All that advice is good - but often decisions are made by churches in a vacuum. We find that the use of volunteers does not always save money, and many inflate their capabilities (imagine that in a church!). Supervision, temporary facilities, and interest to the loan source all cost money, and well-skilled tradespeople can get a whole lot more done in a set period of time.

We try to isolate specific work tasks NOT in the critical path and ONLY use people who have a professional skill level. With painting, which is often botched, decent but slow painters may be able to do it, though most people who SAY they can paint often overstate their case, and with spray methods used by the pros, it often isn't worth it. The paint says it all - speaking of which, colors cost the same - so many churches paint everything white. Judging by the natural world, God loves color, and so do most people. Don't go crazy, but two or three colors with strong accents make all the difference.

I find that when properly insured, tasks such as non-structural demolition, unloading trucks, landscaping, security, and the like can save significant dollars while letting the contractor roll.

Went through a church we were not involved with, and the drywall and painting work done by the church folks completely ruined the project. The contractor was embarrassed. Another church who hired a fly-by-night contractor made him hire a church crew who had been remodeling houses to convert a warehouse. The "spark watcher" had not clue how to do that critical job and the whole place went up in smoke and the contractor vamoosed with almost $300,000 to the Caribbean.

As architects who do numerous church projects, we want to be involved from the visioning to the ribbon cutting, and when we are, good things result. We hear so much from folks who put all their trust in a contractor or who skimped on the design professional. Work is often poor, visibility of the platform is compromised, and often too much money is spent. Projects done right are the best value, and we find contractors charge much LESS when they have really good plans to work with and a readily accessible and competent architect to deal with the inevitable field issues that result. We have used the negotiated General Contractor model for 30 years which was recently recommended by BFM, and found it to always be the way to go.