1. Really Low-Priced Church Chairs:  Over the past few years a couple of major companies have begun importing church chairs at a high volume.  They have great buying power in China because of their size, and they bring chairs to our country in large quantities.  As a result, they have some stunningly low prices.  However, there are trade-offs that come into play.  The lack of long-term warranties, the need for the church to assemble the chairs, and the lower quality of the product itself become obvious over time if not immediately.
2. Similar to the Above but a Bit More Expensive:  In our day it has also become common for far smaller companies than those in #1 above, to be approached by overseas manufacturers about carrying their product.  The premise is, “We will make the chair and you will import it and you can name it whatever you would like!”  The chair then becomes a private label product for smaller companies.  However, because they do not have the same buying power as the larger companies, their pricing may be a bit higher for the same level of chairs referred to in #1 above.
3. Better Quality Import But Even a Bit More Expensive Still:  There are a couple of companies that do utilize off-shore production for their church chairs, but they are able to maintain proprietary control over the entire manufacturing process.  For example, they own the dies used in the production cycle, they frequently visit the overseas production facility, they have rigid production standards and quality control, and the facility produces chairs only for them.  Pricing is a bit higher because of the costs associated with producing a higher quality church chair, but warranties are greater and honored, the chairs are fully assembled, and companies like Church Furniture Partner are able to bridge the price points for this level of chair to assist churches.
4. Mostly Domestic Produced but Expensive for the Quality of the Chair:  There are a few church chairs that are manufactured to some degree in a domestic facility.   These companies though face the challenge of producing a chair that will be cost-competitive with the best offshore produced chairs.  Our experience has been that unfortunately means some trade-offs in quality.  Whether using screws instead of t-nuts, or foam that is not as high standard as a church might like, or a myriad of other factors, these companies often resort to taking steps for competitive purposes that are not as favorable for churches.  We find that the assumption that because these chairs are mostly domestically produced, they will be superior, is really not valid.
5. Domestically Produced and Very High Quality but Quite Expensive:  And finally, there are some chairs that are phenomenally constructed and manufactured in a 100% domestic process, but they can cost twice the price of where we started in #1 above.  For example, the Apex Church Chair (Metal Frame) from Uniflex is a stunning chair!  There simply is no better product!  And if a church can afford these chairs, they will be very happy for many years because of the quality throughout.  Church Furniture Partner will provide these chairs to your church at the lowest possible cost, but they will take a bigger bite from your budget.  But we do recommend the Apex be a chair for a church to consider from a long-term viewpoint.

I hope this overview is helpful to you and your church.  And please understand, at whatever price point your church needs to be at with their church seating purchase, working with Church Furniture Partner will save you dollars.  Please contact us for more information!

Related posts:

1. Will Buying Church Chairs Increase Worship Seating Capacity?
2. Sample Church Chairs: Don’t Buy Worship Seating Without One!
3. Church Chair Reviews: What’s the Best Worship Seating?

For the better or the worse this has created a culture of people that love, and often times need video to engage.

Google around, the stats are staggering.  And, if your church is not providing new or existing members with video content, you are neglecting a huge evangelizing tool.

Here are a few of the ways Anchored Art is providing video content for churches:

• Vision // Welcome message

• Sermon Bumpers

• Sermon Wrap-ups (web driven video recapping longer 8-10 week sermon series)

• Major announments (church wide service projects, major changes or funding drives)

Anchored Art is capable of delivering fast turn-arounds for custom video throughout the US.  We offer affordable solutions that can be used in church, on the web, and delivered via email and DVD.  Now through April 1 Anchored Art is offering 10% off video production for US based churches.  Mention this offer when contacting us!

Related posts:

1. Widescreen Video for Churches?

Native support in many hosted IP PBX deployments and solid Asterisk support make deploying the T-22p a simple task.  The web based interface for setup quickly gets the phone and user online and interacting with the features of the phone.  The solid feel of the handset reminds me of the old handsets from the 1990s and the phone although weighted I found myself constantly putting a book behind it to help hold it to the desk.

The speaker phone is not the best on the demo unit I had.  While it works fine with one on one calls, the duplexing comes up short in a small group conference call.  The new TI chipset and the firmware on the phone helps it snap to and respond as your calls progress in and out of the phone.  The look is perhaps more European than expected but borrows from the Cisco design concept still a solid phone for the money.

Yealink T-22p Features

Call Hold
Call Waiting
Call Transfer
Call List
DND
Voicemail
Volume Adjustment
Duplex Speakerphone
Call Forward
Caller ID
Redial
Flash
3-way Conference
SpeedDial
Dual network ports

Yealink T-22p Links

T-22p Product Page
T-22p Data Sheet
T-22p Firmware

Related posts:

1. Review – Linksys SPA942 by Cisco
2. Review – Linksys SPA962 by Cisco
3. Review – Bria Softphone by Counterpath

Related posts:

1. Will Buying Church Chairs Increase Worship Seating Capacity?
2. Church Chair Reviews: What’s the Best Worship Seating?
3. Maximizing Banquet Table Seating Capacity

What are we doing?
Why are we doing it?
Why are we doing it now?

Why does the church exist, how does this project preserve or promote that mission, why is this project so urgent? These are three foundational issues that should be talked about frequently before, during and after the campaign, but it is the next question that starts to become personal.
How will this be possible? It is here that the rubber begins to make contact with the pavement. How will it be possible? There are two reasons that this is such an important question to address.

People won’t give sacrificially to something that they don’t believe is going to happen. By definition, sacrifice is giving up something of value for something of greater value. Even those who share and are highly committed to your vision will be unlikely to give at a sacrificial level if they aren’t clear on how it is going to happen.

There is however a much larger issue here. Ultimately, this is a question of faith and that is why it becomes so personal. Do I have faith the leadership of the church when they say this is going to happen? Do I have faith in the person to the right of me and the person to the left of me to do their part in this? Do I faith that God will provide for me and my family if we really commit to this campaign?

Often it is this question more than any other that God appears to use to reveal faith issues that we are not even aware that we have. Make no mistake, this question will be a key determining factor in how much people give and how much people grow.

Next time we will answer the question; what do you need me to do? The answer may surprise you.

For more information about successful capital campaigns contact Alan Morrison at Midwest Church Design and Construction at morrisona@midwestchurch.com

Related posts:

1. Church Building; Five Questions Every Capital Campaign Needs to Address Part 2
2. Church Building: Five Questions Every Capital Campaign Needs to Address Part 4
3. Five Questions Every Capital Campaign Needs to Address (Part 1)

The sound quality and features of the Linsys SPA942 set it apart from other lesser SIP IP Phones.  These phones work great in either wall mount or desktop environments.  The Power over Ethernet (POE) option shows the green intentions of Cisco.  Add a wireless adapter and these little IP Phones become an even bigger deal.   With the WiFi afapter all you need is a power outlet and a good connection to a WiFi signal and you are up and making and receiving calls.

SPA 942 Features

2 100BaseT Ethernet ports
POE on Network Port
Four line display
Four Account Management
Web Based Configuration and Provisioning
Hi-resolution backlit display
Solid Feel and weight
Full-duplex speakerphone
SIP Compatible
G711u and G729 Codecs Supported

SPA942 Links

Cisco SPA942 Product Page
Cisco SPA942 User Guide
Cisco SPA942 Firmware

 If you are looking for a powerful phone with a small footprint for your Church or Home Office then be sure to look at the Linksys SPA942 by Cisco.  Cisco is a solid choice in the IP Phone market and the SPA942 is a low cost entry point with many of the same features as the $200 and $300 phones..

Related posts:

1. Review – Linksys SPA962 by Cisco
2. Review – Grandstream GXP1450 HD Enterprise IP Phone
3. Softphone – Taking Your Church Phone with You

What are we doing?
Why are we doing it?
Why are we doing it now?
How will this be possible?

Having previously addressed the first four, this time we will answer the fifth question; what do you need me to do? The answer may surprise you.

The knee-jerk answer to the question is obviously “give money.” The problem is that this is the wrong answer. Successful campaigns are not about asking people for money. Successful campaigns are about getting people to have an honest conversation with God; to seek His will for thier participation and trust the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Asking people for money misses the mark in one of two ways. First, it presumes that they are in a position to give more than they are already giving. Second, it positions them to respond within the limits of their human nature. In so doing you inadvertently limit their participation.

Asking people to ask God how He would have them participates puts the Holy Spirit in the driver’s seat. It encourages the participant to trust God for direction and says that you are willing to do the same. It challenges them to dump all that they own out before God and ask what He would have them do with it all. Generally speaking God has a greater number in mind then they would ever come up with on their own.

Just as with each of the others, you cannot begin answering this question too soon. Don’t wait for it to be asked. The sooner you can get people to start praying about their participation in the campaign the sooner God can start to work on their hearts. When your congregation sees that you are prepared to trust him for the outcome of the campaign they will be willing to do the same.

I hope that you will address each of these questions early and often in your next capital campaign. While answering these five questions will not guarantee that you will reach your goal, failing to answer them will guarantee that your outcome will not be as successful as it could have been.

For more information about successful capital campaigns contact Alan Morrison at Midwest Church Design and Construction. morrisona@midwestchurch.com

Related posts:

1. Church Building; Five Questions Every Capital Campaign Needs to Address Part 2
2. Five Questions Every Capital Campaign Needs to Address (Part 1)
3. TEN WORDS FOR A SUCCESSFUL CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

When is the last time your church purchased new church seating?  When is the next time your church is planning on replacing church chairs?  If your church is like most churches, you immediately recognize how rare it is that church chairs are purchased.  And since church seating purchases are so uncommon in the life of a church, often so is the experience and knowledge to guarantee that the chairs purchased will be those that will perfectly fit the specific needs and environment of your church.

At Church Furniture Partner we have worked with an amazing number of churches over the years in their quest for new church chairs.  We also work with almost every church chair and worship seating manufacturer in the country.  Our experience with both a broad range of church customers, and a dozen or so church seating manufacturers, has positioned us well to be able to share what we believe is a balanced perspective on church seating purchases.

So, we’re going to devote our next several articles to what we have found to be the seven key church chair characteristics that should be taken into consideration as a church considers a church chair purpose.  Here are the seven we’ll be looking at:

• Price
• Comfortableness
• Efficiency of Storage
• Quality
• Appearance
• Handling
• Use

I’m looking forward to this fresh look at church chairs.  One thing is certain, your people will sit down in your church far more than they will stand up.  I believe this series of articles will be beneficial for many churches over the coming years.  And, if your church is considering a church chair purchase before these are published, be sure and contact us and we’ll walk through the purchase with you.

Related posts:

1. Should Our Church Purchase a $28 Worship Chair? (Part 2)
2. Church Seating Reviews
3. Should Our Church Purchase a $28 Worship Chair? (Part 1)

I have been asked though, that if there was only ONE PIECE OF ADVICE I could share with churches before they buy church seating, what would it be? I have thought about what my answer would be to that question and it’s not difficult to narrow it down to one suggestion.  Are you ready?  Here it is:  BEFORE you purchase new church chairs, obtain a sample chair and check it out well!

Over the years I have been surprised too often how many churches will purchase 100, 200, 300, even 500 worship chairs without having ever obtained a sample church chair to make sure they were going to be pleased with their purchase over the long term.  And as a result, too often the church is NOT happy!

Here are some quick tips about sample chairs:

• The more difficult and expensive it is to obtain a sample worship chair may be an indication that particular chair is not one the manufacturer desires you to compare to others chairs.  Likewise, the easier it it is to obtain a sample church church chair may well be an indication of the confidence that manufacturer has in their product.

• Request that your sample church chair be in the width you are planning on using in your worship space.  If you obtain a 22″ wide worship chair for your sample, but are planning on using 20″ chairs in your worship space, you will be making your decision based on a non-applicable variable.

• Place your sample chairs side by side and allow different members of your staff and/or congregation to assess them well from comfort, quality and aesthetic perspectives.   You may be amazed at the variances you will discover.

Church Furniture Partner currently works with most worship seating manufacturers of our day.  We do have those we consider to the best values for churches today.  Please be sure and contact us for more information.

Related posts:

1. Worship Seating Tests: 60 Seconds or 60 Minutes?
2. Compare: Hercules Chairs VS Other Church Chairs
3. Will Buying Church Chairs Increase Worship Seating Capacity?

Start with prayer.  Ask God to guide your team through the budgeting process and for the wisdom to make the best decisions for Christ’s local church.

With the worst downturn that many people have seen in their lifetime many churches are being forced to make some difficult reductions in their expenses.  The place to start is by creating a realistic projection of what your giving will be for the next year.  It is important to be realistic with this number because your total income will drive what reductions need to be made in the church expenses.  If anything you want to have a little more income than projected.  Once you have a good estimate of income the amount expenses must be reduced will become clear.

1)  Review debt for possible reductions in rates.

The economic downturn has created favorable interest rates and if your church has debt now is a good time to explore the possibility of refinancing the debt at a lower rate.  Competition between banks for good loans has created a borrowers market for grade A borrowers.  Grade A borrowers typically have more income than expenses, a loan to value below 80% and are growing.  If you would like more information on what banks look for when they consider making a church loan please contact me by email and I will be glad to send you this information.  brad@egive-usa.com

2)  Review every expense line for expenses that can be reduced or eliminated.

These items may not make a big difference but are a good place to start and will enable your team to say that every area was examined during the budget review process.

3)  Examine Ministry Budgets

Are there any ministries that do not align with the vision of the church?  Recently I listened (twice) to the excellent book Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels and I must give him credit for this idea.  I recommend this book.

4)  Use the Internet to Save Money

Check out SaveYourChurchMoney.com and search the Internet for other strategies to save your church money.  Does your church accept gifts online?  Does your online giving provider accept recurring gifts so the church receives the offering whether or not the giver attends?  If your church has an electronic giving service how do their prices compare to other services available?  Could you save a significant amount of money by switching companies?

5)  Review Staffing

This is the hardest area because we are talking about people that you know and care about losing their jobs.  It is also the expense area with the most potential for savings.

Staffing is usually the largest expense for churches.  I recommend that the Lead Pastor pull together a team to review the current staffing needs of the church and look for ways to:  outsource staff positions that will not necessarily directly impact your ministry, replace paid staff with volunteers, and eliminate staff positions and divide the workload between the remaining staff.  I believe the Lead Pastor of the church must lead this team and difficult decisions will need to be prayerfully made.  Through this process it is important to remember that the church staff remaining should be paid a fair wage because they will be carrying a larger load.  Good church staff is hard to find and more expensive to replace than to keep.  For strategies on how to implement a staff reduction I recommend How to Trim the Sails on Your Church Budget by Dick Hardy.

I don’t claim to have all the answers and hope that you are able to use at least one of the five ideas mentioned to save your church money in the budgeting process.  I believe that God will guide you and your team through this process if you ask him to and that your team should continue to pray for the wisdom to make adjustments to your plan as needed.

Please post any ideas that have helped your church to save money for the benefit of all who may read this.

No related posts.

In the past our tiny church has spent over $1000 or VBS materials, supplies, prizes, and the like but this year we are hoping to save some money by looking beyond the normal resources and giving our partners at Dollar Days a try.

We must admit when we search their site for wholesale vacation bible school supplies we get very few products.  However we were able to browse around their website and find many wholesale items we could use for our church to lower the cost of hosting VBS over the summer.  Here is some of what we found which may help you get some ideas.

1. Wholesale toilet paper for our church
   While this may seem like something to buy at your local Sam’s Club or Costco we found we could save our church money by purchasing it through Dollar Days.
2. Arts & Crafts supplies for VBS
   Any arts-and-crafts supply can be utilized in VBS.  And Dollar Days had PLENTY at a cost much less than we were paying from our old supplier.
3. Cleaning Supplies to keep church sanitary
   Not only do we always need cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer but during VBS we need some extras.  We love the little ones but BOY CAN THEY MAKE A MESS

So there are just a few ideas how you can use a real wholesale supplier like Dollar Days to save your church money during VBS and year round!

Related posts:

1. Wholesale Novelties for Church Kids at Christmas

1. What are we doing?
2. Why are we doing it?
3. Why are we doing it now?
4. How will this be possible?
5. What do you need me to do?

The first two questions are fairly obvious and, as previously discussed, need to be addressed on both the literal and mission levels.  They are commonly asked.  The question we are looking at this time however is the question that almost never gets asked but must be answered if the people are going to give sacrificially.

Why are we doing it now?

If you talk to the people in your church the vast majority will tell you that they are all for the project your capital campaign is intended to fund.  They will also tell you that intend to support it financially.  What they likely won’t tell you is that somewhere deep in their sub-conscious a voice is telling them that while the project is a good idea, the timing is all wrong.  Next year the economy will improve; gas prices will be down and employment will be up. Next year would definitely be a better time to do this.  We’ll participate more next year.  The problem is that next year is a long way away and when it gets here it comes with problems of its own.  In order to maximize response you need to explain more than why we are doing this.  You need to explain why we are doing this now.

Sometimes it’s easy; you need to replace the boiler before winter and it makes economic sense to do the remodel at the same time.  Other times the urgency is not so self-evident.  As I write this I am coaching a church that has met in a small rented community center for almost a decade.  During nine of those years they have owned some twenty acres of prime real estate nearby.  Although the lack of a permanent facility is clearly limiting their ministry it is the only home that many in the church have ever known.  They want to know why this needs to be done now.  What’s changed?

It might be a God-given opportunity; a facility becomes unexpectedly available. It might me the next step in a long-term expansion plan. It may be that God is convicting your church to take a next step in faith. Whatever the reason is, failing to answer this question will seriously curtail the response of the congregation. Conversely, answering this question helps to motivate people to earnestly seek God’s will for their participation in the process. Understanding that this is what we are doing, why we are doing it and why we are doing it now prepares their hearts to respond joyfully and sacrificially. Of all of the questions asked or unasked, only after answering this question will people give at their maximum God given potential.

For more information about successful capital campaigns contact Alan Morrison at Midwest Church Design and Construction.

Related posts:

1. Five Questions Every Capital Campaign Needs to Address (Part 1)
2. Church Building: How to Facilitate Ministry Through Design Part II
3. TEN WORDS FOR A SUCCESSFUL CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

While each individual conversation during every campaign will have its own unique issues there are five questions that should be addressed at every opportunity.

• What are we doing?
• Why are we doing it?
• Why are we doing it now?
• How will this be possible?
• What do you need me to do?

They are the five questions central to virtually all leadership challenges.  Yet, when it comes to a capital campaign they are often under emphasized or overlooked all together. During the next few weeks we will explore these questions on multiple levels.

