3 Pre-contract considerations

Pre-contract considerations 3

1. A sure foundation “Our Father…” Whilst every building needs a foundation, the sure foundation for a project will be ongoing fervent prayerful support. Prayer is essential for every work that we commit to in God’s name and under God’s hand.

2. Communication or Stakeholder engagement - “Tell me, what are we doing again?” It is possible that two or three people in a fellowship will have known about the need for the works in a building project for some time and they can describe its benefits in countless ways. Indeed, they may be becoming slightly frustrated at the slow speed of the project. However, for those who are not so aware or well informed, but who are as important to a project as those with leading roles, it can be difficult to grasp the overall concept, benefits and the need for the expense. For this reason, time needs to be taken at an early stage to engage with everyone within a fellowship and explain what is happening and why. It is important as well to encourage feedback and to work out a way of capturing this, so that leaders can reflect on what people have said, as a project is brought into firm focus, and they can show that they have heard people’s ideas and suggestions.

Perhaps most important of all is to appoint someone within the fellowship as the one person who will communicate between the project team and the fellowship. This should be consistent throughout the life of the project and should be an arrangement that is insisted upon and respected by all. We say this because in our experience many projects are undermined by inaccurate explanations and wrong information and this can lead to bad feelings, delays and in

“We have been talking for many years about improving the building. As time went on, we outgrew the worship area and we wanted our church building to be more welcoming for our community. CGT have been amazing, restructuring our lease, helping with funding and always being on hand to support and advise us. Building projects can be stressful, but CGT have bent over backwards to help and accommodate us. They bought into our vision, they are excited by it and wanted to see it happen. Praise God!”

Mike Pavlou, Oakleigh Community Church

Before

After

the end increased costs. However, these issues can be avoided in very large part by an agreed method of consistent communication.

3. Working together with CGT – “Let us do this, but the fewer the merrier…” In most building projects, everyone has an opinion and most think their view is the only one worth having! The problem is that if projects are run, essentially, by a committee or a committee style decision-making process, because everyone is “entitled” to say what they think, then the project is destined to be slow and increasingly costly. In addition, those who are aggrieved about the direction of a project can use this process to attempt to divert the project away from its agreed parameters or undermine it, again with serious timing and financial implications.

We can help you, as we have expertise in property projects and a vested interest in making sure your project works. Our Architect and/or our Property Manager should be involved from the start, to help keep you focussed. Experts, which include us, should be involved. Experts are used in a project because they are “expert”.

A project team in the context of an agreed project needs to be made up of people who are competent and able to represent the interests of the various parties to the project. In this way they can ensure that decisions are taken responsibly, promptly and proportionately with all available information to hand. An ideal project team will be one comprising the builder, quantity surveyor, project manager, architect, church representative, treasurer and CGT representative (usually our Property Manager).

4. Timings – “When will the building be ready?” Timings are governed by two distinct areas – the finance needed to deliver the project and the project itself.