What is Renaissance Church Consultants LLC? Renaissance CCS LLC ties together a group of professional consultants, engineers, architects, financiers and constructors who are dedicated to building God’s Kingdom. We charge churches a much lower fee for our services than we charge the secular sector, allowing congregations to keep more of their tithes and offerings for His ministries. My family’s history in church design goes back 150 years (the church photo used in our header is my great grandfather’s church, designed and built in 1859 and still standing and in use today!). After the passing of Mr. Ernie White (my father-in-law) and the later subsequent closing of the firms he founded ( A/E Technologies, Inc and Church Plans For Less.Com LLC) the Lord led me to assemble the important part of the firms, the people, and to start the ministry once again…hence a rebirth, or “Renaissance”.

Why choose Proven Plans over your local architect? We are a high tech, customer service oriented company. We, as a Christian company, work diligently to serve the Him and the Church with excellence. We do ask that you consider prayerfully the decision you make in this matter. The church can save many hours of time (time = $) in the design and architectural studio by using our plans. Click here to find out more.

Where do I begin with this web site? You are welcome to call us, or follow the suggestions below.

• 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)
  • We now have representatives who would love to assist you.
• If you are seeking architectural church drawings and are ready to begin with a plan purchase:
  • 1st, visit the plan list page.
  • 2nd, view the floor plans and let us know if we can send a sample, printable floor plan or two for you to share with the decision makers at your church.

What is the difference between Certified Construction Documents and Uncertified Construction Drawings? Cost is one large difference, one is ready for your project the other is not.

• Uncertified Construction Drawings These plans can be purchased very economically and received very quickly. They are full sets of AutoDesk Architectural Desktop 2004 documents provided in both electronic and hard copy format. These drawings are custom designed plans that will need to be updated, brought up to the standards of your local building codes, and certified prior to construction. This can be done by Renaissance Church Consulting Services, your local architect, your design build firm, or any certified professional architect and/or engineer. The purchase of these documents also includes a "Single Use" license which will allow your architect or design build firm to modify and use these plans for your church construction.
• Certified Construction Documents are the plans we typically sell to churches. Every certified plan sold is customized/changed to meet the needs of your church, the building site and your local building codes. We include Mechanical, Plumbing and Electrical Engineering, Structural and Foundation Certifications as well as the state Architectural Certification. Civil Engineering and Fire Suppression design is not included and needs to be contracted locally.

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 or have a benefactor willing to underwrite your project, 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. As I am fond of saying, God doesn’t show up to loan closings with a Brinks truck.

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? Talk to local congregations that have built recently. Interview and talk to local and national builders. Do research on the internet. What you will learn is that the cost can be anywhere from 85 dollars a square foot to 175 dollars a square foot. There are just too many variables in the beginning stages of a project.

With a conventional architect, you must enter into a preliminary design contract costing thousands and thousands of dollars to get to a point where you can get a realistic construction budget. With Proven Plans by Renaissance, you can purchase a ‘Full Set Sample Plan” with allows you to get what we classify as a 95% cost or budget for the project. You do not have to have the exact floor plan you desire. If you choose one of similar scope and construction type, this can be extrapolated into a square foot cost that applies across a wide variation of sizes. If you are serious about building, this will be the best $895.00 you will ever spend. And the price is fully credited at the time of purchase of your Construction Drawings!

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 Civi 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. This is a major requested plan change and the cost can be considerablly more for our design services.

Do we lose service by using Proven Plans? No, because of today's high tech communication systems. We feel we can serve you even better. We do love to meet with you and get to meet many of our clients. The majority of our clients we do not get to meet. We do provide support you may need during construction and are always available to assist during the construction process. A representative from our firm would be available to visit your site should the need arise.

Does ProvenPlans.Com 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? The economy factor is in buying the plan close to the original design and within the same foot print of the building. Changes can decrease the savings incurred as these changes can add cost and time to the project. Requested structural or excessive changes can be charged at the Standard Market Rate and possibly be turned over to our parent company to design and price for you.

What areas do we serve? We offer certified drawings within the US. If you are out side of the US, please review our Uncertified Construction Drawings.

What can cause delays in receiving the full set of drawings?

• If your site is not yet approved for a building. Local zoning must be in place for your church.
  • It may be helpful to have the 25% plan review set pre-approved by your local building authorities in order to speed your building processes along.
• Taking a lot of time to review and/or change your drawings.
  • Please return them as soon as possible to your assigned project manager.
• Taking a lot of time to return the Project Summary Check List.
  • Complete this form to the best of your knowledge and return as soon as possible. Also supply the name and phone number of your Civil Engineer to Renaissance. We will need to communicate with your Engineer about your building site. Let us know if you need us to coordinate the Civil Engineer service for you.
• Making major changes to the drawings during reviews can add quite a bit of time to project.
  • Please make any major changes to your plan by the 25% review.
• Remember plan changes can add to the building and plan costs.

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. Give us a call! 1-260-220-3299.

How do I display the bottom and right sides of large floor plan?
If you are unable to view the right side of the floor plans, our suggestion is to follow the directions below. You can go back and change the monitor settings after you are finished viewing the floor plans.

• Minimize all open windows.
• Right click on your desk top.
• Click on properties.
• Click on the settings tab.
  Increase the screen resolution to more pixels. (usually a slide bar)
• Click apply.
• Your monitor will go black for a few seconds then come back up with a more compact viewing screen.
• Open the minimized windows.
  
  This will allow you to view the sample floor plans. You will have a scroll bar on the bottom and the right of the floor plan window. The screen will look different and the windows, text etc. a bit smaller.

If this information does not help please call and we can send up to three floor plans to you through the e-mail or US mail. You may also share the information with another person within your congregation and view it on another computer.