Let’s start with the first two. These two are so closely related that it is sometimes impossible to answer one without the other.  What are we doing?  Why are we doing it?  They are deceptively simple questions.  While I can’t answer either question for you I can tell you that the answer is bigger than building a new building, addition or renovating your existing facilities.  These are all worthwhile projects, but they are just that; projects.

People don’t give sacrificially to projects, they give to vision.  As such, answering these two questions in the context of vision becomes critically important.  The space your campaign is funding is more than a building.  It is a vital tool to be used for ministry, to fulfill the God given mission of your church.

There may be no more important time to remind people about the unique, God-given mission of your church, the vision and the plan to fulfill both than during a capital campaign.  Why does your church exist?  What would the world lose if your church failed to exist tomorrow?  What does reaching a lost world look like at your church?  How does this project fulfill that vision?

If you expect people to give sacrificially you need to present the project within the context of that mission. It must be crystal clear how this space and the sacrifice the space requires will help to realize that God-given vision for your ministry. The role this sacrifice plays must be integrally woven into the vision you cast to fulfill God’s purpose for your ministry.

These questions must be answered and answered and answered again. It is not enough to simply say it on Sunday morning. It needs to be shared with every leader in your church; staff members, ministry team and small group leaders, teachers, core volunteers and key centers of influence. I can’t tell you how many times you need to answer these two questions but I can tell you this; when you can no longer stomach the thought of answering these two questions one more time the majority of your congregation is just beginning to get it.

Next time we’ll answer the question; why now?

Related posts:

1. TEN WORDS FOR A SUCCESSFUL CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
2. Scriptures on Money (Part II)
3. Scriptures on Money (Part III)

1. The Facility Should be a Tool for Ministry
A church building is first and foremost a “tool for ministry”.

“If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.” Eccl. 10:10

A poorly designed church can be compared to a dull ax. The job may get the job done, but it is much harder to accomplish the task. Good design is one of the many tools in God’s toolbox to be used in the edification of the Church. We need to ask ourselves, “How can this building help us reach the lost and edify the church?” Many church mission statements contain some form of these two goals. Design decisions can be made to achieve these goals instead of for capricious or subjective reasons. This will minimize conflicts over sticky issues like paint color, chairs vs. pews, etc.

2. It Must Align with Biblical Ministry Goals
Because a church building is a tool for ministry, we need to know what the specific goals of our ministry are.

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. Proverbs 22:3

This verse illustrates the importance of looking ahead. Which direction do you sense God taking your ministry? How is the local economy? What is happening with the demographics of your town? All of these things require observation, analysis and judgment and will affect your building project. James warns us against presumption,. He doesn’t forbid planning, only encouraging flexibility to God’s leading.

How has God directed you in your ministry? This may depend on the church’s location; the church’s emphasis; or even the personality and giftedness of the leadership. In order for a building to be of greatest use, we must know what our ministry goals are before we can plunge into a design. For example, a church may be located in an area where there is a lower income urban population and desires to reach urban youth. Such a church may decide to go with a multiple-purpose for their worship space instead of a dedicated auditorium. A multi-purpose space may be more cost effective because it can be employed for “double duty” instead of a separate auditorium and gym. The church may have a vibrant basketball outreach for inner city youth and this type of space can be extremely valuable. Chances are such a population will have no problem if there are no pews, stain glass windows or padded carpet in the worship space.

Ministry goals also should dictate and drive building design. A distressed pastor that had attended an all day workshop on ministry planning, stated after the workshop, “I’m sick. We have just completed our new facility and are now in debt over $6 million dollars—and I think we built the wrong building.” Not many problems are as dramatic as that, but it does help to illustrate the importance of paying attention to God’s leading regarding the direction of the ministry.

Next article will address how the church building can be a “witness to the community”.

Related posts:

1. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? Part II
2. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? (Part 1)
3. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? Part 4

• Cost:  The prices of quality coffee making equipment can vary greatly from different suppliers and distributors.  As always, prudent and wise shopping is necessitated.  Church Furniture Partner for example carries the complete line of Bunn-o-Matic equipment and their discounts are significantly greater than most other Bunn dealers.  As you seek to obtain the best price, a quote from CFP is always advised.

• Previous Care:  How well has the used coffee equipment you are considering purchase of been cared for?  Is it clean on the outside?  Are there any evident build-ups of substances on the inside?  Is there corrosion that has been taking place?  Has the unit been used with soft or hard water?  You will want to inspect your potential equipment very carefully.

• Updated or Outdated:  Just how old is the equipment you are thinking of purchasing?  Coffee producing and serving equipment has seen great advances over past years.  You will not want to purchase equipment that reflects older technology.  For example, for many years coffee would be produced and then placed over electric warmers to keep it hot.  But in recent years, studies have demonstrated that constant heat actually degrades the flavor of the coffee.  Thus there has been a major movement to “thermo” units that keep the coffee hot through insulated technology.

• Brand Name Equipment:  There is no point of purchasing equipment whose manufacturer is no longer in business.  As replacement parts are needed you need to know they will be available.  As additional equipment is warranted you will want to be able to match your existing equipment.

While at times there will be some great deals available on used coffee equipment, you will want to keep the above factors in mind along with others.  And be sure that the savings you believe you may be obtaining on your potential used coffee equipment purchase is actually as great as you imagine.  A competitive quote by Church Furniture Partner is easy to obtain on Bunn Coffee Equipment by just filling out this form.

Related posts:

1. Bunn Coffee Equipment – Still the Best!

Although they don’t offer as many options as the folks at the popular Oriental Trading Company, their prices are exceptional and their quality higher.

I was particularlly fond of the Walking with Jesus Bracelet which was affordable enough to make sure each child recieved one…  We also couldn’t resist these cute “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” lamb stuffed animals for the kids who were involved in the pagent for the evening.

And, if you do not happen to be involved in your church’s Christmas program these make great stocking stuffers!!

Merry Christmas!

Related posts:

1. This Christmas: O Come All Ye Faithful
2. Bean Bags Catching On in Children’s Ministry
3. Carpets for Kids Faith-Based Line

The sound quality of the Linksys SPA962 by Cisco is again the standard that you are looking for in low cost feature rich SIP IP Phones for your church.  The full duplex speaker phone provides clear communication in small group settings as well as the 2.5mm headset jack allowing your youth pastor to even plug in his Xbox 360 headset for taking calls (don’t worry he will think it is cool).  Supporting many Codecs, including the G729 and G711u,  the SPA962 is a great office phone.

Linksys SPA962 by Cisco Features

Up to six lines with independent configuration and registration
Line status: active line indication, name and number
Menu-driven user interface
Digits dialed with number auto-completion
High-quality speakerphone
Call hold
Call waiting
Caller ID name and number
Call transfer: attended and blind
Call conferencing (on Phone)
Automatic redial
On-hook dialing
Call forwarding: unconditional, no answer, on busy
Call logs (60 entries each) list calls made, answered, and missed
Redial from call logs
Personal directory with auto-dial (100 entries)
Do not disturb (callers hear busy signal)
Called number with directory name matching
Speed dialing

Linksys SPA962 by Cisco Links

Cisco SPA962 Product Page
Cisco SPA962 Data Sheet (PDF)
Cisco SPA962 IP Telephony Firmware

Related posts:

1. Review – Protel SOHO Model S
2. Review – Bria Softphone by Counterpath
3. Review – Grandstream GXP1450 HD Enterprise IP Phone

If so, should your church purchase new or work to locate an used pulpit or used lectern?  After all, there is no shortage of used church furniture available.  Many churches are updating and remodeling their worship spaces and in doing so, new church furniture for those spaces is acquired, and the church furnishings that previously occupied those spaces become available for a “new home”.  Should your church pursue one of these potential deals for your new church pulpit or lectern need?  Let’s consider some of the reasons why you should consider used church furniture and some of the reasons you should not.

• Price:  Almost always, the attractiveness of purchasing “used” carries with it the belief that dollars are going to be saved by the purchaser.  And often that is indeed the reality.  However, we have also been surprised at the prices many churches expect to receive for their used furnishings.  In some cases, we been able to counsel churches toward a “new” purchase for around the same total dollars that the used purchase was going to cost them.
  Bottom Line:  Make sure you compare the total cost of the used items versus the cost of new items from a ministry like Church Furniture Partner.  You may be surprised to learn you can purchase a new pulpit or lectern for less than you thought!

• Shipping:  If you work with trucking in any way in our country, you understand that shipping prices seem to be going up and up.  In addition, churches are ill-equipped to adequately pack and crate the used items if shipping is needed to transport the church furnishings to their new home.  Manufacturers on the other hand do so regularly and have all the materials and equipment needed to safely package and protect your purchase.  And the manufacturer often has shipping discounts that will save you dollars versus paying to ship used church furnishings such as lecterns and pulpits.
  Bottom Line:  Unless the used pulpit / used lectern is close enough for you to pick up, be prepared for shipping issues to complicate the purchase.

• Warranty:  In most cases, used lecterns/pulpits are going to be sold “as is” and carry NO warranty.  This is to be expected of course, but there is something about warranties that provide a peace of mind regarding the purchase.   With new church furnishings, there will be warranties of various lengths, but there will ALWAYS be warranties.
  Bottom Line:  You will need to be totally comfortable that your used church furniture purchase carries no warranty.

• Aesthetics:  Any piece of used church furniture is going to to appear “used” to one degree or another.  There may be nicks or even gouges to be concerned about.  The wood on a used pulpit/lectern may be weathered in places from spills or environmental issues.  You could spend considerable time and expense trying to make the item look “new” but those efforts will be limited.
  Bottom Line:  Be sure to factor in any and all restoration costs that will be associated with your used church furniture purchase.

• Fit:  When you are purchasing new you have the opportunity to choose from a wide assortment of styles and finishes and sizes that will best fit with your current environment and decor.  But when you purchase used, all of those choices are no longer ready for you to make but are already settled.  Yes you can perhaps change the look of the pulpit/lectern to some degree, but that adds effort and cost to your purchase.
  Bottom Line:  Once again, be sure you are comfortable with how the purchased item will complement what is already in place in your environment.

There is one final note for you to consider.  Please know that a ministry like Church Furniture Partner can bridge the gap between the cost of that new item versus the savings on the used pulpit or used lectern.  We encourage you to investigate a new purchase with CFP so you can accurately consider the bottom line of what your savings will be for used church furniture.  Please contact Church Furniture Partner for more information.

Related posts:

1. Wood Pulpit or Acrylic Lectern — What’s the Difference?
2. Fire Ratings for Church Chairs and Church Furniture
3. Saving Your Church Money on Church Furniture

ABS stands for Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, a very strong composite material.  ABS Lightweight Folding Tables are produced by a variety of manufacturers such as Midwest Folding Products, Mitylite and Virco among others.  While these tables will vary some between manufacturers, most often they will include the following features:

• Corners that are designed to hold up even when the tables are dropped to the floor.
• Bumpers for stacking that help to protect tables tops when stacked.
• Steel frames that provide high weight ratings.
• Durable edge molding that prevents damage.
• Lightweight strong ABS on both the top of the table and bottom of the table.
• Table cores with a honeycomb style.

At Church Furniture Partner we are able to provide ABS tables from many manufacturers including those listed above and others.  In many cases we will lean toward the Midwest Folding Products NLW line from an overall value standpoint.  However, there often are special deals available that can allow our recommendation to vary.  Please contact us for information on the current available best pricing on ABS tables.  One thing is sure, our prices will be the lowest on all lines of ABS tables.

Related posts:

1. Lightweight Folding Tables – An Overview
2. Review: Southern Aluminum Linenless Tables for Churches
3. Become the Designer for the Table You Want!

Used Church Furniture Sale was developed as a platform to consolidate the used church furniture offerings from around the web into one simple point of access.  Simply put, if you are looking for used furniture for your church such as church chairs, pews and church benches, lecterns / pulpits / podiums, communion tables, and more… Then Used Church Furniture Sale is a great resource.

Sponsored by Church Furniture Partner, the site is completely free and requires no registration.  So, check out Used Church Furniture Sale today.

Related posts:

1. Jonti-Craft Children’s Chairs and Activity Tables Sale
2. Another Church Furniture Partner Best Value: The Furniture Lab
3. March Jonti-Craft Storage Sale!

The following are the most common limits that commercial lending institutions follow. As you would expect, these limits are going to vary with economic conditions and should only be used as general guidelines.

Loan-To-Value/Cost
Simply put, most institutions will lend up to 75% of the appraised value of the building. Be aware that due to different methods of appraisal, this amount can vary significantly.
Building Value X .75 = Loan Amount

Debt-To-Income
Most commercial lenders will limit the total aggregate debt of the church to 3.5 times annual income. Generally, annual income is defined as General Fund Revenue + Building Fund Revenue. Some institutions will consider other on-going non-designated income (daycare revenue, rental income, etc.) as well.
Annual Income X 3.5 = Maximum Debt

Annual Debt Payment
While some may go slightly higher, as a rule the total annual amount of all debt payments should be no more than 35% of your annual income as calculated above.
General Fund Income X .35 = Maximum Annual Payment

These formulas are intended solely as guidelines to offer a place to start. Since each loan is unique, only your commercial lender can determine the amount for which your church qualifies.

Related posts:

1. Your Church Design & Construction Project Needs a Vision
2. Midwest Church Construction Comitted to Helping Joplin Churches Rebuild
3. National Association of Church Business Administrator’s Conference 2010

• The most common fire retardant standard for church furniture containing fabrics and foam is referred to as CAL 117.  There are many imported fabrics and foam that do NOT meet the fire retardant standards of CAL 117.  If your Fire Marshall does not request verification from your church, you may be granted occupancy even with non-compliant chairs.  But if he follows standard procedure in most jurisdictions and requests such verification, your church likely will not be granted occupancy.

• A higher level fire retardant standard for church chairs is CAL 133 (California Technical Bulletin 133).  This standard is currently not required for church chairs and church furniture in the majority of the country.  However it is becoming more prevalent and there are some states like Massachusetts and Connecticut where it is especially common.  With this standard, there is a need for the manufacturer to be aware of the CAL 133 standard before the order is placed so the chairs can be fabricated to meet the standard.  There is also additional testing required then on the church chair itself.

• As you purchase your church chairs, ask about the fire retardant certification on the chairs you are considering.  Make sure you ask both about the church chair foam and the church chair fabric.  Both need to meet the applicable standards.  We are aware of some manufacturers that simply hope your church will purchase their church chairs without asking about this subject.  We encourage you to dash that hope!

At Church Furniture Partner, we will gladly share with you upfront the fire retardant ratings on all products we provide to churches.  Your church will likely not purchase new church chairs often!  Let us help you be thrilled with the ones you do purchase.  Please contact us for more information!

Related posts:

1. Review: Cheap Hercules Church Chairs from Bizchair & Others
2. Protect Your Church’s Data with FireKing
3. Taking Church Furniture to Market: Part One – Manufacturer Direct

Your Facebook Profile Picture

After one day with posts of encouragement and scripture for some of the families I noticed that one of my peers had a great looking profile image with more information and I decided I wanted that.  It took a little digging and after getting through the miss-information online I finally figured it out.

Facebook normally encourages you to randomly update your profile picture to a slim 200X300px images but on closer inspection you can use 200x600px giving you another chunk of screen to put your message on when people visit your profile!  you can use it to put more photos of your kids and pets (or grandkids) but it also can be an extra spot to show what you believe.

I use this in my example for scripture and the information on our church website.  You can use it for the same or to promote your next church event!  It does make it a little more difficult to manage because unless you  learn how to do it you can’t change the photo into a picture of the grandkids or the new puppy but it help put a consistent message to those you minister to even on Facebook.

Remember that you can make your thumbnail be focused on a square in the photo.  Set aside a portion of your design to have your image cropped nicely to give you a smooth thumbnail.

Everyone has a different skill level for art programs on the computer and I am particularly fond of Photoshop (and bought it a couple versions back).  There are several FREE online sources as well as some great program you can download and start putting your larger photo and message together.

Retail Programs

Photoshop CS5 $699.00
Photoshop Elements $75
Corel Draw X5 $50

Open Source Programs

Gimp 2.6 $Free or donation
Photoscape $ Free or donation
Picasa (Google) $Free

Online Programs

Online Image Editor www.online-image-editor.com
Pixlr http://pixlr.com/
Just Google “Online image editor” and you can get a bunch to choose from!

No related posts.

Older churches deal with a different type of design dilemma. They have typically been added onto throughout the years and can lack consistency on the exterior of the building as well as the interior.  Many times I will run into adjoining interior spaces that feel like you are walking from 2000 into 1970.  Sometimes it just takes someone else to step back and think through all of the spaces that will truly be affected and how to make the transitions less noticeable.  You want to try and not create two (or three or four) different spaces, but one continuous environment.  Simple color schemes or similar architectural features pulled throughout the exterior can create a more co-cohesive look.  Interiors can typically be pulled together well with paint schemes and carpet transitions in proper locations.  Updating walls, ceilings, lighting, decor and furniture in older spaces also works well to bring a continuity to the space.

Planning up front can always save you time and money, but no matter what, interior environments can be created effectively whether it is an existing space, a new space or an old space.  It takes creative planning, lots of discussions, and open minds, and collective ideas in order to not only get it to look great but also work great for the people who are in it.  I would love to help you get started!

Related posts:

1. Your Church Design & Construction Project Needs a Vision
2. Is Your Church Designed to Make a Good “First Impression”?
3. Does your church need cosmetic surgery?

Buildings have a tremendous impact on how we order our daily lives at home, work, school or in public worship.  Let’s search the Scriptures to see what principles we can discover that might guide us during a building project.  Throughout history churches have met in a variety of venues including New Testament homes, catacombs and Roman basilicas, ornate cathedrals, congregational meeting houses and modern mega-churches.

It should be self evident the early church did not meet in the kind of buildings we have now.  They would gather at the synagogue, a house, by a river, in prison, etc.

“And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.” Acts 16:13

“Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.” Acts 16:5

“The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.” 1 Cor 16:19

What does the Bible say?
Should a Christian look to the Bible for direction regarding church design and construction?  Since the Bible itself claims to have everything that “pertains to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3), we should be prompted to go there first for instruction in any endeavor.  Even though one can search the Bible and discover it has no “specific” instructions on the type of facility we should design and build, we may be able to glean principles to guide our thinking.  This lack of specificity is in contrast to the O.T when the Jews were to center their worship around very specific instructions associated with the Temple sacrificial system.  Today Christ has set us free from the law and said that we are to worship in spirit and in truth.

“Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” John 4:21

In the church age, the “physical” aspects of worship are not the focus.  Jesus said we are to worship in spirit and truth.  The building is no longer “sacred” in the same sense as the O.T. Temple.  Even though there are no specific instructions on church design for the New Testament believer, God’s word provides many principles to guide the building process.

This lack of specific Biblical instruction may, at first, seem to give much freedom in the type of structure to be designed.  Some architects and builders today are employing “architectural evangelism” to attract people, designing facilities to mimic movie theaters, theme parks and shopping malls.  As we will see, our architecture should reflect the order, purity and beauty of our God in order to honor Him.  God has designated the foolishness of preaching (not the architecture) in conjunction with the drawing power of the Holy Spirit to bring precious souls to Himself.

Unfortunately, this author has seen a number of good Bible believing churches guilty of going too far in the other direction.  They err by not paying enough attention to the physical condition and design of church facilities which can communicate our view of God and love (or lack of love) towards people.  Joe Miller, of “Discovering Life Ministries” encourages churches to be on the lookout for “signs of death” that dishonor God and could be a “turn off” to visitors.  These would include poor design and organization; facilities that are run down or in disrepair; poor acoustics or sight lines in an auditorium; drab, poorly lit or unsafe nurseries; crowded or dirty restroom facilities; and confusing floor plans.  Church facilities should be displaying “signs of life”.  These would include well designed and maintained facilities; well located and secure nurseries; auditoriums that were well tuned acoustically and well lit.  We would do well not only to make sure our new facilities are well designed and maintained, but what about our existing facilities?  Are they allowed to get run down and be in disrepair?  What do we communicate about our God by our buildings?

One of the best uses of Scripture to guide church design that I have seen was used during the auditorium renovation of Calvary Baptist Church, Findlay, OH.  Pastor Gordon Dickson developed a list of design goals that the architect used a guideline during the design process.  Then employs Scriptural principles for the design or renovation of a facility.  These goals are listed below.

1. Because God is the God of Truth Who communicates with us through His Word, our auditorium must provide for the clear transmission of the truth. Special care must be given to making the preaching prominent, audible and free from distractions.
2. Because God is the God of Peace Who reconciles us to Himself, our buildings must help us to break down the barriers to the people around us.
3. Because God is Light, our buildings must have adequate lighting and reflect this light well. They must take advantage of natural light whenever possible.
4. Because God is Faithful, our buildings must be built, renovated and maintained with a careful stewardship of funds, time and energy.
5. Because God is Eternal, our buildings must have a timeless, stable quality. They should not be faddish or nostalgic.
6. Because God is Holy and Transcendent, our auditorium should help us lift our hearts in praise to God.
7. Because God is glorious, His Praise must be heard from every willing voice in the auditorium.
8. Because God is the Judge, the auditorium must help us command respect for God.
9. Because God is the God Who serves, our buildings must give God’s servants adequate spaces to serve Him well and without distraction.

There are many other Biblical principles one could employ in church design. Churches should try to come up with their own list. Understanding God and employing Scriptural principles help when confronting potentially divisive decisions like, “pews vs. chairs”; “dedicated sanctuary vs. multi-purpose space”; “Christian iconography”(crosses, banners, etc.); “should we, or should we not have projection screens?”

As we consider the above Biblical principles, how should we decide what type of church to build? The next installment will examine some overarching practical concepts that need to be considered in deciding what to design and build.

Related posts:

1. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? Part 4
2. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? Part II
3. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? (Part 1)

At Church Furniture Partner, we recommend to churches across the country that obtaining “sample chairs” is an integral part of the process.  Most manufacturers have “sample chair programs”.  They may charge $25 or $35 for the sample to help cover shipping, but overall they make it quite easy for churches to obtain sample chairs.  They desire that their products be well evaluated by churches who hopefully will become their customers.  Providing affordable sample chairs is simply an important step in doing business.

Last week I was visiting a location where there were actually two sample chairs sitting side by side.  One was a chair manufactured for Chairs4Worship.  The other was a Hercules church chair.  Looking at them side by side provided a stark contrast from an appearance standpoint.  The Chairs4Worship product was the least expensive chair in their line, but from a visual standpoint seemed obviously superior to the Hercules product.  We have previously reviewed the Hercules Chair here, and this additional opportunity to compare these chairs only adds weight to that review.

Here’s the interesting piece of information though that prompted this article.  The Hercules Sample Church Chair had cost the purchaser $88!  While in comparison most church seating manufacturers provide sample chairs for $25-$40, to obtain one from Hercules can cost your church three to four times that amount.  A dealer can choose to subsidize that amount for a church, but that is the cost from the manufacturer.

We have been discussing why this practice in place.  However, when we observe the Hercules Church Chair next to most chairs from other manufacturers, the practice may make sense.  It’s hard for us to believe that many churches would choose the Hercules Chair when such a side by side comparison of chairs takes place.  Perhaps by charging this price for a sample, such comparisons take place less than they would otherwise.

At Church Furniture Partner, you will find that your church may even be eligible for a FREE sample church chair!  If you’re beginning the process of searching for quality and affordable church chairs, we’d love to come alongside your church.  Please contact us for more information.

Related posts:

1. Review: Cheap Hercules Church Chairs from Bizchair & Others
2. Church Sound Booth Chairs that Last!
3. Top Quality Wood and Metal Church Chairs from Uniflex and Chairs4Worship

Matthew 5:40–42
“If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.”
Philippians 4:6–7
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Psalm 24:1
“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness…”
Deuteronomy 26:12
“When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.”
Genesis 28:22
“And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
Matthew 23:23
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”
Ezra 1:4
“…together with a freewill offering for the house of God…”
2 Corinthians 9:7
“…for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Malachi 3:11
“‘And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
1 Corinthians 13:3
“If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
Luke 18:11–12
“The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself … ‘I give tithes of all that I possess.’”
Leviticus 27:30
“And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 14:22
“You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year.”
Nehemiah 10:38
“…bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms of the storehouse.”
Malachi 3:8
“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.”
Malachi 3:10
“‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

2 Corinthians 8:12
For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
2 Corinthians 8:2-4
Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.
Mark 12:41-43
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.

Related posts:

1. Scriptures on Money (Part II)
2. Scriptures on Money

This little box comes with over 200 hours of Voicemail storage and 10 extensions for a very reasonable price.  Compared to other similar priced PBX’s the Protel SOHO Model S is an unbelievable value with auto attendants and voicemail boxes along with a very flexible selection of phones.  The ability to use a wide variety of SIP phones makes pricing for end points reasonable with prices starting at $60.

The one feature that makes the Protel SOHO Model S my personal favorite (besides the fact it will fit in my suit pocket) is the ability to mix both SIP and traditional telephone lines!  Lets say you have a number for your church and can’t break free from your local telephone company.  You still want to use VoIP for your long distance or international calls.  The Protel line of PBX’s allows complete call routing control so you can establish rules to mange the call path for your outbound calls.

Protel SOHO Model S Features:

SIP and PSTN line routing
Wide Variety of IP Phones for endpoints
On-Screen Menu System
Automated Attendant
Blind Transfer
Call Detail Records
Call Forward on Busy
Call Forward on No Answer
Call Forward Variable
Call Monitoring
Call Parking
Call Transfer
Call Waiting
Caller ID
Caller ID on Call Waiting
Conference Bridging
Dial by Name
Do Not Disturb
E911
Flexible Extension Logic
Interactive Directory Listing
Local and Remote Call Agents
Music On Hold
Music On Transfer
and many more …

Call quality is excellent compared to my experience with other Premise based PBX systems and feature for feature the Protel SOHO Model S is the king of the hill.  If you are looking for a reasonable priced premise based PBX for both SIP and traditional land lines the Protel SOHO Model S is a great place to set the criteria for your search.

Related posts:

1. Review – Bria Softphone by Counterpath
2. Review – Grandstream GXP1450 HD Enterprise IP Phone
3. Softphone – Taking Your Church Phone with You

A few weeks ago a pastor getting ready to start a new church contacted us regarding church seating.  We actually had worked with him at his former church and had been privileged to provide him 550 worship chairs for that ministry.  Now he needed 450 chairs for his new church launch scheduled for February, 2012.  We were thrilled be contacted us because we already had an established relationship.  We went to work on his behalf.  And this past week he ordered those 450 chairs from Church Furniture Partner for $37.35 each delivered.

He wrote us the following words as he placed his order, “I cannot thank you enough for all you have done and continue to do through Church Furniture Partner. It is always a pleasure working with you!  Again, thanks for all your help in making this happen and I look forward to working with you more in the future.”  Those type of words are always valued by us.  And in other conversation with him, he shared how pleased he was with the price we had been able to provide his new work.

Out of curiosity we decided to check online pricing on this order from some of the church furnishing dealers we are most familiar with and who state they will be undersold and who also offer some sort of “low-price guarantee”.  We discovered one of the most prominent dealers had the same chair listed, the same options available, and also shipping costs calculated through an online system.  What was the result?  The identical chair we provided this pastor would have cost his new church $50.05 a chair from this dealer with the “low-price guarantee”!  That’s an overall savings of $6,210 our initial Church Furniture Partner quote provided versus the online price from this dealer with the “low-price guarantee”!

Here are a few thoughts:

• It is certainly likely that if our pastor friend had called this online dealer he might have received a better quote than their online pricing.  We don’t know that with certitude, but the very high cost of shipping the online calculator generated was more than twice our shipping costs.
• It is also possible the online dealer would have attempted to beat our price to our pastor friend.  Since we know how low our price was, we imagine they would not have enjoyed doing so.  However, since their profit margin is so significant if a church accepts their online price, they can certainly “afford” to do so.
• Our final thought though is that we question any dealer NOT providing the church their BEST price FIRST!  Proclaiming that one will not be “undersold” when one’s initial pricing has so much room to be lowered is a choice that we are not comfortable with at Church Furniture Partner.  We are committed to giving you our lowest price at the outset, not through negotiations.

Please know our purpose is not to criticize other church furniture dealers.  Rather it is to save your church money!  If your church needs to make any church furniture purchase, please put us to the test and see for yourself.  You can contact us here!  We’d love to help your church save money!

Related posts:

1. 2011 Price Increases in Store for Church Furnishings
2. Discount Church Furnishings versus CHEAP Church Furnishings
3. Church Furniture Mid-Year Price Increases?

I am the steward of EGIVE LLC which provides a turnkey, web based, electronic giving service for churches and not for profits throughout the United States of America.  Egive began in 2004 and has continuously changed since then.  When we first started I was opposed to giving using credit cards and we offered only an ACH (automated clearing house) otherwise known as eCheck form of giving from checking accounts.  I was opposed to credit card giving because I felt the cost was too high and that it would be poor stewardship for eGive to offer churches this option.  I was also concerned about the possibility that givers might incur credit card debt that could not be repaid and did not want eGive to be a source of financial difficulty for givers.

A few of the churches using the eGive system began to contact me about the possibility of accepting credit card giving.  They felt this decision on whether or not to offer credit card giving should be up to them and that their members should be able to give using any available method.  Some of the churches cited statistics that credit card giving would increase giving through the online channel and that the average gift by credit card was higher than by ACH.  People were accustomed to doing business over the Internet by credit card and had an aversion to providing their checking account number online.  The perception was that somehow credit card giving was safer than using their checking account to give online.  I disagree with this perception because the ACH network is more difficult to access than the credit card network  (the main reason is that credit cards are accepted by almost all online and store front businesses opening up far more ways to perpetrate fraud as well as networks where card information is sold to multiple purchasers).  Although the rules for how fraudulent credit card transactions and ACH transactions are slightly different they both protect the consumer and place the risk of loss on the financial institution originating the transactions or in some rare cases on the business accepting the funds.  If you are using credit cards or ACH you will generally receive refunds for transactions that you do not authorize.

Should Credit Cards Be Used For Giving

An important decision had to be made on whether or not eGive should accept credit cards for giving.  Like any other important decision I prayed for God to help me with this decision.  I believe that my prayers were answered clearly the very next morning by email.  An angry giver fired off an email to me the same evening that I prayed for God’s guidance on this decision.  The email basically said that this giver would NOT use eGive because we did not accept credit cards like everyone else.  I decided that eGive should begin offering giving by credit card in addition to ACH.  Egive does not push churches to accept credit cards for giving and if the church does not want to accept credit cards we hide that option so the giver does not know credit card giving is a possibility.  We intentionally designed the system so that eGive would not be a source of givers requesting the capability of giving by credit card.  We inform the churches of this capability and leave the decision up to them.

What is the Effect of Offering Credit Card Giving

During the past few years we have discovered that credit card giving is a must have for all not for profits other than churches.  Each church is unique but the credit card giving average per gift is higher than ACH giving.  The churches that accept credit cards generally receive over 50% of their gifts by credit card and most churches that added credit card giving to ACH giving more than doubled their electronic giving.  There have not been any organizations using the eGive system that have disputed the claim that credit card giving would pay for itself by increasing giving and we have not had any complaints by givers about credit card giving so my fears of people giving more than they could repay appear to be unfounded.  The complaint we receive the most often is because a church does not accept credit cards.  These complaints are forwarded to the church for consideration.

What to do?

Like I said, each church is unique and each situation is different.  I believe the decision of whether to accept credit cards for offerings is one that you and your leadership team should pray about and decide based upon the response you receive from the Holy Spirit.

Related posts:

1. Egive is Helping Churches Affected By Disasters
2. Why Churches Should Offer Electronic Giving
3. Automated Tithing for Your Church

Many churches have begun using Assistive Listening Systems for individuals like the gentleman in the paragraph above.  With these systems, only the audio of the program and the communicator are amplified so that background noise is removed and what is heard is quite understandable.   When people are using an assistive listening device, it does not matter where they sit in the room because there are no words that are missed.  They can hear and hear well, and fully participate in the service.

The Americans with Disabilities Act actually requires most public facilities to provide access to what it taking place to all customers, visitors, clients, etc.  There is some debate as to whether this applies to churches whether in part or in whole.  But we appreciate those churches that take the step to error on the side of caution an we wish to make these systems as available as possible.

Church Furniture Partner is now providing the complete line of Gentner Assistive Listening Systems.  Whether the 10-Pack 930-Dig-Ten or 10-Pack 930-DIG-610,  or the 4-Pack 930-402-001 or 4-Pack 930-402-006, or even the 5-Pack 930-DIG-6P5, we are prepared to offer these to your church at absolutely the lowest price in the country.  Please be sure and contact us for our special pricing for all churches!

Related posts:

1. Snap Drape Pipe and Drape Systems

This is the fourth part in a series of articles describing the different project delivery methods. The first part dealt with Design-Bid-Build. The second part dealt with selecting the architect, the third part dealt with Construction Management. This article will deal with the Design-Build Method.

Design Build
Although not as common as Design-Bid-Build in recent history, the Design-Build process actually harkens back to the “Master Builder” concept used to build the pyramids and great cathedrals. In this method the Owner contracts with a single entity, the Design-Builder, who orchestrates the whole design and building process which many times can reduce risk for the church. This is in contrast to contracting with at least two entities in Design-Bid-Build and at least three in Construction Management. The relationship between the parties is illustrated below. Probably the most attractive aspect with this method is the communication and collaboration between the contractor and architect thereby minimizing risk for the church.

Strengths
o Fewer change orders
o Collaboration between architect and contractor maximizes value
o Mitigates church’s financial and legal risk
o Best way to manage schedule. Fewer construction delays.
o Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP)

Weaknesses
o Lack of direct communication between Owner and architect or contractor.
o Potential for compromises in quality to meet budget.

In our experience, we have found that the costs saving and minimized risk imbedded in the Design-Build method makes this the best approach for most churches.

Related posts:

1. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? Part 3
2. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? (Part 1)
3. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? Part II

Over the years we have heard from churches many times what frustration they experience when nearing the end of a building project.  Inevitably funds are running low, yet they are now purchasing those church furnishing items that are going to be used on a regular basis (seating, tables, classroom items, etc.).  There is a desire to purchase quality church furniture, yet there are little or no funds to do so with.  With the churches of Joplin, this reality will only be multiplied.

One of our favorite realities that we love to communicate to churches is our desire is to help them furnish one quality level over what they would normally be able to do.  Our effort to operate our company with almost 0% overhead, the willingness of our people to work to serve the church with such small mark-up, and our purchasing power with prime manufacturers allows us to save churches money on almost all the furnishings they will need for their project.  While our motto of “Everything for your church but the people” could be a bit of an overstatement, it’s not by much.

Church Furniture Partner would love to provide similar savings for your church as well.  We’d love to hear from you!  Please contact us at any time.

Related posts:

1. SYCM to Help Joplin Churches Rebuild
2. Midwest Church Construction Comitted to Helping Joplin Churches Rebuild
3. Church Furniture Partner is Now Serving Churches!

James 4:14

“For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

Proverbs 13:22

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.”

Deuteronomy 25:4

“You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.”

Proverbs 10:22

“The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.”

Proverbs 14:29

“He who is impulsive exalts folly.”

Proverbs 1:5

“A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.”

Nehemiah 5:3

“There were also some who said, ‘We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.’”

Ecclesiastes 6:7

“All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not satisfied.”

Proverbs 22:7

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”

Proverbs 22:26–27

“Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, one of those who is surety for debts; if you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?”

Psalm 109:11

“Let the creditor seize all that he has, and let strangers plunder his labor.”

Proverbs 17:18

“It’s stupid to guarantee someone else’s loan.”

Proverbs 11:15

“He who is surety for a stranger will suffer, but one who hates being surety is secure.”

Proverbs 6:1–5

“My son, if you become surety for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, you are snared by the words of your mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth. So do this, my son, and deliver yourself; for you have come into the hand of your friend: Go and humble yourself; plead with your friend. Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird for the hand of the fowler.”

Ecclesiastes 5:5

“Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.”

Colossians 3:23

“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.”

Proverbs 23:4–5

“Do not overwork to be rich; because of your own understanding, cease! Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven.” Proverbs 3:27–28

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it.’ When you have it with you.”

Proverbs 22:1

“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.”

Related posts:

1. Scriptures on Money

Construction Management
In this method the church hires a Construction Manager (CM) to oversee the project and coordinate the interaction between the architect and contractor. There are variations to this method. Three of the most common are CM as advisor, CM as agent and CM at risk.
CM as advisor: Acts as advisor to the Owner; Architect and contractor maintain conventional roles.
CM as agent: Given the authority of the Owner; Allows Owner to step back from the project; Assumes financial authority.
CM at risk: Acts as project coordinator and general contractor (GC); Includes early cost commitment; CM assumes all liability as the contractor.
The diagram below illustrates the CM as adviser:

This method was devised to better deal with larger more complex projects which the average Owner may not be able to adequately oversee. This is more appropriate for complex projects like hospitals, schools and large manufacturing plants.

