How to Purchase a Church Building
Large and small houses of worship don't always live out their lives as religious sanctuaries after congregations outgrow their buildings. An old synagogue in Chicago became headquarters to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. Towns have turned vacant churches into antique shops. You may have eaten in a restaurant that was formerly a church. Whatever your plan for the building you seek may be, may find extra blessings from occupying sanctified ground.
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Instructions
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Make certain everyone involved with your church purchase effort agrees on the objectives and goals you've set to buy a building suitable for your needs. Get buy-in from your board of directors, church administrators or advisory group so everyone has a clear understanding of the long-term implications involved with financing a commercial property.
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Seek funding. Anticipate using a combination of sources to meet your church property acquisition goals: capital campaign, donations, bank loans, investors and other resources. Take the advice offered by experts if you'll be using the building for religious services: contact commercial banks and bond finance companies first, as these are the sources used most often for financing church property.
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Start your building fundraising efforts early---at least a year before you plan to shop the market for appropriate facilities. Tally contributions as they come in, using a sign or symbol to mark the progress of your fund-raising efforts---a graphic thermometer, in a public place, is a great way to depict the project's financial progress and incentivize people to contribute.
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Locate the appropriate church property. Use a real estate agent in your area or turn to a specialty commercial church real estate firm that handles church real estate sales and purchases exclusively. Make a list of the features you require in a church building: a good location, safe neighborhood, fits within the set budget, zoned for commercial use and is in good physical condition so renovations required are more cosmetic than infrastructural.
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Negotiate the sale price once you've found church property that fits your vision. Share documentation related to the transaction with your finance committee or advisors working with you toward the acquisition of a building. Recruit professionals---a plumber, electrician, contractor and other volunteers to examine the church building rather than paying for a pricey building inspector if the church is to remain a house of worship.
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Acquire permits and licenses required by your state and community. Seek pro bono legal representation for contract, sale and closing help if you're already operating under the tax laws your state offers to religious groups. Make certain your attorney ferrets out and moderates language adding prepayment penalties to the deal, particularly if a pledge program has been put into place for retiring the mortgage debt on a specific schedule.
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References
- Photo Credit church. Entrance of a church image by L. Shat from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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Anonymous
Aug 29, 2011
Throughout the process of buying a property for your ministry consider your largest obstacles first. Vision. Where is God working in your community and how does he want you to serve in His vision for your community? We're going to be held accountable for our stewardship today for a long time. Let's make sure we get in line and make sure a building is really God's best for our community. Provide spaces for the work God wants to do in our community. Have courage in the face of obstacles to God's calling on our lives. Budget. Don't start on a track of trying to purchase a building that a ministry can't really afford. This discourages a congregation and can lead to disillusionment and disunity. If a Church claims more than it can afford 'by faith', try selling the Pastor's Benz and see if that helps offset the cost first. A church should start by getting its house in order. This means generating 3+ years of financial statements prepared by your accountant. Then contact a professional fundraising consultant who will help you raise more money than you can on your own. Only now can a banker really give you a realistic guesstimate of what you can afford. Zoning. Churches are considered as spaces for "Assembly Use", archispeak for "you're going to pay a lot of money to convert this space for your church building." Consider the popular warehouse conversion trend. First, don't even try to buy the building in the center of the warehouse park. Not going to happen. But if you can find a building on the edge next to a residential area=BINGO. The local municipality will require sufficient parking (one space for every 2-5 seats in the auditorium - get adjacent properties to agree to letting you park there on Sundays), updated HVAC (extreme fresh air requirements), structural analysis for hanging yet another rack of stage lighting, sprinkler systems, not to mention a complete gut job on the interior. Use an expert. Your church probably has a few bankers, local realtors, an architect and a few contractors. You're set - you can probably do the project without any pricey outside experts. In the meantime I'll do the preaching. What? I was a church intern before! And I lead a small group. Contrary to the advice in this column, in addition to using your internal resources, realize what you will benefit from. A professional building inspection by a construction engineer is irreplaceable. Legal services you don't pay for can be great, as can the ministry of tentmakers. Free doesn't always mean the best value. If you're making a $1,000,000 investment, an extra $100,000 is a great value if you avoid making a $250,000 error. Your best resource and action: prayer. We've seen largely uninformed church leaders make early decisions rooted in prayer, even against the advice of seasoned experts, and seen God's handiwork in their efforts in the outcome. While your building committee should have those with great backgrounds for finance and development, make room for at least a couple spiritual leaders whom the Lord will use in instrumental ways throughout the process. Hold on tight! The Lord is at work in the world, redeeming sinners like us to himself. As you make yourself available for service in new ways he will do great work in your community beyond what we can ask or imagine. Enjoy the ride.
