Long before a shovel hits dirt, there are three mistakes that church leaders must avoid in a building project. And all three occur with the formation of the committee—the group of men and women who will lead the church through what often becomes a challenging, two- to three-year endeavor.

By recognizing these missteps upfront, and taking action to avoid—or at least minimize—any or all of them, a church has a much greater chance of seeing its building project through to a successful completion, with a healthier, happier staff and congregation in tow.

Mistake No. 1: Using the church pastor as the building committee's chairperson.

Too many churches add this responsibility to their pastors' already burgeoning list of tasks and duties. The burnout rate for ministry leaders tends to run high already. Imagine adding the role of leading a committee that is about to spend a lot of money, make a lot of decisions affecting every single member and visitor of the church, and interact frequently with numerous consultants, city officials, and other key decision-makers.

The myth that your pastor only works a few hours a week on Sunday morning is just that—a myth!

That said, I'm not suggesting the pastor shouldn't be involved. Far from it. Instead, the pastor must act as the chief spokesperson, delivering the project's vision when it comes to speaking to the congregation and the community, and providing frequent updates regarding the project's status. When we can bring a real face and voice to something as abstract as a building project, we make it easier for people to buy into it. And for most pastors, the greatest satisfaction they can experience comes from speaking about how the vision of the church will get carried out through a new building space or renovation.

So, who should chair the committee? Ideally, it's a leader who possesses humility and resolve, traits which Jim Collins found in top leaders in his Good to Great research. It's also someone who can bring a group together, keep it on track, encourage healthy debate, and ensure decisions get made—in other words, someone who can assemble the right people, the right schedule, and the right environment for success.

This can be a member of the church staff, but only to the degree that the role doesn't derail them from their primary ministry duties. Remember, you can keep staff involved in other ways, too, especially in the gathering of ideas and feedback. You need staff input. You don't want to derail them, but you can't sideline them, either. The question is whether the chairperson role is the right one for one of these staff members, or for a high-capacity leader within the congregation.

Mistake No. 2: Filling the committee with members who have construction backgrounds.

Most every church has at least one member who works in the construction industry. They have the background and expertise from their professional experiences, so they're naturals for a building committee, right?

Maybe. But that's not necessarily the case.

Companies like Southwest Airlines have learned that attitude goes much farther than resumes, college degrees, and work experience. Attitude is hard to train. In fact, it's almost impossible.

The character traits that show the right attitude include:

• People who are sold out for Christ, sold out for your church, and sold out for the building project;
  
• People who possess open minds, who graciously hear the views and opinions of others, and diplomatically share their own;
  
• People who are fully engaged so that they're ready to be trained with what they need to know;
  
• People you can trust.
  

Mistake No. 3: Creating a big committee that represents a sliver of the congregation.

Churches frequently form building committees with too many people. And many of those people represent only a select group of the congregation's membership base.

The ideal size for a building committee is five to seven people. The decisions for a building project can't be made through a pure democracy, nor can a building committee pursue congregation-wide consensus. That's unrealistic. The committee should be limited in size to foster healthy, robust discussion and debate, bringing diverse input from a diverse group of people to result in better overall decisions for everyone.

And that leads to the second part of this mistake—a committee stacked with too many representatives of one particular group, ministry, or other special interest. Your committee shouldn't consist only of your top givers, nor should it only consist of long-time members. Instead, you want a healthy mix of:

• Demographics. Make certain you have representatives from young and old generations and everything in between, and try to get long-time members as well as new ones. Try to split 50/50 between men and women.
  
• Ministries. Get representatives from a variety of church ministries (worship, youth, and so on).
  
• Experience. Do get a variety of professional backgrounds (financial, architectural, construction, and so on).

Inevitably, the question will come: Can five or seven people handle all of the work of a building project? The answer is no. And the committee can address this by using as many empowered subcommittees as necessary to get the work done. The only necessity is a strong line of communication between the subcommittees and committee leaders to make certain that any decisions are made well.

Professional Partners

When it comes to hiring consultants, the same types of rules used for forming the committee apply here as well.

First, you need to have a sense for the consultant's character and attitude. Is the consultant fully committed to the project? Can you trust the consultant?

Next, you need the consultant to buy in to the vision. You want your partners to get it with you—not just understand it, but get it—and help you champion it.

From there, you must have a sense of connection and chemistry. Can you work well together?

And lastly, what is the consultant's experience? The consultant's resume? What do references say?

Bathed in Prayer

To close, here's a final word about forming a building committee: Pray.

Pray before you form the team, during the project, and after the project finishes. Bathe it all in prayer. This process will challenge and stretch your leaders, your congregants, and your church's resources. Conflict will come, which it should, any time you're working through big questions about ministry space, how it gets designed, and how it gets used in the context of the church's vision, people will have varying opinions. The Enemy knows this, and wants to use it to create division. By bathing this in prayer, you open the door for the Holy Spirit to foster open minds and humble hearts.

This process can strengthen your church. Be encouraged by that.

Brad Eisenmann is Vice President and General Manager of Aspen Group, a church architecture and construction firm based in the Chicago area. Aspen is a founding member of the Cornerstone Knowledge Network.