• Strengths
o Careful monitoring of cost and schedule
o Direct contractual relationships with church
o Potential to “fast track”
o Early cost estimating input
• Weaknesses
o Additional cost for CM
o May not provide a stipulated sum or guaranteed maximum price (GMP).
o More complex relationships
o Often the most costly method
o Church may assume more financial risk
o Multiple warranties
o Construction manager loyalty conflict
o Less direct communication between the church and the architect or contractor.

Even though this method is well known, a church needs to carefully consider all of the ramifications of utilizing this method. From first glance, many people would perceive this method to have the highest degree of transparency and cost accountability combined with low risk. While this is the intent of the method, it may in fact have the highest amount of complexity and cost for churches. A church should carefully compare the pluses and minuses of this method with other before making a decision to employ the “CM” method.

Related posts:

1. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? (Part 1)
2. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? Part II
3. Things To Consider in a Church Building Program

A lot of people are hesitant when walking into a space for the first time (especially a large church).  Often new visitors (which are also potential new members) can be affected by your church design whether you know it or not.  Maybe they can become confused easily because of lack of signage, or because of where they enter the building.  Maybe the new Main Entrance isn’t located anywhere near the Worship Center and although everyone who goes to that church obviously knows where to go, it may not be obvious to a newcomer.  Welcome/Ministry Centers with friendly faces should be prominently located and accessible as well, and information that can be taken in hand when they leave made readily available.  Nursery areas and children’s ministries should be readily accessible and visible when possible.  Overall layout, continuity, crowd flow, interior decor and even the wall color can affect how your space is viewed by a new visitor.  You want them to feel as comfortable as possible by making spaces and needs as readily available as possible.  The trick is to do all of this without overwhelming them!

If their first impression is being greeted at the door with a smile, followed by a well planned interior space that leads you to where you need to go (and may even have you stop for a warm cup of coffee on the way)… then the chances of them returning are seven fold.

Related posts:

1. Does your church need cosmetic surgery?

Matthew 6:24

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Proverbs 6:6–8

“Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest.”

Proverbs 21:20

“In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.”

Proverbs 21:5

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.”

Proverbs 13:11

“Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.”

Proverbs 22:6

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Luke 14:28–30

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?”

Proverbs 27:23

“Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds.”

Proverbs 16:3

“Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.”

Genesis 41:35–36

“And let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. Then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land may not perish during the famine.”

Proverbs 28:20

“A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.”

Psalm 62:10

“…if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.”

Proverbs 24:27

“Prepare your outside work, make it fit for yourself in the field; and afterward build your house.”

Psalm 20:4

“May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”

Isaiah 30:1

“‘Woe to the rebellious children,’ says the Lord, ‘Who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin.’”

Matthew 6:21

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

2 Thessalonians 3:10

“For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”

Proverbs 11:1

“Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.”

Psalm 37:21

“The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives.”

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These “in-between” surfaces will have different descriptions from various manufacturers.  One of our favorites is the Ghent Spectra Magnetic Markerboard.  The steel surface will not display the all-too-common “ghosting” that so often characterizes melamine surfaces.  Yet the price of these boards will be far less than those with a porcelain surface.  But even with the saving of dollars, these boards feature a 20 year guarantee.  We have found the Ghent Spectra to be a “best value” for churches today!

At Church Furniture Partner, we are often asked what level of whiteboard will allow a church to practice the best stewardship.  Our advice is always to consider this in-between level of markerboard.  You can realize the best of both factors with the Ghent Spectra.  With the dozens of sizes and options, we don’t have room to share pricing here.  Please contact us for pricing on any Ghent Spectra and be assured that our first price will be the lowest price in the country.

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1. Whiteboard Choices

This is the second part in a series of articles describing the different project delivery methods.  The first part dealt with “Design-Bid-Build”. This article will deal with selecting the architect for this method.

As mentioned, in the “Design-Bid-Build” method, selecting the architect will be one of the most important decisions the church will make. The architect becomes the church’s advocate during the whole process and can assist the church not only in the design of the building, but in the bidding, negotiation and construction phases for the duration of the project as well. It is his talent and expertise that will play a major role in the success or failure of a project. If this method is chosen for church facility design, the church should be looking for the right qualities in the architect. In this author’s opinion the following questions should be answered:
• How much church design experience does he have? Obviously the need for design talent goes without saying. You need to be careful here. The architect who claims to have designed three hundred churches may have actually designed six churches fifty times. This illustrates the importance of asking the right kinds of questions during the interview process. A talented architect with little church experience can get the job done by employing good listening and discovery skills. However there is no replacement for experience, for someone who has been through the “wars”. You don’t want to educate an architect on your time. It is also helpful if he is a believer with knowledge of the church’s particular distinctives.
• Does the architect know what affects and how to control construction costs? This knowledge and skill will be of little use however unless the church has done its homework and knows how much it can afford. Keep in mind that project costs include much more than construction costs. Besides the cost of the building, the church must factor in professional consultants fees, permit fees, utility fees, land acquisition and development costs, FFE (fixtures, furnishings, and equipment), AVL (audio, video, theatrical lighting), unforeseen conditions, et al. Your architect should be knowledgeable and skilled to help the church account for all of these as you “count the cost” for the project. After the church has settled on a realistic construction budget, the architect is able to begin his design work. The church needs to be transparent and forthcoming regarding the maximum dollar amount which cannot be exceeded. Once this has been established, the church should keep the architect accountable to the budget. Make budget accountability part of the architect’s contract! This may be difficult as many architects don’t have the knowledge of up-to-date construction costs as most contractors do. This author has met with numerous churches that have a set of completed blueprints that were never built, usually due to budget overruns. If the church was anticipating a million dollar project, this lost investment in architectural services can be anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 or more.
• Third: What is the architect’s “style”? Many architects can be categorized into one of three styles, “The Black Cape Architect” is the one who has created a “name” for himself and he will tell you what kind of church building you want. He may not listen well and may not be that concerned about budget. “The Secretary” is the one who only listens while offering very little counsel or advice. He only listens. “The Coach” is the kind of architect you want. He will ask intelligent questions designed to get the church to think about the best facility design for them. He listens and advises and will employ his talents to align with the church’s goals and dreams.
• Fourth, Fifth, Sixth etc. Space prohibits this author from going into detail about all of the qualities you are looking for in an architect. Suffice it to say that the church must also investigate other qualities. How adept the architect is at working with committees. What are his communication skills (graphic and verbal)? What is his “change order” record?” How well does he work with contractors? (The Design-Bid-Build delivery method has the potential to brew adversarial relationships between the architect and contractor.) How busy is he? Is his project load so heavy that he cannot service your church adequately?

Once the church has selected the architect, the architect will collaborate with the church to develop a design that will fulfill their needs and budget constraints. Detailed construction documents or CD’s (blueprints and specifications) are then developed which are used in the bidding process with the invited contractors. The quality of the CD’s is extremely important. Any errors or omissions in the documents may bring unforeseen costs via “change orders”. For example, the architect may mistakenly specify grade 2 door hardware, when the church specifically requested grade 1. This error comes to light and if the church wants to stay with grade 1, who pays for it? The contractor is beholden to the drawings, so it’s either the church or the architect. More often than not the church ends up paying for the change which could run into unforeseen thousands of dollars.

If a church decides to go with this method (Design-Bid-Build) , selection of the architect becomes one of the most important decisions the church will make.

Related posts:

1. Project Delivery Method: How are We Building? (Part 1)
2. Your Church Design & Construction Project Needs a Vision
3. Things To Consider in a Church Building Program

I recently spoke to a church who told me they couldn’t afford to hire anchored, or any other artist for that matter, because they were a small church and had to be good stewards with the money God has given them.  Ultimately, I understand if churches have not budgeted for line items like branding & marketing, but really, its a mistake.

Whether you’d like to admit it or not we live in a consumer driven culture:  the same culture you preach to, the same culture that is your congregation and most definitely the same culture you are trying to bring the Gospel to.   These people are accustomed to brands for the better or for the worse and this mean that your brand, your identity, your logo is what people will take away from their first visit to your website, or their first visit to your church, or the first time the pick up a support piece.

So as you cast vision as a church, as you define, and redefine who you are as a gospel centered church remember that the face of that will first be your branding.   From now on when folks tell me they can’t afford to hire a professional artist for their branding, I’m going to tell them the can’t afford not to.

If your church is interested in branding or re-branding themselves mention this post through Jan. 1 2012 and receive 25% off Branding Concept & Design.

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Joplin has always held fond memories for me.  When I was 14 years old, I visited Joplin for the first time with my church youth group.  We traveled down to a weekend rally at Ozark Christian College from First Christian Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  Our student ministry had a remarkable time and I was impacted greatly.  I remember thinking I would go to college there someday.  And over my remaining high school years I visited Joplin two or three more times for similar events.

As it turned out, I ended up attending Lincoln Christian College and Seminary in Lincoln, Illinois.  The choice between OCC and Lincoln was tough, but our youth minister at the time was a Lincoln graduate, and that proved the deciding factor.  But early in my years at Lincoln I met a graduate student named Ken Idleman, who would eventually become President of Ozark Christian College for several years.  During my seminary years I became friends with several “Joplinites” who continued their preparation for ministry at LCS after graduating from OCC.  Some of those friendships remain close today.

…There was always an affinity for me to Joplin…

When the monster tornado struck Joplin this past May I was riveted to the news for several days.  The destruction and devastation was unbelievable.  We had the opportunity to participate in several of the relief efforts that materialized over the following days.  But even as I did so, there was a sense that we might have the opportunity to do more.

A week ago I received a copy of the publication “Compass” from Ozark Christian College with the theme “Restoring Joplin”.  I read through those 27 pages with interest.  I especially noted the names of churches that had been totally destroyed.  I mentioned to a couple of others in our company that I wanted us to serve the churches of Joplin in some way but I was not sure what that was to be.

A few days later I received a call from Howard Brown at Southside Baptist Church of Joplin.  Southside was one of the churches that had been completely destroyed by the tornado.  Howard was looking for some assistance in a variety of areas with the rebuilding of the church.  During our conversation he told me there were about 15 churches that had been totally destroyed.  And I knew then I needed to move forward with what we would be willing to do to help those churches.

I am asking several of our partners at Save Your Church Money to assist me in this offer.  Each will have the opportunity to provide services or products in unique ways to help the rebuilding process.  For example, our church furnishings ally, Church Furniture Partner has already contacted some leading church manufacturers about special discounts for these churches.  Church Furniture Partner will forgo any and all profits themselves.  And efforts will be made to provide items for several churches in the same time-frame to increase quantity savings.  Our other partners will then have other methods to come alongside this effort.

We’re contacting each of the churches affected.  We realize they have already realized that God is faithful in the midst of the storm.  We desire to be an additional affirmation of that same truth.

Click here to visit our Joplin Churches page.

Related posts:

1. Midwest Church Construction Comitted to Helping Joplin Churches Rebuild

In the hours before dawn on Christmas morning 1996 our founder received a phone call from Faith Baptist Church in Adrian Michigan; a tragic fire had destroyed the church.  By the grace of God there were no injuries but the building was a total loss.  Midwest Church Design and Construction helped the leadership team see past the smoke and envision a new building and new ministries.  In record time the church was back on site and impacting the area for Christ all within the confines of the insurance settlement.  Midwest Church Design and Construction was there for Faith Baptist then and they are here for the churches in Joplin Missouri today.   

Related posts:

1. Your Church Design & Construction Project Needs a Vision
2. Egive is Helping Churches Affected By Disasters
3. Website Under Construction: tall tale or true story?

Our passion is serving churches throughout the United States and we would appreciate the opportunity to provide a free, no obligation proposal.  If your church is affected by a disaster please let us know.

Egive is easy to setup and use.  Most churches have eGive up and running within a few minutes and our turnkey solution takes care of everything but promoting eGive at your church.

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1. Automated Tithing for Your Church
2. Why Churches Should Offer Electronic Giving
3. Don’t let your offerings go on vacation!

Although there are a number of variations, most of the project delivery methods fall into one of four categories: 1) Design-Bid-Build, 2) Construction Management, 3) Design-Build, and 4) Bridging. In the information to follow, we will attempt to briefly define these delivery methods individually and help evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as they pertain to church facility development. It is important to remember that due to space; only a brief treatment can be given. It is our intention to highlight the major methods and their characteristics.

Design-Bid-Build
This method has been the most common and conventional method for project delivery during recent history. Its name summarizes the process. The church selects an architect to design the facility in accordance with the church’s needs and desires. The architect produces Construction Documents to use in bidding out the construction of the project. The church selects the lowest responsible bidder and the project is built in accordance with the architects drawings and oversight. The relationship between the parties is illustrated below. The red arrows signify contractual relationships with potential risk back to the church. The green arrows signify lines of communication between the parties.

It can be clearly seen that the church has two entities working for it, thus creating two contracts and two lines of risk. It is also evident that the designer (architect) and builder (general contractor) may not have adequate communication with each other until after the contract for construction is awarded., so the contractor has little or no input in the design.

• Strengths
o Functional Plan & pleasing aesthetics
o Familiarity due to widespread use
o Clearly defined roles assigned to each party
o Design is complete prior to construction
o Linear process
• Weaknesses
o Change orders (increased cost) more likely
o Delays more likely
o Lengthy process
o Restricts optimal communication
o Potential for adversarial relationships

According to statistics, approximately forty nine percent of churches who invest in architectural services using this method will start construction in five years or less. Of this, only thirty percent of those that do build will construct the original design. These statistics highlight the likelihood of delays and cost overruns that can be associated with this method. That is not to say that this method cannot be used very effectively. Many churches have had very good experiences with this method, but it is vitally important that a highly qualified and experienced church architect is retained. This author strongly advises against searching for “cheap” architectural services if you decide to employ this method.

As mentioned, in this process, the selection of the architect will be one of the most important decisions the church will make. Next time we will discuss what to look for in a church architect.

Related posts:

1. Your Church Design & Construction Project Needs a Vision
2. Things To Consider in a Church Building Program
3. A Church Furniture Partner Project

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Softphone : Your Headset

On a computer, a lot of what makes a softphone work is the microphone and speakers of the headset.  With this in consideration a good Plantronics or USB headset can be found very inexpensively.  The headset I chose is the Plantronics MX500i 3-in-1 Headset it can be purchased from Amazon for $35 (cheaper on Google Shopping).  Bottom line spend a little money up front on the USB adapter and headsets, it will work with a wide range of computers and can make or break your experience.

The main reason behind a two part headset is because headsets break.  No matter if you have a $400 Dect 6 headset or a $1 Dollar Store junkie at some point no matter how careful you are the headset will break.  By using a USB base and a 2.5m plugin headset if you break the headset you can replace it for $14 or less and have a great headset still.

Softphone : Your Computer (Processor & RAM)

The other side of the softphone that is critical to your experience is the computer itself. If your church is trying to work on a shoe string budget using computers from the 1990′s then be aware this option is not your best choice. If you have a computer with plenty of RAM and unused processor power then you should have no worries.  For example, I run a single core Pentium 4 on my laptop with no issue and also on a Quad core as well moving the adapter across as needed.

 Softphone : On Your Mobile

If you are going to use the Apple iPhone or Android version of the Bria softphone then you know what kind of processing power your cell has and the Bluetooth/USB headset you are used to.  Be aware that the price for the codec upgrade is worth the money in low bandwidth situations.  The technology behind it is licensed and worth the $ (Matthew 10:10)

There is little difference between the iPhone and Android versions, the main aspect is the increased bandwidth use and the every draining battery.  Make sure if you have a Task Killer you make an exception for Bria.   The app itself will register and unregister as you move from WiFi to 3G or 4G or vice versa so be sure you know where your coverage areas are.

Should you use a Softphone?  Grab one for free (like Xlite) for your PC or Android or grab one from Apple’s Appstore and give it a shot.  The impact on your availability and outreach in the ministry can be amazing.   If you missed the review on SaveYourChurchMoney.com of  Counter Path’s Bria then take a look at that for an option as well.

Related posts:

1. Softphone – Taking Your Church Phone with You
2. Review – Bria Softphone by Counterpath
3. Taking Church Furniture to Market: Part One – Manufacturer Direct

Address church health issues.
• Spiritual Health
• Financial Health
• Missional Health

Plan properly.
• Ministry Planning
• Financial Planning
• Site Master Planning (build for growth)

Address money issues.
• Teach stewardship on a regular basis
• Know how to use debt
• Know the difference between an “expense” and “investment”
• Go to the bank early
• Check the budget at every design phase

Protect the church leadership.
• Don’t leave the ministry of the Word and prayer to wait tables
• Delegate, delegate, delegate
• Maintain chain of command and proper communication

Prepare yourself as a client.
• Learn to read drawings and specifications
• Ask lots of questions
• Demand clear answers
• Stay fully involved

Choose the appropriate Project delivery method.
• Design-Bid-Build
• Construction Management
• Design Build
• Bridging

Build the right thing for the right reason for the right time.
• Poor Site/Poor Facilities (building alone won’t solve problem)
• Poor Site & Good Facilities (building won’t solve the problem)
• Good Site & Poor Facilities (building is needed)
• Good Site & Good Facilities (need a good reason to build)

Some of the most important spaces in a church facility.
• Parking
• Worship space
• Lobby space
• Nursery Space
• Women’s restrooms

Follow a logical design and decision making sequence.
• Site feasibility
• Programming (space needs analysis)
• Master Planning
• Schematic Design Phase
• Design Development
• Construction Documents Pay attention to the legal issues
• Read contracts carefully
• Hire an attorney early
• Don’t sue believers, use Christian arbitration
• Keep the architect accountable to the budget

Be a good neighbor.
• To the zoning department
• To the building department
• To the community

Hire church experience.
• Architect
• Contractor
• Consultants

Think before you “self perform” any work.
• Is there really a cost or time savings?
• What about warranties and sub par work?
• Don’t interfere with the G.C.’s “critical path”

Beware of changes/substitutions.
• Changes made early are cheap
• Changes made late are expensive

Know your property.
• Get a thorough survey (utilities, easements, accuracy)
• Know the zoning restrictions
• Consider a feasibility study prior to purchasing land

Don’t listen to the wrong people.
• Listen to experience
• Beware of “agendas”
• Get references

Know what your project really costs.
• Does it include site work?
• Does it include FFE (fixtures, furnishings, equipment)
• Does it include AVL (audio, video, lighting)
• Does it include all fees, permitting and utility costs?

