Moving into a New Building - 23 Questions

I thought this was good to file away. It's by Dan Reiland
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No matter how much planning, no matter how inspiring your vision, no matter how much you pray, the change connected to moving into a new church building is highly stressful on both the leaders and the congregation.

The leaders carry the weight of first adjusting to the change themselves and they must adjust quickly. The leaders must also inspire, prepare and encourage the people for the coming changes related to a new building.

The congregation, including your best and brightest volunteers, must wrestle through change. Typically, if you are moving into a new building, it is larger than the previous one (candidly, I can't think of a church that built a smaller worship auditorium for the primary campus). With a larger auditorium comes more parking, more class rooms for the kids, more offices, and more seats. The whole thing is bigger. When we opened our new building a couple of weeks ago I noticed dozens of people inside the Worship Experience Center on their cell phones. It was just before the service started and they were trying to find friends and family so they could sit together. This will pass as they learn their new rhythms and where they like to sit, but change is still change. Changing from a manual child check-in to a computerized check-in system is change. Changing from parking where you want to being directed to park in the next available spot is change. Even the way you "feel" worship inside the new auditorium is change.

There are some things that are almost impossible to anticipate, but you can plan and prepare for the vast majority of what you will face. If you do, you will have the margin you need to deal with the things that life throws your way before moving in and soon after moving into your new building.

After recently going through this process, and still learning, it seemed helpful to pass on to you the "23 Questions" that helped us prepare for this transition. These questions don't represent the more artful questions that require knowledge of your culture, but the practical ones that apply to all churches. I must say up front that we didn't nail every answer before we moved in, and some solutions are still morphing, but overall these questions will be very helpful to you when you are preparing to move into a new building or into a new campus.

I suggest starting the conversation with your staff and key leaders many months in advance of your move (at least 6). Begin the dialogue by asking: "What are you dreaming, praying and planning for?" I stated that this set of questions is practical in nature, but you need to begin at a heart level asking God to breathe life into your plans. Then ask the visionary question: "What will our experience be like soon after the move-in?" Throughout the months of asking and answering the following questions, keep these first two in mind.

There is no magic in the number of questions. You may have more or less. But failure to answer them will end in chaos... so here we go.

1. What will people love about it? Anticipate the things that your congregation will genuinely appreciate. What will they find helpful and be proud of in your new building. How will you leverage those things?
2. What will people complain about? There will be things the people don't like, so be ready for that. Among those you can anticipate, which ones should you solve, in what order, and which ones do you intentionally ignore?
3. What changes must not happen? What are the specific expressions of core values and culture that you and the church leaders must protect?
4. How / when do you cast vision for the coming changes? This is not exclusive to the general congregation, but relates to all levels and departments.
5. How will you market to the community prior to move-in? What is your plan for advertising? What is the budget? When do you start?
6. What sermons (series) are required before, during and after the move-in? This requires much thought and prayer to discern the balance of reaching both those who are far from God and those who are Christ-followers.
7. In what ways will the staff need to be different and function differently? This, of course, is a massive question. You may not be able to afford more staff upon move-in, but you should know who you want to hire next.
8. What will the new shape and expression of Spiritual Formation look like? How will the process function, including baptism, new Christians, volunteer service, and small groups, etc.?
9. How will you help people transition from the big experience to small group environments? How will you utilize mid-sized environments?
10. How will you leverage creative arts and evangelism in fresh and productive ways? How will you ensure that evangelism remains at the cutting edge?
11. What are your clear, fresh and creative plans to continue strong in building pledge monies? If your building isn't paid for, what is your plan to keep the revenue source alive after move-in?
12. How will you deepen and strengthen church-wide leadership development?
13. How will ministry programming be different? (What is cut, what is added?)
14. How will you respond to / communicate with first-time visitors?
15. How will you communicate your vision after move-in? What's your next hill to conquer? This is often where churches drop the ball. Once the building goes up and people move in, the vision dies down. Decide before you move in where you are headed after that day.
16. If you have a video venue or a satellite campus ministry, how are they affected by the opening of this new building?
17. Where and when do the sacraments fit in? Why?
18. What does community look like in the new building? Will you encourage community within the large building? Example, will you permit small groups to meet on campus? Why? How? Seating areas?
19. What is your strategic use, and implications of that use, of the building outside of your regular services and events? This relates to unique ministry ideas.
20. Is the building open to your community for outside events? (Concerts, Graduations, Weddings etc.) Will you charge a fee or grant usage at no charge?
21. What will a typical week of activities look like? (Small Groups, Support Groups, Student Ministries, Worship rehearsals. etc.)
22. Guest Services - how will you communicate events and opportunities with everyone considering multiple entry points to the building? (This relates more to larger buildings.)
23. What do you pray / want to accomplish in the first 30 days? First 3 months? In the first 6 months? In the 1st year?

Take these questions and add and delete as you see fit. Pray and plan much before you launch your transition.