Projects

Project Details

Blue Mountain Community Church
Walla Walla, Washington
Dan Huntley II
Associate Pastor

Blue Mountain Community Church is adding 22,000 square feet to their existing worship center and classrooms located on 13 acres. The new space will consist of a multipurpose room/gymnasium, a 4,600 square foot youth room, 10 classrooms/nurseries, seven additional offices, a children’s ministry area, and various storage and meeting rooms.

Bear Creek Community Church
Woodinville, Washington
Bruce Crist
Building Committee

Bear Creek Community Church plans to increase the size of their existing facility by 19,500 square feet. Their expansion includes a 500-seat sanctuary, foyer, fellowship hall, a kitchen and three nursery/toddler classrooms. This new space will complement their existing offices and classrooms. They have plans to convert the existing sanctuary so it can be utilized for other uses.

Damascus Community Church
Boring, Oregon
Jerry Johnson
Business Administrator

Countryside Community Church, an Evangelical Covenant Church
Sherwood, Oregon
Jack Schifferdecker
Building Committee
Co-Chair

A new 22,000 square foot facility (this congregation’s first building) was built on 4.3 acres at a semi-rural location that had no utilities available. The facility included a multipurpose room with a seating capacity of 550, 10 classrooms including the nursery, administrative offices and 300 paved parking spaces. The fully furnished facility, parking and utilities were constructed for a cost of $3.6 million, including soft costs.

Late in the design of the project, it was decided to drop the commercial kitchen from the initial building construction. Six of the 10 classrooms, a restroom, and a teacher workroom were framed but not finished to conserve funds. Volunteers and contractors completed this classroom wing approximately one year after occupancy.

Gateway Presbyterian Church
The Dalles, Oregon
Jim Hazlett
Senior Pastor

This congregation found its existing worship facilities to be adequate but was in need of additional classrooms, offices, and a general modernization of their facilities. After reviewing the financial information provided by the Church Growth and Financial Planning Tool, they carefully analyzed their needs, the costs, the benefits, and the necessary financing. As a result, they came to recognize the magnitude of the interest expense they would incur from the interest during construction and the long-term mortgage. They prayerfully considered their options and decided to expand the various portions of their facility only as the funds became available from the congregation. They chose to complete the expansion debt free to avoid the associated interest expense.

Calvary Baptist Church
Huntington Beach, California
George Pappas
Deacon Board Chairman

Calvary Baptist recognized their need for a facility expansion to accommodate their growth and sought assistance with the development of a viable plan for creating a revised building design and configuration. They engaged Foundation First and its Church Growth and Financial Planning Tool to acquire a mechanism to help them with their financial planning. They have been employing this Tool to analyze the financial impact of various building expansions, relocation scenarios and financing terms.

Grace Baptist Church
St. Helens, Oregon
Bill Nicholson
Elder Board Chairman

After careful utilization of the Church Growth and Financial Planning Tool, this congregation decided to scale back their building plans to conserve their financial resources. The Tool indicated that it would require significant congregational growth in a stable community or unprecedented giving to complete the project and support the debt of the originally planned project.

Reducing the size of the facility slightly and increasing the amount of volunteer labor will provide a more affordable facility. God willing, they hope to complete the originally planned facility, at a later date, as the congregation grows.