About “cutting corners”.
“It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little.  When you pay too much, you lose a little money – that is all.  When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.  The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can’t be done.  If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run.  And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.” John Ruskin (1819-1900)

Related posts:

1. Your Church Design & Construction Project Needs a Vision
2. Keys to Successful Audio Video Lighting
3. When Purchasing Church Furniture, Consider Storage Costs

Bria Softphone Review

The Bria softphone offers a wide range of features and expandability for your communication needs.  The Bria interface is smooth and almost intuitive interaction with the features of the PBX and softphone.   The integrated contacts with Outlook and the ability to click to call made this an instant hit in our offices.

Remote users loved Bria as well, the iPhone and Android versions worked very well on both platforms.  Integration of contacts make it easy to control the calls and being able to call as if from the office from the mobile phone made contacting customers simple.  The ability to transfer on the phone allows you to manage calls just like being in the office. Depending on the carrier the 3G and 4G coverage was acceptable (it depended on signal quality/strength just as it did on carrier based calls) with SIP, on WiFi the quality of the calls are excellent.  The mobile Codec options

The only negative things to say about Bria revolve on some of the button placements during calls.  Well for most people this is not an issue it did take some getting used to.  The Android options for QoS worked with some success it really is dependent on the router.  The echo cancellation was on by default and almost required to function.  These drawbacks are minor compared the amazing flexibility you will have with Bria by Counterpath.

Bria Softphone Features

Standard IP PBX features

Hold
Transfer
Music on Hold
Call Waiting
Call Forwarding
etc.

Open Standards Based
Recording Calls
DND Call Management
Conference Calls
Contact Management
Click to Call (PC and Android Integration)

Bria Softphone Price

Free – Try Bria for free with X-Lite on your PC or Mac.
$49.95 – PC Mac and Linux Versions of Bria
$  7.99 – iPhone Version of Bria (+$8.99 for the smaller G729 Codec)
$14.99 – iPad Version of Bria
$  7.99 – Android Version of Bria (+$8.99 for the smaller G729 Codec)

Bria Softphone Links

Free – Try Bria with X-Lite!
PC Version Bria
MAC Version Bria
Android Version Bria
Bria for iPhone (from iTunes)

Related posts:

1. Softphone – Taking Your Church Phone with You
2. Review – Grandstream GXP1450 HD Enterprise IP Phone
3. Church VoIP: Save vs. Features

Electronic Drums
Pros:
1. Volume can be completely controlled by the person mixing.
2. Easier to transport and quicker to set up.
3. Sound of your set can be changed with the push of a button.

Cons:
1. Don’t feel exactly like an acoustic set when playing.
2. Most electronic sets look like something you would find in a UFO. (Notice I said MOST)
3. Some cheap or older electronic sets sound terrible.

Acoustic Drums:
Pros:
1. Drummers are typically used to and prefer the feel of playing on acoustic drums.
2. Acoustic drums make drummers look cooler. (Until you build them a house, keep reading)
3. A good acoustic drum set can sound incredible. (But cheap acoustic drum sets also sound terrible)

Cons:
1. You need to isolate the drums in order to have full control over the volume. (We’ll cover this in depth in a little bit)
2. Take more time and knowledge to set up and mic properly.
3. Can’t drastically change the sounds of your drums.

You’ll notice in the above lists that the pros and cons for acoustic and electronic drums are almost complete opposites of each other. Either choice you make someone is going to have to make sacrifices whether it is the drummer or the rest of the church. But both also have their own advantages.

In large mega churches that have large rooms and stages drum volume isn’t much of an issue. Just put some drum mics on a good acoustic set and you’re good to go. Smaller churches have many more problems regarding drum volume. The smaller the room the more important it is that you are able to control the volume of the drums. I have visited churches where the music was so loud it was uncomfortable. When I talked to the sound technician he stated that the acoustic drums were so loud, without even being miked, that he had to turn up everyone else in order to hear them. This is the point that churches usually start talking about getting a drum shield. Drum shields are one of the most commonly misunderstood and misused tools in the church today.

Most Common Drum Shield Misconception
False Misconception: A plexiglass panel placed in front of a drum set will significantly decrease the volume of the drum set for everyone in the congregation.
Reality Check: A plexiglass shield that only goes in front of the drum set only reflects sound, it doesn’t absorb it. Some of the sound bouncing off the shield is being bounced off the back wall and back out around and over the top of the shield. How much the volume level is decreased will greatly depend on the material behind the drummer and the ceiling height and material. Primarily only the people in the first few rows will hear much difference in volume. Bottom line, it probably won’t decrease the volume as much as you are hoping for or need if you have a smaller building.

In order to effectively lower the volume of acoustic drums you will need to isolate the drums with an isolation kit that not only reflects, but also absorbs sound. Effective drum isolation shields include sound absorption on the top, behind the drummer and around the bottom half of the front shield. Good kits like this start at a price of around $2,000.  Now that you have the drums isolated you will also need to make sure all of your drums are properly miked. A  7-piece drum mic set will cost you around $900 for a professional mic set. Lower quality sets can be had for as low as $350, but you get what you pay for. Also you need to purchase at least a few drum mic stands and you will need 7 XLR cables to hook it all up. At this point your drummer is essentially living in his own little house on stage. The downside of this is that it tends to get really hot in there. Also, you initially thought that acoustic drums looked better on stage, but now you can hardly see the drums behind all the plexiglass and foam.

The real price of  acoustic drums:
- Acoustic Drum Set $700 – $2,700
- Kick Pedal and Drum Throne $300
- Isolation Shield Kit $2,000
- Drum Microphones $900
- Cables and Stands $300
- 7 Channels on your mixer (If you have to upgrade to a larger mixer factor in this cost)
Total: $4,200 -  $6,200

The real price of electronic drums:
- Electronic Drum Set $500 – $7000
- Kick Pedal and Drum Throne $300
- 2 Radial ProD2 Stereo Direct Box $300 ($150/ea.)
- Cables: $200
Total: $1,300 – $7,800

As you can see, electronic drums have the potential to be much more cost effective for churches that would need to mic and isolate an acoustic set, which is most churches 300 and under. Even if someone in your church already owns an acoustic drum set there are many other costs to consider.

New electronic drum sets look, feel and sound better than ever.
Until recently electronic drum sets were a bunch of plastic shells and rubber cymbals. One company has recently changed that. Pearl, one of the most famous acoustic drum manufacturers has created their own electronic drum set called the Pearl E-Pro Live. What makes their kit unique is that the kit is a real Pearl acoustic drum set, except the heads of the drums are electronic and silent when hit. The cymbals are real metal, but make very little sound when you hit them. If you ever want to use the kit as an acoustic set simply replace the heads on the drums and replace the cymbals. Now you can have an electronic drum set that looks exactly like an acoustic drum set… because it is. On top of that many drummers claim the heads of the drums feel more natural than previous drum sets. How does it sound? Pretty good. I personally still prefer the sound of an good acoustic set with proper mics. But in many situations that’s not a good option.

My friend Doug Gould of Worship MD who travels the country teaching classes at worship conferences recently played a trick on church that said they didn’t want electronic drums.  He set up the Pearl E-Pro Live kit and then set up a few dummy drum mics on the kit to make the pastors think he was miking an acoustic set. He had the drummer play along and not say anything. Doug had the drummer play for a while for the pastors and then asked them what they thought. They loved the sound. They were amazed that he was getting such great sound and only using a few mics. He then revealed to them that the mics weren’t plugged in and they were in fact listening to a digital drum set.

It’s not a perfect solution, but I have found it to be one of the best compromises of look, sound, feel and price while giving complete control of the volume to the sound guy. It’s worth checking out at least.

What type of churches should consider an acoustic drum set?
- If your church is big enough that acoustic drums aren’t too loud then by all means use acoustic drums and just mic them as needed. Lucky!
- If your church is a permanent facility and if you have enough money to properly isolate and mic your drum set, provide silent ventilation to the drummer, and have enough room on stage for the isolation booth acoustic drums may be an option for you. Don’t start heading this direction unless you are willing to commit. Changing course can be expensive.
- Churches that have a drummer that is talented and good at controlling dynamics by playing louder or softer himself and utilizing different types of sticks and brushes.

What type of churches should consider an electronic drum set?
- Portable churches that want quick and easy set-up and tear down and need to transport their equipment.
- Smaller churches that need to control drum volume, but don’t want to spend a fortune or give the drummer his own house on stage.
- Churches with drummers that aren’t good at playing at lower volume levels.
- Churches that need to save money!

Last of all. If you are a pastor reading this, please don’t buy an electronic set and tell your drummer he’s playing it next Sunday. Be sure your drummer/s are part of the discussion. Everyone needs to be willing to do what is in the best interest of the congregation financially and sound wise. If you decide to get an electronic set be sure to have your drummer take it home an practice on it for a month or so before ever having him play for a Sunday service. Let him learn the functions and get used the the feel until he knows it inside and out.

I’ve given you a lot of information to digest. There isn’t any one size fits all solution for every church. Consider speaking with a professional to evaluate your own church’s needs and goals to make an informed decision. I would be more than happy to help you weed through the options and come to your own decision. Contact us at Housetop Media and ask for Derrick. Not only will we help you decide the best choice for your church, but we’ll also get you the best prices on the equipment you choose.

Related posts:

1. Why Churches Should Offer Electronic Giving

Prayer – It is the foundation of every successful capital campaign I have ever witnessed or been a part of.  Timing, team members, development, design, message content; every detail of the campaign should be bathed in prayer.

Calendar – Successful capital campaigns begin with the end date in mind and then work backwards.  Essentially everything on the above prayer list should also have a date and a place on your campaign calendar.

Enlistment – Who is going to do all this stuff?  Many hands make light work but smaller teams are easier to manage.  This is just one of the many things you are going to want to commit to prayer.   Whether you are relying on volunteers, staff members or a combination of both be sure to allow enough time for them to clear their plates to make room for the added challenges of a campaign.

Leadership – Successful campaigns don’t just happen, they are skillfully led.  If you don’t have a great deal of experience leading capital campaigns or if the campaigns you have lead have not been as successful as you would have liked give prayerful consideration to hiring a coach or consultant to guide you through the process.

Accountability – The road to a failed capital campaign is paved with good intentions.  Because every item on your campaign calendar is time sensitive (hey, that’s why it’s on a calendar).  Every campaign component needs to be broken down into individual tasks.  Each task needs to be assigned a start date and a completion date.  The completion of each individual task needs to be confirmed while there is still time to do something about it.

Repetition – It is the one thing I can promise you during a campaign.  From asking people what would prevent them
from making the largest financial commitment that they have ever made in their life to articulating how this campaign is going to fuel ministry, you will be saying many of the same things over and over again.  Keep this in mind; when you are absolutely certain that you will be sick to your stomach if you repeat the same words just one more time about two-thirds of the congregation will be just starting to get the message.

Sacrifice – It gets a bad wrap in our culture but it’s important to talk about.  Define it, talk about what it looks like, about what it does, how God uses and multiplies our sacrifice for his Kingdom.  Generosity is good, but it is only through sacrificial giving, giving at a level that impacts our life that we can really impact others.

Invitation – Successful capital campaigns are an ongoing invitation process.  There are the earliest conversations inviting leaders to pray about making ministry changing gifts that God has enabled them to make.  There is the invitation to the congregation to respond on Commitment Sunday.  There are the ongoing invitations to those who are new to the church or who for whatever reason were unable or unwilling to respond at the time of the campaign.  Campaign success requires leaders to keep an invitation at the ready.

Expectations – While there is no way to know the outcome of the campaign until you complete it there are some things that you can expect with near absolute certainty and those expectations should be great.  Of course you can expect hard work and endless repetition, but you can expect so much more.  Implemented correctly you expect to fund projects and fuel ministry.  You can expect to see hearts altered and lives changed.  You can expect to see the congregation unite with laser-like intensity, you can expect to see God honored like never before and you can expect to see God do powerful things in your midst.

Not bad for ten little words.

Alan Morrison is a capital campaign coach and can be reached at morrisona@midwestchrurch.com.

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With her enthusiasm for this table so evident, I began to search for it as an item we could offer churches from Church Furniture Partner.  It did not take me long!  I quickly learned how Glenn Holland, a former pastor, had invented the “Toddler Table” for his own church.  He saw a need in his own church nursery and came up with a solution in his own garage.  Over time he assisted other churches and eventually started his own company, aptly named Toddler Tables.  I contacted Glenn and soon after, Church Furniture Partner began offering these tables to the church community across the country.

The basic version of this table comes in several sizes, but we have found the four-seater, the six-seater, and the eight-seater to be most popular with churches.  Churches have a choice of six different table top finishes and three different colors for the integrated poly seats.  Tables are generally produced within just a few days from the time of order.  They ship throughout the country from North Carolina.

We have become an advocate and endorser of the Toddler Table here at Church Furniture Partner.  We believe your Church Nursery Volunteers will as well!

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2. Lightweight Folding Tables – An Overview
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What is a softphone?  Wikipedia defines…

“A softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated hardware. Often a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone, sometimes appearing as an image of a phone, with a display panel and buttons with which the user can interact. A softphone is usually used with a headset connected to the sound card of the PC, or with a USB phone.”

Just think of it as an ip-phone that runs on your computer, iphone, ipad, blackberry or Android device.   You can replace or extend your phone from  your church desk to your mobile world.  You control your calls and functions transfer, hold and conference from anywhere you have an internet connection.  A Softphone allows you to have extreme flexibility with who you contact and who contacts you.

Softphone features:

• Available on multiple platforms:
• Windows
• Linux
• Android
• iOS
• iphone
• ipad
• ipod touch
• Blackberry
• Extends Phone Features
• Hold
• Transfer
• Conference
• Caller ID
• Integrates Contacts
• Multiple accounts
• Inbound and outbound calls

Church Softphone Price:

Softphone’s prices for churches range from FREE to $75 depending on the many programs out there.  Wire Speed Telecommunication’s VoIP and IP PBX service can be used with many of the soft phones out there.  Although free ones work and can provide a basic service, our favorite is Bria by Counterpath  we will do a  review of their softphone in the coming week.

Related posts:

1. Review – Grandstream GXP1450 HD Enterprise IP Phone
2. Church VoIP: Save vs. Features
3. Taking Church Furniture to Market: Part One – Manufacturer Direct

Over the years, Church Plant Media has had the opportunity to build websites for hundreds of churches, spanning 5 continents and 20 time zones. So we know church websites and we understand human behavior. Some pastors have good intentions when they are planning out their content, but not a whole lot of time. Every once in a while we will see a pastor post “Under Construction” on a page, with the hope that one day they will get back to it. Although his intentions might be good, something isn’t always better than nothing.

We would actually suggest that it is far better to say nothing at all, then to say something that is not entirely true. Even if their is a good intention to build the content some day, we believe it is better to have only 2 pages of complete content, then to say “Under Construction” on 10 pages. Posting those two words may seem harmless, but they represent a promise. Not fulfilling a promise, no matter how small, opens the door for disrespect. James, the half-brother of Jesus made this clear…

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. (James 5:12)

To say this differently, a pastor would never step into the pulpit Sunday after Sunday and only say “this sermon is still under construction” and then sit down. If he did, he would not have his job for long. In the same way, it is never a good idea to write the promise “Under Construction” anywhere on the church website. View your site as an online pulpit and then write your content accordingly.

A good habit to get into is always to under-promise and over-deliver. You don’t need to tell the world what your plans are until you are sure they will be fulfilled in a short amount of time. Whether you are building your website online or planning for a future building project in your neighborhood, only say “Under Construction” if you plan to follow through.

We think the only promise you should actively share on your church website is the promise of the gospel. At Church Plant Media we love the gospel. It is one of the reasons why we have a Gospel Agreement that all of our partner churches are required to sign. It’s the best way we know how to ensure that everyone on our system loves the gospel as much as we do.

Related posts:

1. 3 ways a CMS website provider can save your church money
2. Podcasting: The Best Reason to Build a Church Website
3. Your Church Design & Construction Project Needs a Vision

The following week we dropped off several sample chairs from our favorite manufacturers representing different price and quality levels.  Most of the church staff was gone when we were there, so we simply left the chairs with no pricing on them.  Over the coming few days, dozens of people tried out the different chairs.  They had no preconceived notions or ideas as to which chair was most expensive, who manufactured each chair, or even where each chair was made.  All they had was ability to look over the chair and sit on them.

The results were amazing!  The Apex Metal Church Chair from Uniflex and Chairs4Worship was chosen by almost everyone of those asked to share their opinion and top choice.  This domestically produced chair offers spectacular comfort, a very attractive appearance, and a unique uni-body construction.  Please understand this chair is certainly not the least expensive.  But for those churches desiring to consider a first-class church chair with a lifetime warranty, not strongly considering the Apex would be a mistake.

We should also mention that Uniflex and Chairs4Worship also the manufactures the Meridian Wood Church Chair, which is our #1 recommendation for churches wanting a wood frame church chair.  But more on that in our next article!  For now, please be sure and contact us first for more information and the lowest pricing on these quality church chairs.  Our ability to serve you best is assisted by being your first contact.

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3. Church Sound Booth Chairs that Last!

A common characteristic of growing churches is that they exhibit a laser like focus on communicating a consistent vision for their ministry in many different creative ways.  Everything a church creates says something about its culture, purpose and vision.  Thoughtful planning can make everything work together to reinforce a church’s message over and over again from its graphics to its advertising on the radio or in the newspaper.  Even the design of the building and the programs a church offers can present a unified, clear picture of its ministry rather than a disjointed or incoherent message.

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To unpack this for you, we wanted to share a few comments from some of the churches that we serve.  We like what Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” So don’t just take our word for it, continue reading to hear what other churches have to say.

Tools

With the proper tool, the task can become easy.  But without the proper tool, a task can become very hard.  Many pastors hire someone to update their website because they do not have the proper tools or knowledge for the task.  But with our CMS, anyone can easily update the content, with no need to pay someone else to do it. Matt Morgan of Escalate Church, shared the following about our CMS…

You guys are awesome! I never would have imagined that a CMS could be so user-friendly and that I could have so much control and still produce a web-site that looks so clean and professional. You all have provided our church with an incredibly valuable resource and tool – one that will certainly show others that we take doing the work of ministry seriously and strive to do it with excellence. But we couldn’t have done it on our own. Thanks for making such a great tool available to those involved in the work of ministry!

