From concept to completion, your church will not undertake a more demanding or complicated task in terms of money, risk, and effort than it will in a building program. Preparing to Build will educate and guide the church through the process of becoming prepared to build in a manner that will save time and reduce costly mistakes.
They don't teach this in seminary and most church leaders are unequipped by experience or training to lead their church through a building program in the most optimum manner. Being prepared to build, in its simplest terms, means the church has objectively quantified as many of the variables as possible and developed a building plan strategy within the financial ability of the church.
A church that is prepared to build can articulate, based on factual analysis, what it needs to build to meet future needs, it understands the cost of construction, has measured its financial ability, and knows the vision can be built on the selected property. It's about the process. The result of an objective process is objective fact. In the absence of an objective process, all a church is left with is subjective opinion, and in a church of a few hundred people, you will have a few hundred opinions.
Preparing to Build discusses the process from visioning to selecting a builder and discusses topics including: space planning, design, financing, capital campaigns, land acquisition, organizing a building committee, and special information for smaller or start-up churches. The book concludes with several appendices, "including a readiness to build assessment."