Counting the cost...

Doing the first things first in your building program

Before you engage the architect or builder, understand what you can afford to build and how you will pay for it.  Get help to develop a rough budget and to financially prepare for a building program.  Jesus tells us in Scripture to count the cost before we build. We tell you that doing so will save your church time, money, effort and frustration to do the first things first.

A brief commentary on Luke 14:28-30, the parable of counting the cost, as it relates to building. 

The parable of counting the cost before you build the tower is obviously not intended as a command on how to build. Jesus used it as an example of common sense and correct practice to illustrate a Kingdom truth. Jesus used an elementary truism to illustrate the point that we are to fully account for, and be prepared to give, what it takes to be a disciple of Christ.  

When Christ says to first count the cost, by implication there must be a prior action: that of determining what needed to be built. To count the cost for the tower, one would need to know how big the tower must be, and even before that, to determine that a tower, instead of some other structure, needed to be built. When Jesus rhetorically, or perhaps even somewhat mockingly, said to His listeners, ''for which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first...'', the meaning would be clearly understood as an example of everyday practice that demonstrated an essential truism.  Today we would phrase it so as to say ''of course, just as you would count the cost before you build a tower...''. This, however, now begs the question as to when, in the last 2000 years, did we get so "smart" that many churches no longer consider this a prerequisite step before committing serious money to architectural services or building programs?

Now, hopefully, we all know that you don't get an accurate cost until you have submitted full working plans to the builder for bid, but that is getting ahead of the second point, which is that of ''whether he may have enough to finish it.'' You need to know what you can afford to build in your own ability. If the vision is bigger than the budget, develop a phased building plan and build what you can afford, and as God gives the increase, move into the next phase or phases. Don't feel that you need to build the whole vision at once. God's vision to Israel was for all of the promised land, but He only let them take it over as they could manage the land. (Deu 7:22)

While some churches today end up not completing their "tower", the much more pervasive problem is in the multitude of churches that waste tens of thousands of dollars in plans that are never built, have to be thrown away and done again. 

Be a good steward, take a tip from the Master Architect and do the first things first.