Service

Finding reliable help is never easy.  Just because your nephew says he can build you a website doesn’t mean he’ll be there in a few weeks or months when you need updates. So even if he is giving you a website for free, you’ll end up losing time and money by trying to track him down when you need him the most.  Here is what Scott Towner of Gateway Fellowship, had to say about our team…

I knew that God led our church to contact Church Plant Media to build our website, but I had no idea how blessed we would be through the entire process. I confess that I initially cringed at the cost of this project, but now that our site is up and running I’m inclined to think that CPM broke even or took a loss. I’ve never worked with a business where I received so much personal attention from a multitude of staff members who were not only professional & hardworking but open about their faith and love of Christ! I don’t feel that I “hired” CPM at all, but more like they are a servant-team who answered every question and addressed every need I brought to them. If you’re waffling about whether to sign on with CPM let this testimony encourage you to go ahead and make the call!

Ministry

Building a church website needs to be all about the gospel.  You build it because you want to spread the good news. But it’s always hard to know who to trust.  Are they just great designers, or do they love the gospel as much as you do?  To put fears to rest, we published a Gospel Agreement that we require all of our partners to sign. Brad Evangelista of CrossPointe Church, had this to say…

Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to each of you for all your work in the revamping of our website. We are thoroughly pleased with it and are getting lots and lots of positive feedback and are finding it to be a great enhancement to our ministry. But beyond that, you guys are all just a real pleasure to deal with. You are the unusual mix of being professional but you also feel like friends. Every interaction is helpful and positive. I never feel like the ignorant guy talking to the technical expert when I interact with you all. I feel like I’m talking to a partner in ministry whose expertise just happens to be websites but whose passion is the Kingdom. I’ve never met any of you in person, but yet I feel like you are really on our team. All that to say, you guys are doing a great job blessing churches and helping them advance the Gospel.

So if you need a new website and you want a partner in ministry, then give us a call.  We are here to help.  Feel free to call our Partnership Coordinator, Kevin Fitzgibbon, at (800) 409-6631 ext. 1, and tell him that you want to start saving money!

Related posts:

1. Podcasting: The Best Reason to Build a Church Website

Electronic Tithing (Virtual Tithing) makes it easy for people to give and increases the church’s giving.  Are you missing an opportunity?

If you do not offer the option of online tithing then (in most cases) you are missing an opportunity to increase giving to the church.  There are a growing number of people that attend your church services that do not carry cash or their checkbook (if they even have a checkbook).  These people will most likely support the church financially if the church makes it easy for them to give.  By offering the option of giving electronically online you will increase giving to your church if you promote it and the leadership of the church uses the electronic giving system.

Electronic Giving is Affordable

The cost of the eGive turnkey electronic giving service for churches is $29 per month plus 20 cents per gift for ACH (Automated Clearing House) otherwise known as eCheck giving.  In the interest of full disclosure if an ACH payment is returned there is an $8 fee but those are rare and happen less than one half of one percent of the time.  Accepting credit cards costs a little more but will typically more than double your electronic giving and the increase in giving far outweighs the cost.  As you can see offering electronic giving is very affordable.  We suggest you test it out by trying the ACH giving piece and after you have been successfull prayerfully consider if offering giving by credit and debit card is right for your church.  There is never any cost to the giver.

Electronic Giving is Quick and Easy to Setup

The eGive turnkey electronic giving system can be setup by the church in the time it takes to put the eGive button on your web site.  We give you the code and the button and you upload it and you are ready to accept gifts online.  Most churches accomplish this in less than fifteen minutes.  Electronic giving is quick and easy to setup.

Security is Handled By Us

Security is handled by eGive.  All the church has to do is promote online giving.  Skits, flyers, emails, newsletters, announcements, snail mail and many other creative methods are used by churches to promote their electronic giving.

Online giving makes good stewardship easy for the givers and the church.

There is no better time to launch online giving than right now!

Related posts:

1. Why Churches Should Offer Electronic Giving
2. Don’t let your offerings go on vacation!

This past week we learned that Jonti-Craft will feature both or their lines of children’s activity tables (Rainbow Accent and Ridgeline) this coming fall.  These tables are always a great value and during this special sale, they become an outstanding value!  They come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors.  Their quality and warranty is superb!  And their lead times are quite short!  Now would be the time for your church to be determining what tables to purchase during this great opportunity.

In addition, Jonti-Craft’s line of Berries Chairs will also be featured this fall.  These chairs come in a wide variety of colors that perfectly match Jonti-Craft’s activity tables in the paragraph above.  They also are available in either chrome legs or painted matching legs.  At Church Furniture Partner, we have provided these chairs to the children’s ministries of many churches and have never seen a disappointed customer or even one substandard chair.

We’ll announce the exact dates of this sale in this space as soon as we have them.  For now, we would encourage a careful assessment of the needs of your children’s ministry environments and then taking whatever steps that assessment demonstrates in order to be ready to save your church money!  And then watch for our special sale announcement over the coming weeks!

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2. Jonti-Craft Table and Chair Sale at SYCM
3. March Jonti-Craft Storage Sale!

The Grandstream GXP1450 is a solid two line phone that provides good business line functionality at a low total cost of ownership (priced from $60 and higher).  The audio quality is good and even the timbre and clear inflection of the callers voice can be easily determined.  The two lines allow for handling of multiple calls on a single device.  The dual Ethernet (PoE) ports provide an simple single wire drop that can be shared with a computer or other network device.   The Power over Ethernet (PoE) allows for easy single drop application of wall or desk mount with the provided stand.

GXP1450 Features:

Full-duplex speakerphone with advanced acoustic echo cancellation
180×60 pixel back-lit graphical LCD display
2 Dual-Color line keys
3 soft keys (context-sensitive)
3 way conference by device
Device phone book (2000 contacts)
Device call log (2000 entries)
Dual 10/100 PoE Ports

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The sanctuary of the church I grew up in had two pieces of furniture at the front of the platform that speakers used.  On the right (from the congregation’s view) was the “church pulpit”.  The primary user of this piece of furniture was the preacher.  He would share the sermon from the pulpit and he also used it at other times such as sharing announcements.  However, over on the left was a smaller piece of furniture referred to as a “lectern”.  Others who participated in the worship service would use this location when reading Scripture, sharing a special in song, etc.  While there are a lot of various historic factors and theories regarding the origin of this delineation, in today’s culture, the distinction between a pulpit and a lectern is basically similar to what I recall growing up.

Eric Krise of Woerner Furniture, a storied manufacturer of church furniture, shares, “The most significant difference between a pulpit and a lectern is size.  A pulpit is usually wider and often more ornate than a lectern. In fact, a few of our models of pulpits are essentially one of our models of lectern with ‘wings’ attached to either side of the lectern, which makes it more substantial.”   A quick look at the Woerner Model 3350 Pulpit and then the Woerner Model 3300 Lectern will allow you to immediately spot the distinction Eric refers to.

While sometimes being able to distinguish between a pulpit and a lectern will not be as clear as these examples, most of the time I believe you’ll accurately use the correct term.  If not, just speak confidently because those around you will be no more sure than you are!

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• Faith-Based Rugs are a great and easy way to add brightness and color to your Children’s Ministry environments.  This a classic case of “before and after”.   Take a picture of a room before the new rug is in place and then take one after.  The mood and feel of the room changes dramatically for the better!

• Faith-Based Rugs are very affordable compared to installing permanent carpeting.  When you compare the cost of installing new carpet in a classroom to simply placing one of these colorful rugs in the same room, you will immediately realize what a cost-effective solution faith-based rugs are!

• Faith-Based Rugs provide a flexibility to change room uses when needed based on size and enrollment.  Most often churches have rooms of various sizes in their children’s areas.  At times there is a need to trade rooms because one class may have a larger number of students.  Being able to move a substantial part of the decor easily can be a significant advantage!

• Faith-Based Rugs can protect floors underneath them, especially in rented facilities.  Many “portable” churches need to take special care to protect the facilities they are using on the weekend.  Faith-based rugs provide a similar portable protection!

• And most importantly, Faith-Based Rugs teach Biblical principles.  Browse through the various offerings from Joy Carpets and Carpets for Kids and you cannot help but see the potential for assistance in teaching Biblical principles for your Children’s Ministry volunteers.  Faith-based rugs are simply a great tool!

Church Furniture Partner is pleased to be a provider of both major lines of Faith-Based Rugs.  We’d love to assist you in choosing the perfect rug at the lowest price for your church!

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1. Faith-Based Area Rugs
2. Carpets for Kids Faith-Based Line
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Most pastors are not wired for accounting…

They are wired for building relationships, teaching God’s Word, and casting vision!

What would happen at your church if you were able to take the time you spend on bookkeeping each week and spend it working toward your church’s vision and mission?

I served as a youth pastor for eight years and then as an executive pastor at a church I helped plant in Baltimore.  Planting and growing a church is a huge undertaking, and finances are an important part.  As a youth pastor, I was responsible for creating a budget, but it wasn’t my strength, and keeping track of it was tedious.

My wife Theresa is a CPA, and she considered handling our books, but what she really wanted to do was disciple women.  She simply did not have time to do both.

We wanted to effectively use the passions and resources God had given us to reach our community.  So we decided to hire Dime, an accounting firm that specializes in churches, to take over the management of our church finances.  Our time spent on church bookkeeping quickly shifted from 8-to-10 hours per week to five minutes per week.  And we saved money!

How did spending money on “outsourced church accounting” save our church money?

Getting out from under the time requirement involved with accounting freed us to spend a lot more time on the ministry we loved doing instead sitting in front of a computer looking at spreadsheets or worrying if the year-end tax receipts were accurate.  As a result, our church grew!  And as our church grew, we were able to teach more people about generosity, which gave us more financial resources to use in reaching our community for Christ and helping our people grow in faith.

The idea behind the church is to disciple people—to see people love Jesus more and be more like Jesus in daily life. Because we were able to get church accounting off of our plate, we could fulfill our purpose much more efficiently and effectively.  We were freed from thinking about church finances, and we could focus on exactly what God had called us to do.

Related posts:

1. Church Outsourcing? It’s Not Just for Businesses.

A few years ago a major development took place when the imported Hercules Brand of worship chairs began hitting the American market through Bizchair.  And since that time, other dealers have begun to carry the Hercules line-up as the importer broadened their distribution system.  We at Church Furniture Partner are within that system.

We’re often asked for our overall assessment of the Hercules Worship Chair by churches since we carry Hercules along with several other worship seating lines.  While the following list of pros and cons is not intended to be exhaustive, it does highlight our primary experience.  We encourage you to consider each of the issues raised below.

• Price:  The value-level Hercules Worship Chair is generally a few dollars less than the value-level chair models available from other manufacturers.  So we give the advantage on price to the Hercules Chair.

• Assembly:  The Hercules Worship Chair requires some assembly of the chairs by the church.  Basically the backs of the chairs have to be attached to the seats of the chairs through a series of screws.  One of our staff has visited the distribution warehouse where the Hercules Worship Chair ships from and there first-hand observed a great amount of skids of Hercules Seats and Hercules Backs.  Church Furniture Partner awards the advantage on assembly where no assembly is required so Hercules does not win this one.

• Shipping Costs:  Because the Hercules Worship Chair is not fully assembled, it can ship more compactly thus lowering shipping costs to a degree.  Overall we give the advantage on shipping costs to Hercules.

• Warranty:  Most church chair manufacturers offer a 25 year to lifetime warranty on the structural (frame) elements of their worship chairs.  Hercules does this as well.  However, separate warranties are in place for the foam in each chair and the fabric for each chair.  Our own experience is that the warranties in these areas are much longer from most manufacturers than on the Hercules Chair.  We give the advantage on warranty to other manufacturers.

• Comfort:  The Hercules Worship Chair is 18.5″ wide.  Most worship chair manufacturers offer a 20″ wide chair as their entry-level chair.  20″ is considered the standard width for reasonable worship chair comfort.  We give the advantage on comfort to other manufacturers.

• Ganging:  Worship Chairs need to connect together and the term for that function is “ganging”.  Ganging is a standard feature on almost all worship chairs including the Hercules Chair.  However, we find the ganging device on other manufacturers to be superior and more substantive than the one on the Hercules Chair.  We give the advantage here to other manufacturers.

Church Furniture Partner can supply your church with numerous models of chairs from various manufacturers including Hercules.  If price is your prime consideration, then the Hercules Church Chair is hard to beat.  If other factors carry equal weight to price, then considering other chair options is a reasonable course of action for your church.  Please know though that Church Furniture Partner will provide you the lowest price on each, including Hercules Chairs.

We are ready to help you find the right chair for your church at a price you can afford.

Related posts:

1. Good, Fast or Cheap?
2. Will Buying Church Chairs Increase Worship Seating Capacity?
3. Flex Back Chairs – Pros and Cons

Well the same thing can be true of Interior Facelifts for your Church.  They can be done well, or done poorly, and a lot of the time it comes down to the simple things…like paint.  The biggest request I get from Churches, friends, and family is to help them select paints. Sometimes this is a daunting task for people.  And it is a serious decision.

Most people say “The good thing about paint is that…you can always paint over it”.  Well of course this is true, but you do always want to try and get it right the first time (especially if you are paying someone to do it for you!). I believe that paint colors and even paint finishes can make or break a Church space. (And I will let you in on a little secret….the men and women at the paint counter at your local home improvement store don’t always know what they are talking about).

Painting your Church, whether for the first time or for the 20th time is a bigger deal than some people make it out to be. Yes, off-white is nice, but sometimes a punch of color, a mural, an accent wall, or just something warmer can drastically change the way a space is perceived, the way it makes you feel when you walk into it, and can even effect your mood.

When it comes to churches, they often fall into a “safe” category when it comes to paint.  They are too uncomfortable to step out of their safety boundary and try something new.  They stick to pastels in the nursery areas, off-white in the hallways and maybe still even have that mint green from 1960′s in their offices.  Today, there are so many different colors and types of paint that is can become very overwhelming very quickly.  Paint is amazing in the fact that many different looks, textures, and even multiple-uses can be achieved.  Paint is the biggest and most cost effective way to give your church a facelift.  It only takes some volunteers, multiple rollers and a few gallons of paint.

BUT…before you take that step make sure that you are making the most impact for your money.  It always looks good to have a fresh coat of paint…even if it is the same color that use to be there.  But if you are going to go through the trouble of painting that hallway, classroom, or even the Worship Center again…don’t you want to make sure it is something that will get noticed?  Something that when people walk in and say “Wow!  This looks amazing! What a difference!”

This is where hiring a church interiors professional can really be worth its weight in gold.  It brings in a fresh set of eyes.  It allows someone who is not tied to the space to come in, see where improvements, color accents and changes can be made.  These changes can not only enhance the space but create church environments that can be inviting, fresh and up-to-date.  New paint can also help in creating a cohesive look throughout a church that has been added onto on numerous occasions or can unify a space that has recently been changed.

Let me know if I can assist you in making your space as inviting and warm as possible.

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Every church should move to widescreen.

How and when they get there could take some time depending on their current set-up, budget, and long term goals.  It is a good idea to talk to a Church AV Consultant before making major purchases toward the video system.  The correct answers will come from reviewing each individual situation and answering some key variables.

What are the sources?

Are your sources 4:3 or 16:9?  If the computer is one or the other it can typically output either depending on the software used.  Most updated software programs have an option for outputting multiple formats.  If using a camera system the issue can become a little more tricky.  Even if the church is already is using a  4:3 camera system I still lead them to widescreen.  The reason being that when a camera update is done, the new camera resolution will be widescreen.  Keep in mind that when implementing the current 4:3 camera system onto widescreens, there will be black or gray bars on each side of the image.  Much like you would see on a non-High Def (HD) version of the local news or on Standard Definition (SD) ESPN.

What are the long term video objectives?

Make sure that whatever upgrades you do integrate with the long term video objectives of your church.  Signal type used, cable used, HD, vs. SD etc.  You want to make sure that the upgrades you purchase today will integrate with the changes that will come later.

How important are first impressions?

First impressions are everything.  This is true in the church world just like any place else.  People coming into your church for the first time will notice certain things.  Does the worship seating look nice and is it comfortable?  Is the carpet and decor trendy and up to date?  And quite possibly for some, is the church audio, video, and lighting done well?  If people cannot hear or see well or perceive old technology (4:3) being used in your church it might give them a negative first impression.

There are a few good widescreen projector options available that serve the church market nicely with performance and price.  I recommend looking at the following options that typically are well suited for the midsized worship space.

• Barco RLM W6 (HD)
• Digital Projection E-Vision WXGA 600 (SD)
• Panasonic PT-DW6300 (SD)

As tight as church budgets are today, the prospect of changing over to widescreen can take some time.  The important thing is to have a good plan in place to make sure that ministry dollars are spent wisely.

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That vision however should define your Church ministry, not your Church facility.  While there is nothing wrong with being inspired by another building that they have seen, your leadership team should be telling your architect what your ministry will look like, not what the Church building should look like.  Instead, they should be concentrating on communicating a vision of the ministries to which God is calling your Church.

Vision sets the performance objectives that the space must meet.   Your architect needs to understand that vision.  One goal you should share with your architect is to accommodate your present and future facility needs with the least amount of square footage possible.  Only by thoroughly understanding your vision can your architect design a dynamic ministry space while minimizing the square footage needed to meet your needs.  Architects that specialize in church design are adept at identifying the unique needs of each ministry while recognizing the financial realities that apply to most churches.   It is your vision that will determine the square footage and/or land needed to meet those needs and as such ultimately influence the cost.

Vision will also determine which spaces come first.  Few churches have the resources to build enough space to accommodate all of their ministry needs at one time.  Few churches have the luxury of avoiding the painful process of determining which spaces get built today and which spaces may need to be deferred until God enables the next phase of construction.  It is your vision that will establish this hierarchy of space.  It is the common acceptance of this vision that sustains unity among the leadership as difficult decisions are made.  Understanding your vision enables your architect to offer input on alternative ways to meet the ministry needs of those deferred spaces in the interim.

Finally, vision has a significant impact on the financial support of the congregation.  People don’t give to buildings, they give to vision.  Blue prints don’t inspire people to give sacrificially.  It is the fulfillment of a vision that those prints represent that cause people to give with radical generosity.

How important is vision?  The Bible says that where there is no vision God’s people perish.  God has laid a vision for ministry on your heart.  Whether your next construction process is at hand or in the distant future, the time to start articulating that vision is now.   After all, your building is a tool intended to be used by God to bring the vision that He himself laid on your heart to reality.

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There are two different methods that can be used for monitoring:

1. Monitor speakers or “wedge” monitors are speakers that are designed to sit on the floor in front of the singer or musician and are angled up towards the person.
2. In-Ear monitors are specially designed headphones that block out ambient noise on stage and provide a volume adjustable mix directly to each individual.

