Pastor Brian Cook of Alliance Christian Fellowship (ACF) Church says, “We want to be a church for our city so that if we disappeared, people would miss us.” Because ACF is located in Eagle River, Alaska, the church faces some unique difficulties…

It has been an exciting week as we officially revealed our new name, logo, and website on Monday, October 29. The Orchard Foundation and The Alliance Development Fund are now Serving the Kingdom Together as Orchard Alliance.  If you haven’t seen it already, you can click here to view our announcement video to learn more.

Think for a moment about the importance of sound in your church auditorium. What are the main components of your worship service? The answer will likely include teaching the Word and worship. These are not primarily visual aspects, but auditory. Therefore, it could be argued that sound design is the most critical element of your building. If you design a beautiful auditorium with comfortable seating and good views of the platform but can't clearly understand the words that your pastor is saying, you have failed in your design. Likewise, if you can't hear your worship team, or worse, if you can hear them quite well but can't understand the words they are singing, you have failed. Why then is sound design often treated as an afterthought?

I recently saw an innovative solution to parking lots that you may want to consider for your church. It sounds a bit strange, and it won’t work in all climates, but in the right scenario, this can be a wonderful solution. The product is very strong plastic netting that gets rolled out on the ground and is secured in place with spikes. It is designed to have grass grow up throughout it and the plastic serves to protect the ground and provide a hard surface to allow tires to get traction.

One of the elements of a building project that usually gets “axed” first is the furniture. This is a shame, because the attractiveness of a new building can be greatly diminished when old furniture or no furniture is used. Even if the old furniture is still in decent shape, its design and color can often limit a design committee and negatively impact the overall appearance of a building. The reason why the furniture is the first to go is logical – furniture can be purchased at a later date, whereas the main elements of a building must be completed during construction. The sad reality, though, is that the new furniture rarely is purchased because there is always a greater need.

I have had the privilege of visiting hundreds, if not thousands, of churches throughout my life, and these visits often bring to the surface one of my pet peeves – churches that don’t seem to care at all about the appearance of their buildings. I understand that some churches are simply stuck in situations where their buildings are beyond help, but this is rare. In most cases, there are simple solutions that could be implemented that would make a world of difference.

The Ten Commandments and the Bible make it obvious that the Lord places a great emphasis on putting important agreements in writing. The important agreements we put in writing include marriage licenses, loan agreements, business contracts, and more. But when it comes to writing our Last Will and Testament, we tend to put it off year after year.

Trust comes easily as you serve with others in ministry. They are family — your brothers and sisters in Christ. But by placing too much trust, by neglecting common-sense accountability structures, you may create an atmosphere of temptation for them. One pastor whom I greatly admire learned this lesson the hard way. He is not the first pastor to do...

Most of us get stuck in “ruts.” For me and my wife, it’s restaurants. We’ll often go out to eat with the intention of trying a new place, but once we get in the car, we usually talk ourselves into returning to our favorite. No matter how convinced we are that another restaurant deserves a visit, there’s something comfortable about our familiar...

Delivery is important, whether it’s for someone giving a speech, a baseball pitcher trying to strike out a batter, or a comedian trying to get a laugh. We’ve heard it said, “It’s all in the delivery.” Another area in which delivery is important is church construction. Construction “delivery” refers to the contractual relationships between the customer (church), the architect, the contractor and, possibly, a construction manager. These relationships significantly impact the design, quality, cost, speed, stress, and ultimate success of a construction project. A church that enters into a construction project with a full understanding of the available construction delivery options will reap tremendous benefits that it might otherwise miss.