders wisely. My friend failed because he tried to build a church with unethical ministry leaders who had their own agendas.
Signs that point to major problems
Be careful of growing numbers of cliques and factions. Cliques present themselves as "natural friendships," groups of people who "get along" because of some shared interests, backgrounds, or ideas. But without care, these groups will harden into impenetrable factions that use their common interests as a rallying cry against the rest of the body.
Lack of humility. Pride is a lethal foe. Combine pride with any of the symptoms above and you can just hear the emergency room attendant yelling "STAT" into the loud speaker. Pride surfaces itself in an unwillingness to hear feedback, be it a word of correction, instruction and even encouragement. Pride in the cliques says, "we've got it all together and those folks over there need to get with us." Pride in "lone ranger Christians" contends that she/he doesn't need the church.
Mixed allegiance to the pastor(s)/elders. Sometimes some members feel a fierce allegiance to the pastor(s), while others feel fairly opposed or indifferent to him/them. And when church members clump together on the poles of love and dislike, you can just about be certain that some significant number of them have taken their eyes off the true Head of the Church, Jesus. One cries "I'm with Appollos," and another cries "I'm with Paul." The fact that everyone is not crying "I'm with Jesus" and "We follow our pastors as they follow Jesus" should be of real concern.
If you feel so strongly that God is leading you into a major building program or expansion, then you want to make certain that your church is in complete unity. It is better to wait a few months to make certain that you have developed strong but faithful leaders who will follow you as you begin the building process. You can be assured that Satan will definitely be following and he has the ability to cause much confusion. A very safe way to avoid major problems is to hire an experienced professional to help guide you through the process. JCDM Church Builders has a successful track record; our motto is we will build the physical house while church leadership concentrates on building the spiritual house.
Steve Smith
President
www.jcdmchurchbuilders.com