The problem with Churches using monitor speakers are various.  For portable churches they add significant bulk and weight to their equipment.  But the biggest problems they create is stage noise and feedback.  Listen to some music from a speaker from across the room.  Now turn the speaker around and listen to the same music.  Notice how it doesn’t sound as clear and has more of a muffled sound?

The same thing happens for the congregation because of monitor speakers.  Some of the sound coming from the monitor speakers bounces back towards the congregation.  In many churches I find that so much sound is coming from the monitors that the main speakers that are actually facing the congregation are hardly being used.  Because of this the sound for the congregation is often muddy and lacking clarity.  Feedback is the other issue.  Church microphones pick up feedback by being placed near speakers.  Monitor speakers are the most common culprit of producing feedback.  Now I should mention that monitor speakers do have the benefit of lower cost.  Since multiple people can share one monitor speaker monitor speakers are a good choice in situations where you can’t afford anything else for your church sound system.

In-ear monitors were created in direct response to the problems presented by monitor speakers.  By feeding the sound to each person using specially designed headphones they eliminate all of the stage noise produced by monitor speakers.  They also allow each person to have their own individual monitor mix.  Some systems even allow each musician in your worship band to control their own mix using a personal monitor mixer like the myMix system by Movek or by directly controlling the mixer with an iPad or iPhone like you can do with the Presonus StudioLive mixers.  This allows the sound tech to focus on mixing for the congregation and not have to worry about creating separate mixes for the worship team. This saves a ton of time and hassle.

The biggest concern I have heard about in-ear monitor systems is people complaining that they had tried one couldn’t hear the congregation.  If that was the case they don’t have a properly designed church sound system.  In a properly designed system you set up a stereo pair of microphones that are placed on the front of the platform on each side facing the congregation.  Each musician is then able to turn up or down how much of the congregation they want in their mix.

There are many more benefits and reasons to use in-ear monitors vs monitor speakers, but these are some of the major ones.  If you would like to learn more and talk about your specific system give me a call and I will be happy to answer your questions and help you make an informed decision about what is the best choice for your church based on your needs and budget.  I look forward to speaking with you.

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Wise business practices in the church are more and more often including outsourcing, especially outsourced accounting.  Churches can often hire an accounting firm for less than half the cost of one staff bookkeeper or accountant.  There are several reasons for this:

• Lower Labor Costs
  Outsourced accounting eliminates the time and money you spend to recruit, interview, hire, and train accounting personnel. When you sign on with an accounting firm, you automatically get access to experienced accounting professionals who love what they do.
• Less Management
  Outsourced accounting eliminates the time and money needed to manage the accounting personnel’s benefits, sick days, and vacation days.
  
• More Space
  Outsourced accounting frees up office space. Office space, furniture, computers, technology, and storage units that would normally be used for accounting personnel and financial records can be used for more beneficial purposes.
  
• Reduced Taxes and Employee Benefits
  Outsourced accounting removes your financial responsibility for health benefits, FICA, 401k, and workers compensation associated with staff members.
  
• Fewer Capital Purchases
  Outsourced accounting reduces your financial risk by limiting capital purchases like CPU hardware, software, and IT support.

Churches can rest easy while all these financial responsibilities are pushed into another firm’s hands.

Leeper says that churches often find cost savings in an outsourcing strategy.  Long Hollow Baptist Church in Nashville found this to be true.  “Long Hollow had money budgeted for staff expansion in accounting,” said Ben Stroup, a consultant working with Long Hollow.  “They were planning to add several full-time positions. But we discovered that they could outsource their accounting needs for less than half the cost of adding the necessary staff members.”

Long Hollow signed on with Dime, a church accounting company, in August 2010.  Because of the church’s savings, they have been able to fund new ministry positions.

“Outsourced accounting is a great option for churches who are looking to save money on administrative costs,” Leeper said.

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One of our staff was able to visit this church on a Sunday and obtain both some specific measurements as well as empirical data from that Sunday.  The room was packed with almost 500 people present.  When we calculated the total number of seating inches available in the room the result was about 12,000 inches.  This meant that each person in the room was using on average 24 inches. The average worship chair is 20 inches wide.  Thus by converting to sanctuary chairs from pews, an increase of 100 people, or 20%, would be realized in a similarly congested worship service.

Some pew manufacturers use 18 inches when calculating seating capacity.  Our experience is that 24 inches is a more realistic number when it comes to actual use.  Attendees simply will take more room than what they actually need. However, when a church utilizes chairs, attendees will limit themselves to the width of the chair itself.

In a few weeks 600 plus church chairs will be delivered to this church and the pews will be removed.  The church is thrilled with the upcoming increase in worship seating capacity through simply furnishing the room in a different manner.  Their church staff is delighted to not be starting a seventh worship service.  And we are pleased to have partnered with this congregation once again.

Related posts:

1. Maximizing Banquet Table Seating Capacity
2. Worship Seating Tests: 60 Seconds or 60 Minutes?
3. Church Seating Criterion #2: COMFORT

VoIP makes an interesting transition and adds options that once were costly add-ons.  Replacing line for line is definitely on the cheap, but the larger question (and the salesman in me) asks that question.   “What are some of the things that you would like your current phone system to do that it does not?”  Or maybe the Pastor in me asks, “Where does your phone system fail to meet your ministry needs?”   This becomes a very interesting dialogue with most prospective customers.

As you examine the possibility that VoIP is right for your Church remember to look and see beyond the savings into what other ways a Hosted PBX solution can benefit the ministry.

Some features that may benefit your Church include:

Advanced Flexible Auto-Attendant – Take it to the next level with multiple menus and sub menus to guide callers through to the correct departments or personnel.
Advanced Flexible Schedule – Go beyond a simple Time Of Day redirect to accurate control down to the minute. Working around the simple or advanced schedule of your Church.
Direct Inward Dial (DiD) – Assign each of your phones a DID for a direct number to that phone.  Calls out can be routed through either the DID or the Church default number allowing you to keep your DID private for your wife or elders to use to bypass the church secretary or autoattendant.
Do Not Disturb – Set your phone to DND to send your calls directly to VM.
Find Me/Follow Me – Control the routes of each number on your phone system, ring extensions or external DID’s and have the call or voicemail end up where you want it to be.
Forward to Voice Mail – This option can be set by device, by number or by virtual forward in the web portal. Take control of your inbound calls.
Off-Premises Stations – Put your phones where you want them to be, great solution for a pastor or minister’s home office or even one floating extension to take to conferences, etc.
Soft Phone (SIP) – Setup a “soft phone” to work from Wifi on your iPhone, Android or laptop while you are on the road.

Bottom line price may be the driving factor and it will be respected. (no pressure here we just want to see the church be more effective in spreading the Gospel ) Just don’t discount all the other ways that a Hosted PBX solution may benefit the many ministries of the church.

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Electronic giving will pay for itself by increasing giving to the church.  It also helps your members to be good stewards of the financial resources that God has given them to manage.

Related posts:

1. Why Churches Should Offer Electronic Giving

Romans 10:14 says, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

The Apostle Paul is clear that people are only able to believe if they have heard the gospel preached to them.  For most churches, the easiest way for people to hear has been to bring them to the preacher at the local church.  But if you build a church website, you can bring the preacher to people.

Simply put, podcasting your sermons is by far the best reason to build a church website.

Giving people an access point to your preaching on the Internet is an invaluable tool in our online culture.  Most people no longer go to the corner store or the local shopping mall to find out what is for sale.  They go online to find coupons and many people do most of their shopping on the Internet.  Instead of calling someone or visiting their home, most people will just post a note on Facebook.  In the same way, most people will not walk through the doors of your church until they have first looked at your website.

But just having a website is not enough.  One of our online partners has done some considerable research and they have found that the majority of people that visit church websites are primarily looking for sermons.  They want to “hear” the preaching and “listen” online.  It is very interesting that Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  So it is helpful to ask the question, what are they hearing online from your church?

We encourage you to give them something to listen to by publishing your sermons on the Internet.  At Church Plant Media we have developed a very simple, online sermon delivery system for your church. With our sermon pages your online visitors are able to sort your sermons by month, category, speaker, and series, so all of your sermons will be easy to find. Church Plant Media also hooks your sermons up to the iTunes store to give you additional exposure.

Podcasting is easier than you think and we would be happy to show you how. To learn more, please visit our website and click the Tour link to watch our online demos. Call us anytime at (800) 409-6631 ext. 1, and we will be happy to share how our system will serve your church’s website needs.

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One of the results of this reality is that Churches will often accept a lower level of quality in order to save dollars for those absolutely needed furnishings.  Internet searches for “discount church furniture” have climbed as savings are searched for.  Unfortunately, while DISCOUNT Church Furnishings are certainly available, so also are a vast amount of CHEAP Church Furnishings.  Over recent years several web-savvy entities have introduced a variety of Church furnishings with the appearance of tremendous pricing.  But the quality, warranty, and value of those furnishings have been found to be greatly wanting over time.

There’s a tremendous difference between discount Church furnishings and cheap Church furnishings.  So how does the average Church staff member or volunteer make sure they purchase quality furnishings at a discount versus cheap furnishings with regret?  The answer is what it has always been, be sure and work with a trusted partner!   Church Furniture Partner will work to be that trusted source for your Church.  We hope you will contact us for all your Church furnishing needs.

Related posts:

1. Good, Fast or Cheap?
2. 2011 Price Increases in Store for Church Furnishings
3. End of 2010 Church Furnishings Specials

1) Electronic giving is usually setup to happen automatically on a schedule. This helps the givers get emotionally detached from giving.  Matthew 6:4 says “But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing”.

2) Good stewardship of our environment and natural resources is accomplished by not using paper envelopes and checks.  Electronic giving really does make a difference.  It is estimated that there are over 300,000 churches in the United States.  If each church has 75 people that receive 52 envelopes per year and these 75 people write 24 checks per year that equals over one billion envelopes per year and 540 million checks per year.

3) Electronic giving helps us to make giving a priority in our lives.  There are many times where it would be easy to cut back on our giving to God and online giving helps people to keep their giving on track.   From the church’s standpoint electronic giving more than pays for itself by increasing giving to the church.

4) Churches need and rely on steady / consistent givers.  Electronic giving encourages good stewardship and steady consistent giving.  Many givers setup their gift on their payroll date and give the first fruits of their labor.

5) Administration of handling the offering electronically is easier for churches and frees up more time for ministry.

I see people use electronic giving a number of ways but I’d like to post a quote from Bruce.  “Thanks for the great service you provide.  I used to think that I needed to place my gift in the basket every week for it to feel like I was doing something good.  But then when a guy finds himself unable to attend, he falls behind very quickly, and then has to try to figure out how to catch up. But with eGive, my gift is there even when I can’t be.  And I am up to date on my giving, always.”

Some of the churches that use our service receive over 60% of their giving electronically.  Cultures change…  Livestock and produce used to be the way people gave.  Checks, online giving and the donation of stocks and other property are relatively recent developments.

I believe that honoring God with the first fruits of your labor and giving with joy from your heart is the main thing.  Any way you can do that is how it should be done.  The best time to do something the Lord leads you to do is right away.  With the Internet available 24 x 7 giving in that manner is possible.  I believe that God is honored by a digital tithe and offering as long as it is offered joyfully from the heart with love.

God’s Grace, Peace and Blessings To you!

Brad

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Oftentimes a Church has an answering machine, but getting out anything other than a basic functional message is a challenge.  One of the advantages of a VoIP-Hosted PBX system is an advanced Auto Attendant feature that allows a wide range and customization of messages for your intended audience.  I realize that some people expect a live answer on the first ring, but in most Church environments this is not realistic.  Perhaps your Church can be better served by allowing easy access to phone information, rather than tying up a person and resources for answering phones.

The first step in designing an effective Auto Attendant is to define the purposes of its use.  Many people just think of an Auto Attendant as an extended answering machine message.  In reality there are so many options and directions you can go.  Perhaps your purpose is to give easy access to service schedules, or maybe a quicker way to activate the “Prayer Chain”.  It could be to give detailed information about the ministries of the Church.  Bottom line, once you have defined your purposes, the actual greeting can be much more effective.

The second step is to outline the greeting.  At Wire Speed we have a standard outline (slightly modified below) that we offer to our customers. It is a good starting point, not meant to be the end-all solution.  Mapping it out will help you get some of the kinks worked out on paper before you record.

Basic Auto Attendant
Hello, thank you for calling ___________________, (slogan) If you know your party’s extension you can dial it at any time. For the Operator or to leave a message in the general Voice Mail box, press 0 now. For Pastoral Staff, press 1 now. For ____ Ministry, press 2 now. For ____ Ministry, press 3 now. For directions to the Church or hours of service times, press 4 now. Our fax number is ________, our email address is ______________ Please be sure to visit us online at _____________________.

Once you have the main menu you can move on and make multiple menus in depth.  Don’t overlook the possibility of using this medium to spread the Gospel as well!  The Auto Attendant can be an effective tool for your Church.

Note: People like to get information with minimal steps.  The average caller won’t navigate past three trees of depth in a menu.  People have been trained already and will press zero repeatedly on their phone if they want to speak to someone in person.  Don’t leave out your email and website addresses or forget your fax number even if it is not the primary purpose of your Auto Attendant.

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It wasn’t always the same as it is today.   I remember as a young child the churches preaching against television and radio, movies and music.  Now we see churches making Hollywood quality movies!  Television and radio have become an accepted norm.  As for music, I have heard some unbelievable music coming from the church sanctuary, as good or better than any concert.

There are folks in the church that are still “resistant to technology.”  To be honest, technology can be taken to excess in the church.  It can produce countless idols, formed by all these little bits of technology.  As such we have to be careful as we introduce them in to the church.  Not just to avoid “offending a brother”, but to put the emphasis in the correct location:  the technology in our lives correctly focused on Christ.

Recently there was a book written by Christian blogger Tim Challies titled The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion.  His premise covers both the effect of technology on the church and the effect of the church on technology.  While I am enjoying reading this book, I don’t miss the irony of the fact I am reading it on my Amazon Kindle, a joyous little slice of technology.  Still there is one  question that we must face: do we own the technology or does the technology own us?

As you look at integrating Voice-over-IP or other technology into your ministry, be sure to take the time in prayer and worship to keep the focus on Christ.  Seeing Pastors and church elders obsessed with their iPhones and Xbox’s is not a healthy view from any row of the Church.

Romans 1:25
They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

God created man and allows man to create technology.  It is from God and for our use.  So while we don’t want to run away from technology in the ministry, we need to put the proper control, purpose and use of the technology in place.  Use this opportunity to teach our churches a biblical viewpoint on technology, keeping the focus and praise on the Creator.

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I have told the story many times of a pastor friend of mine who once told me that he believes that “when Satan fell from Heaven, he landed directly in the sound booth! And still resides there even today!” While we chuckle at this, there is likely an element of truth to it.  While we are trying to accomplish the task of getting God’s message out, technology is an area, which is used by the enemy to create distractions within worship services.  He doesn’t care how little the distraction is; only that it is effective enough to get minds off the message being delivered.

One of the most discouraging things that can happen to a congregation is to spend years of planning, go through a capital campaign, build a beautiful and useful worship space, only to move into it and immediately have issues with poor acoustics, audio issues, or poor sight lines and lighting.  Unfortunately, by the time some of these AVLA design flaws are revealed, there is typically no budget left to address them.  Even if there were a budget to fix it, the cost of the corrective measures would be multiplied from what it would have been during the original building construction.  Or, perhaps the church does hire a firm to do the work, at what they believe to be the cheapest price, but later on face unplanned expensive change orders or find that the equipment used was not of good quality both end up putting a negative spin on the whole process.

So what can be done to try to overcome these negatives? There are at least four simple steps that churches, along with their building partner, can take that will assure that these issues are covered in advance.

1.  Ask questions

One of the first questions that should be asked, in the early interviews with Architects and Design build firms, is how they handle acoustics and AVLA.  Is it included in their scope or do they have someone that they recommend that can be a part of the building team?  If they do great, if they don’t do some research and find a firm you are comfortable with.  Make sure to check references and visit a completed project to check their work.

2.  Hire someone to help

After you have hired the firm to design your facility, the next step should be to hire an AVLA firm to be a part of the building design team.  The AVLA
Consultant from the firm will make sure that the intent of your programming is followed within the acoustical nature of the worship areas of the space.  Once again make sure to check references carefully. Make sure you’re comfortable with whom you hire and that they have experience on projects like yours and have a successful track record.

3.  Get documented details

Your AVLA provider will create a set of coordination drawings that will document all of the details associated with implementing the systems.  These drawings need to be included in the master set and delivered to all relevant trades like the General Contractor and Electrical Contractor.  The drawings will contain information pertaining to division of labor, equipment placement, conduit needs, and electrical requirements.  Make sure that these specifications are included in the master set before it goes out for bid or be prepared to face costly and possibly inflated change orders later from various trades who did not include the AVLA provisions in their bids.  These documents when used in a timely way can be one of the best ways to save money in the overall project.

4.  Get a guaranteed price

Your consultant will also give you a detailed equipment list that should also include a guaranteed price.  One advantage of selecting an AVLA Design/Build firm over Design/Bid is that they will have the ability to keep track of costs throughout the design process.  Everything from equipment to labor costs, and other expenses you will be able to get an exact price of what your systems will cost.  Once you have the cost it should be able to be locked in, per a contract, for 12-18 months.

Unfortunately, AVLA are critical topics often over looked in the design and planning of worship spaces within a worship facility.  Often times other issues get more attention such as the aesthetics of the worship center, HVAC, carpet color, seating options, etc.  Too many times there is not enough emphasis and planning put on technology.  After all, hopefully in all cases, the delivery of the word is the reason the building is being built.  Therefore there must be clear and detailed planning to make it successful.

AVLA goals can be accomplished in a variety of different methods depending on the programming of a church.  The key is to find an AVLA firm with a consultant who has a long track record of successful designs.

Satan will still find ways to cause distractions in our worship times.  But why not take steps to reduce the tools that he has to use by starting with a well planned technical design?

Sincerely,
Brent Mullett

Project Manager, CSD
260-657-8011 Ex 225

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If you’re like me, you intuitively sense something is out of kilter here!  Either the list price is extraordinarily inflated or this is an unbelievable deal!  But despite your intuition and common sense trying to warn you off, that price is SO attractive!  Isn’t it?

