Frequently Asked Questions

What is Church Development Services? CDS is a full service firm providing pre-planning consultations, capital fundraising, church architectural services, and church construction services nationwide.

Our Mission
Our mission is to honor God by providing affordable, value-added church building solutions through education, consulting, affordable design, and cost saving construction methods tailored to the unique needs of each church. In one relationship, Church Development Services provides any or all of the missing ingredients to successful church building programs.

To minimize potential negative results in church building, Church Development Services started an on-site consulting service more than ten (10) years ago to compliment our low cost, “pre-designed” church building plans. Within the Church, Building Committees often have difficulty leading the church to a final resolution because of vital missing ingredients. Church Development Services and our network of resources consult with Churches to provide proven processes and answers to their specific Church building questions. We are now able to minister to, and support the church from initial consulting through construction; providing one relationship with many benefits.

How do we accomplish Our Mission?

• Through consultations leading to designs that are ministry driven, budget conscious, sensitive to cost-savings techniques, and are tailored to fit the individual needs of each Church.

• By not only helping you plan well, but also helping your church raise the money to achieve the vision.

• With our architects and engineers who specialize in Church and Church-related building design, people with an understanding of church, a love of the Lord and His church, and ministry pricing.

• By providing construction management services using an “open book” delivery method. This method of delivery creates an incentive for cost savings that are passed back to the Church and reinforces the Church’s control over their project.

• By providing or arranging church financing, through traditional and non-traditional sources, including but not limited to loans, mezzanine financing, second mortgages, bond programs, individual investors and lease-purchase arrangements.

• In partnership with commercial developers who can help take excess land and turn it into an income producing asset to fund ministry.

• By being able to provide a complete turnkey solution for your Church development campaign.

Where do I begin with this web site?

• If you are seeking information about a land purchase, finances, site or space evaluations, building types and other general information about how to build a church start with:
  • Facility and Site Planning sub web (many, many helpful web pages)
  • Planning Guidelines page (often printed for building committees)
  • Mistakes to avoid page (often printed for building committees)
• If you are seeking architectural church drawings and feel you are ready to begin with a plan purchase:
  • 1st, visit the plan list page to view some of our plans
  • 2nd, view the floor plans on this site and the nearly 200 church plans on our sister site, ChurchPlanSource.com.  On Church Plan Source you will be able to order a catalog of plans that may meet your needs.

When planning the construction of a building, do we count the amount we are able to spend, or pick a plan according to our desired seating?

In today’s economic times, that is the 64 dollar question.

The world of church financing and construction has changed drastically with the economy of recent times. The first step of any project, unless you are sitting on bundles of cash is to review with us your current financial status and has us work with you to set a budget that reflects your true ability to spend on a project.

Banks and other financiers deal with reality, so must we.

Once a budgetary number is established, we can then work through the ministry needs of your congregation, taking into consideration the growth factor you are currently enjoying, and what you wish to achieve. At that point we can then balance the needs of the congregation with the funds available and come up with a solution that fits the churches needs the best.

How do we get an idea of building costs? Often the cost can be anywhere from 95 dollars a square foot to 195 dollars a square foot. There are just too many variables in the beginning stages of a project, no one can tell you what a building will cost without a set of plans and a grading plan for the site. 

Why choose master site planning services? Master site planning is basically taking your property and planning it to its fullest potential. This would include maximum building sizes, parking spaces, hard surface/green space ratios, and possible outdoor recreational facilities. Master site planning helps the decide if their property is going to be sufficient for their long term growth desires, or if additional or different property might be needed.

When doing a Master site for a church, we will need a civil engineered site plan showing the ground contours, and the location of existing facilities. We also will need for you to fill out a questionnaire to help us access what your desires are for the future. These two items would allow us to create a few different potential site plans for your church, and show you where your next step of growth should be.

Many churches proceed without any Master site planning at all, only to discover a few years down the road their present building is in the wrong place for their future needs. A Master Plan would help you to map out the future of your church, without any misplaced structures or parking demolition.

Why is the Civil Engineered site plan not included but a local Civil Engineer recommended? We offer assistance with this service! The church will want to contact a local civil engineering firm to provide an engineered site plan for the proposed building. The engineered site plan is needed to assure building will "work" on the site and show it placed exactly how you want it. This important document is also required by many local building authorities.

Are the plans designed for steel construction? The plan may be for steel or wood frame depending on which plan you are inquiring about. If the plan you desire is wood and you need it to be steel, we can accommodate that and vice versa.

Can you work with metal building shell packages that the church is committed to? Yes, We also assist in finalizing plans for an existing metal building shell if that is your situation. See a testimonial at this link!

What does it mean when a plan can be mirrored? The sanctuary and/or the building can be doubled in size without many construction changes to the existing structure, usually done as a second or third building phase.

Can we make changes to the plans? Yes, every plan can be modified to your needs.

What areas do we serve? We offer certified drawings within the continental US. If you are out side of the contiguous 48 states, we cannot help you.

Is my information safe? Yes! If you have doubts about dealing with our company feel free to inquire with the churches on our testimonial page.

Can we speak and/or visit with churches that have purchased and/or built the plan we are considering? Most Likely! Most of the projects shown on our web site are designs that have been utilized by other churches. We would encourage you to visit, tour, and talk with the members of the church about their experience with our company, and how well the building has been utilized by the congregation. Just contact us.

 

The Church Plans offered on this site are provided as a service of:

Church Development Services, LLC
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