The Church Furniture Partner knows that price is attractive and by all reports, so do a large number of churches.  It was just a few years ago that church chairs seemed to have a fairly standard price point.  Basic chairs, consisting of a metal frame, plywood seat and back, dual density foam and fabric did not vary greatly in price from one manufacturer to another.  Then two to three years ago, the American church market was deluged with imports that featured a significantly lower price.  In addition, these chairs were very well marketed with the price highlighted, and churches began purchasing them.  So here are a few thoughts about these low price chairs.

• Assembly:  In the past, church chairs came fully assembled except for maybe inserting the book rack into pin holes when setting them up.  The low price church chairs of our day require significant assembly by the church.  While minimal assembly will be advertised, several churches have expressed their frustration at how long the process took and that at times, pre-drilling had not been carried out on some of their chairs.
• Shipping:  Because the chairs are not assembled, the backs may ship on one pallet and the seats on another.  An order arrived at one church of 300 chair backs.  Sometime later the seats arrived (only after that part of the shipment was located).
• Foam:  It is so important to make sure the foam is Cal 117 compliant (a standard fire code rating) for all installations and Cal 133 compliant in localities where that rating is called for.  Some imported foam does not carry such ratings and have been rejected by local fire marshals after the chairs were purchased by the church.  Talk about embarrassing!
• Frame Finish:  The process of powder-coating the frames can have various levels of effectiveness.  And this is also another area where chemicals that are used in this process might not always pass local inspection.  How will the frame look in a couple of years?
• Warranties:  This is an area where huge differences exist between some of the low price chairs and those that can cost a few dollars more.  Please read the warranty fine print carefully (if you can get your hands on an actual copy of the warranty).  While the frame might have a “limited lifetime warranty” you may notice nothing is said about the foam or fabric.  Don’t be satisfied with less than 10 years of warranty on both the foam and the fabric.  And make sure the frame has a 25 year warranty.  Find out what those “limitations” are!
• Continuity:  Is the low price chair your church is purchasing going to be around next year if you need more?  Often in these third-party import situations, a foreign manufacturer may offer a cheaper chair than where the importer has been purchasing.  And before you know it, a different chair is now carrying the same name as the chair you purchased, but it’s not the same chair.

So, should my church purchase a $28 worship chair?  In almost all situations, Church Furniture Partner advises against this.  I love to see churches save money, but the few dollars you might save, will likely not produce the long-term value you were hoping for. Over at Church Furniture Partner, they can provide you with the low price chairs if your church insists on them at the lowest price.  But better yet, they can help your church obtain a far higher quality chair, for well less than the competition.  Be sure and contact them for all of the seating needs for your church!

Related posts:

1. Should Our Church Purchase a $28 Worship Chair? (Part 1)
2. Church Seating Criterion #2: COMFORT
3. My Favorite Church Chair?

Another area where the effects of our economy have been substantial relates to church furniture purchases.  Churches still have furnishing needs, but now very limited funds available for those needs.  And the result has been a willingness to accept a level of quality that would not have been acceptable a few years ago.   Nowhere is that more evident than with worship seating!  Church seating manufacturers are hearing the refrain of “Price!  Price!  Price!” like never before.  So let’s answer the question, “Should my church purchase a $28 worship chair?”

A friend in ministry called a few weeks ago and asked me about church seating.  His church is going to remove their pews and replace them with chairs.  He asked me for my opinion on various chair options.  Since I have several chairs samples in my possession from various manufacturers, I arranged to drop off several at his church for staff and elders to evaluate.  However, I gave him no pricing on the various models nor any significant recommendations.  I was curious what their opinions would be if prices were NOT known.  I have long observed that once prices are known many will gravitate to the lowest prices regardless of other factors.

A few weeks later I called to check in with him and see what sort of feedback he had received.  Amazingly the chair that was the highest-priced was ranked unanimously as everyone’s favorite.  The chair that was the lowest-priced was ranked as everyone’s least favorite.  And the remainder of the chairs I had provided him were also ranked (though unknowingly) exactly where they would fall on a price spectrum.

What does this tell me?  First there is a significant perception of quality that comes into play when pricing is not known.  And secondly, churches can recognize quality when participating in a test where pricing is not evident.  With that as our background, in Part 2 I will continue to answer the question, “Should my church purchase a $28 worship chair?” And in the meantime, if your church is considering new worship seating, please be sure and connect with our friends at Church Furniture Partner for the best prices and great service!

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1. Church Worship Seating Resources
2. Church Chair Industries Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection
3. Taking Church Furniture to Market: Part Three – Hybrid Approach

However, since dozens of church furniture dealers also claim to have the lowest prices, here are the Core Values of Church Furniture Partner which demonstrate how they’re actually able to live out this claim!

• Value 1:  Low Overhead

Our ability to save your church money flows from from our passion for zero operating costs for our company.  In place of expensive catalogs, advertising, credit card fees, shopping cart systems, buildings, offices and inventories, your church benefits with the lowest prices.  OUR spending less allow YOUR church to spend less!

• Value 2:  Church Affinity

Within our own ministries, we have personally led several major church building projects.  We have experienced the challenge of desiring to furnish with excellence and yet save dollars.  We identify with the uniqueness of churches and provide a very first-hand, solution-based viewpoint throughout our interaction with your church.

• Value 3:  Product Knowledge

While we can access and provide products from literally hundreds of manufacturers, we are forthright in our counsel to churches as to which provide the best value, quality and customer service through our research and experience.  Often they are the products we’re utilizing in our own churches.  We know what works well in churches!

• Value 4:  The Golden Rule

Frustration with catalog houses and office supply stores as we attempted to furnish building projects in our own ministries is what provided the impetus to start our own company.  We’re going to treat church NOW like we wanted to be treated THEN!  We want every experience for churches with Church Furniture Partner to be a great one!

I hope you’ll be sure and contact Church Furniture Partner for your next church furnishings purchase.

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How does this technology work?  Within these seat cushions, “Air-Pockets” are strategically placed throughout to provide outstanding comfort and performance.  This new technology will hold its shape exactly for the life of the foam, and because the cushion is manufactured in a mold, all cushions are the same size.  In addition, a membrane is created in the production of these seats that repels all spills on the seat from soaking into the foam.  A great advantage for churches is that molded CCF cushions are covered by an extended 15 Year Warranty, well above the industry standard 5 year foam warranty.

This new technology is available on most worship seating models, including the SS-7701, the SS-7711, and the SS-7721.

The Summit Seating Line from Comfortek is available from both Church Furniture Partner and Church Furniture Partner.  You’ll find the best pricing in the country from both of these sources.

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Here is a white paper detailing the new safety standards.

Here is a statement from the head of the CPSC providing some additional history and information.

The Church Furniture Partner believes that Foundations offers the best crib line for churches in the country.  Their entire line of cribs will meet these new standards and those products can be accessed for the lowest prices through Church Furniture Partner.  I encourage you to make sure that your church nursery does meet these new standards as soon as possible.

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This is the time of year that churches in the northern half of the country start to see those mostly unused coat racks begin to be used again.  And in many situations, there never seems to be enough space for all the coats people have.  When churches are constructed, every dollar matters and often the amount of coat storage ends up being less than optimal.  Also, wall space is important for display purposes in heavy traffic flow areas and permanently mounted coat racks are simply not very attractive either.

The Church Furniture Partner has found that portable and fold-able coat storage has become a very popular solution for churches with seasonal needs.  And the Mega-Rak Series from Magnuson Group is simply the best solution I’m aware of.   Mega Raks are able to accommodate a large numbers of coats when set up, and store in a small space when folded until needed again.  The MR-801 Series opens to 8 feet and has vinyl coated wire shelves which will handle up to 100 hangers.  There’s also a steel hook model that can handle even more coats.  For a smaller option, the MR-611 Series opens to 6 feet with a corresponding reduction in hanger or hooks respectively.

If you’re in need of some extra coat storage this winter, contact our friends over at Church Furniture Partner.  Their pricing on the Mega-Rak Series will be significantly less than what you will find elsewhere.

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I remember a few months ago having a conversation with the President of a major worship seating manufacturer.  You might think he would welcome the disappearance from the arena of a major competitor.  However his primary concern was how churches who had made down payments and then not received their order would affect the overall worship chair industry.  Down payments protect manufacturers from churches who could place custom orders and then cancel for some reason.  With no penalty for cancellation, the manufacturer would be left with chairs they could not sell.  Down payments are necessary, but if churches feel they may not receive their chairs, then they’re reluctant to make that payment.  But the reality has always been that whenever two parties entering into a contractual arrangement do not keep their word, the fallout is substantial.

Church Furniture Partner has great relationships with church furnishing manufacturers that we know are especially solid in all their business practices.  When it comes to church seating, this is especially true.  And those at Church Furniture Partner are equally well informed.  If your church is looking for worship seating, I would encourage you to contact them.

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A church contacted me a while back asking about lockers for their athletic facilities.  They were looking for a low-cost solution but needed the lockers to fit exactly into the space that they had available.  While there are many suppliers of lockers for all types of facilities, Tennsco provides an amazing variety of custom sizes to fit every possible application.

Besides lockers, Tennsco offers a great variety of filing and storage systems, steel office furniture, and industrial and institutional shelving.  Their designer line has a great warranty and outstanding durability.  Tennsco is our #1 recommendation to churches that need a product that can be manufactured to special requirements.  Please be sure and check Tennsco out.

And as if most often the case, for your lowest prices on all Tennsco products, be sure and contact Church Furniture Partner.

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With the new GHD Table Truck Series, one person can load and unload the truck with ease by simply rolling the table up the ramp into the notches or rolling the table down the ramp.  The truck can be fully loaded or partially loaded and can be moved without the tables moving.   The new trucks do not present a tipping factor, nor will the tables slide around which means the tables are protected from damage while loading and unloading.  And these trucks are very easy to maneuver from one location to another.

These innovative table trucks are available from Church Furniture Partner at the lowest prices in the country.  If you have a need for the best table storage system on the market today, please be sure to contact them for a quote.

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Over the past couple of weeks, no less than a dozen major church furnishing manufacturers have announced price increases for 2011 of between 5% and 7%.  I expect that trend to continue with more manufacturers making similar announcements over the coming weeks.  While the size of the increases are reflective of the decision not to raise prices over the past couple of years, they will certainly impact churches making major purchases next year.

I would certainly recommend your church making any upcoming furnishing purchases yet in 2010.  Many manufacturers will allow you to make a purchase months in advance and freeze pricing for you even though your delivery time-frame might be well into the following year.  And as I have mentioned before, contacting Church Furniture Partner for the lowest prices on church furnishings in the country is always a great way to cut your church furnishing costs.

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Sounds like a very reasonable process doesn’t it?  Multiple samples are evaluated and multiple people do the evaluating.  How could such a process lead to a church being unhappy with their worship seating choice?

Well, here’s what happens next in this common scenario.  The church orders their choice of worship seating and eventually they’re delivered and set in place.  Everyone’s excited to have new church seating!  But one big difference now exists!  People now sit on these chairs for 60 minutes or more, versus try them out for 60 seconds or less!

The Church Furniture Partner always encouraged churches to insist on a 60 minute test instead of a 60 second test.  Have various staff members or church attendees replace their desk chairs with different sample chairs for an hour or more at at time.  Maybe ask different people to use the sample chairs in place of the current worship seating on Sunday.  And then value such feedback from a 60 minute test at a far higher level than feedback from the far too common 60 second test.  Unless you have a 60 second worship service, the wisdom of a 60 minute test will definitely increase the likelihood of your church being happy with their new church furniture purchase!

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2. Church Seating Criterion #5: AESTHETICS
3. Permanent, Flexible or Transitional Seating?

Over the past couple of years, I’ve become a fan of Cactus Mat.  Cactus Mat has served the commercial market, including churches for the past 80 years.  They now have over 2,000 styles, colors and sizes of products.  These include not only entry and logo mats, but also sports, anti-fatigue, safety, food service, industrial and every other type of mat you can imagine.  The selection is literally endless.

If you have any needs for any sort of “mats”, you can download their catalog here.  Their entire line is available at the lowest prices in the country at Church Furniture Partner.  Cactus Mat and Church Furniture Partner, a great relationship that benefits churches across the country!

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1. Saving Your Church Money on Church Furniture

• What type of seating does your church environment call for?  Check out this post.

• What’s Church Furniture Partner’s favorite chair for churches?  Find out here.

• What should my church consider when choosing worship seating?  Read this series of articles (overview, cost, comfort, storage, durability, aesthetics, handling, and functionality).

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1. Permanent, Flexible or Transitional Seating?
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3. Church Seating Criterion #7: FUNCTIONALITY

Here is how the rules works:  A church can pick two of these three attributes, but they cannot have all three!  Though all three are desired, only two are possible.  So for a church looking for worship seating for example, there are three scenarios that are possible.

• Good and Fast, but NOT Cheap: If your church needs worship seating, and you want your chairs in your first choice of style, color, finish, quality, etc. and you need them very fast, that’s certainly possible.  The manufacturer can postpone every other job they have, they can cancel all of their other appointments, and they can work around the clock to get your church chair order completed.  However, do not expect this service to be Cheap!

• Good and Cheap, but NOT Fast: If your church needs worship seating, and you want your chairs in your first choice of style, color, finish, quality, etc. and you need them very cheap, that’s certainly possible as well.  Most manufacturers will eventually have some down time on their production line where they love having a job they can plug in, even if they’re losing some money on it.  However, that time slot might be well out into the future, so do not expect to get your church chairs Fast!

• Fast and Cheap, but NOT Good: If your church needs worship seating, and you need them very fast as well as very cheap, there will be chairs the manufacturer has already produced which are ready to ship.  So Fast is easy.  In addition, often manufacturers are ready to move these chairs since they’re being stored, so a cheaper price becomes more likely.  However, your church cannot expect to purchase exactly the chairs you want as with hundreds of frame, finish, and fabric church chair possibilities, no manufacturer has but a few of these in stock.  So your church must accept something less than Good!

Good, Fast or Cheap?  You pick your two.  And don’t forget to contact Church Furniture Partner when you’re looking for church furnishings, as they’ll advise you on the good, use their great relationships with dozens of manufacturers to get them fast, and will save your church more dollars than you’ll find across the country.  The rule will still stand, but you’ll never get closer to negating it than with Church Furniture Partner!

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2. Church Seating Criterion #2: COMFORT
3. Church Seating Criterion #3: STORAGE

Wire shelving for churches from Oak Street Manufacturing is a great tool to help your church do the same.  I remember initially being surprised at how inexpensive this shelving is.  When I compare its quality and strength to residential products found at home improvement stores, there’s simply no comparison.  Yet, the price for this level of product is actually less.

Wire shelving from Oak Street…

• Is in stock and ready to ship
• Has leg posts with end caps and leveling feet in 1″ increments
• Is able to be assembled without tools
• Has a durable epoxy finish
• Can be used in all environmental conditions
• Has very high strength ratings
• Can be mobile with the addition of optional casters

Church Furniture Partner handles the complete Oak Street line of products and as is normally the case, currently has the lowest prices in the country.  For all your church furnishings needs, I encourage you to connect with SYCM.

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The best answer for such settings are pipe and drape systems.  The term “pipe and drape” refers to pipe, which is made out of aluminum or steel, that’s fashioned to easily create temporarily partitioned rooms.  A system begins with steel bases that have fixed or telescopic uprights inserted into them.  Then horizontal pipe sections, again either fixed or telescopic, are used to connect the uprights.  This allows removable drape panels to be hung from the horizontal sections.  The drapes can be manufactured with a top “rod-pocket” that the rod slips through, or with Velcro wraps.  Pipe and drape systems allow a portable church to divide, hide or decorate their environments easily and inexpensively.

Church Furniture Partner recommends Snap Drape Pipe and Drape Systems.  There are many systems available in our day as one would expect.  Some are very crudely fabricated.  Some use fabric that is of poor quality and too transparent.  The Snap Drape system are of great quality and available at a great price from Church Furniture Partner.  They have a great selection of fabrics that allows any church to easily customize their system.  If you need a pipe and drape system, I encourage you to check out Snap Drape from Church Furniture Partner!

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Church Furniture Partner operates with the goal of “ZERO” company overhead costs.  They zealously refuse to print expensive catalogs, purchase paid advertising, pay high credit card fees, own any buildings, stock inventory, and maintain a costly e-commerce shopping card system.  All of their sales representatives are involved in ministries of their own and have other sources of revenue to support their families from.  So by spending less (almost nothing) to operate, SYCM saves churches money on church furnishings like no one else in the country.

Just this past week a church in southern Florida called SYCM to purchase 200 chairs to match some worship chairs they were already using.  The church had already obtained a quote from a local provider and from a national online dealer.  Amazingly, SYCM provided a quote $22 per chair below the local provider and $9.90 below the nationally recognized name.  “How is this possible?” the church asked.  The answer is in the above paragraph (low overhead and almost non-existent profit margins).  These two principles regularly add up to tremendous savings for churches.

I want to encourage you to check out Church Furniture Partner.  See what savings they can provide for your church on the church furniture you need.  I believe you’ll be glad you did so!

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While at the conference, I had the opportunity to connect with several of the vendors at the trade show exhibit.  I was surprised there were really no church furniture manufacturers or dealers displaying in the exhibit hall.  I imagine the high cost of doing so (fees, travel, shipping, personnel, etc.) is the reason for this, but nonetheless I still expected there to be a few.  There were numerous lending institutions and construction companies present, but no church furnishings booths.

I did enjoy connecting with my friends from Midwest Church Construction at their booth.  I have worked with several church builders over the years, but Midwest is my favorite.  If you have any sort of construction project being considered at your church, I would encourage you to be sure to take a look at Midwest.  And for all your church furnishings, check out Church Furniture Partner.  These are two great companies to obtain quality products and services from for your church.

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Most church cafes and coffee-shops are not normally exceptionally large. The general rule is a handful of cafe tables, either at dining height or bar height, and an appropriate number of chairs and bar stools. Such settings lend themselves very well to personalizing some items to promote the church’s “brand”.  And nothing will stand out more than the actual table tops.

The Furniture Lab can creating an amazing array of custom designed tables.  Their in-house graphics department regularly assists church in creating truly unique tables. Here are several examples of their offerings.

Church Furniture Partner is a national dealer for The Furniture Lab. Be sure and contact them first as their pricing will be the lowest. Jobs are often registered and your first contact can be critical in helping you obtain the best pricing.

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Office Chairs Inc. was founded about four decades ago.  From the beginning, their goal was to manufacturer quality products of great value with low lead times.  Over those decades,their business has grown and they now have over 60,000 square feet of manufacturing space in Santa Fe Springs, CA.  And like all Church Furniture Partner endorsed manufacturers, they stand behind all their products with the goal of 100% customer satisfaction.

Office Chair Inc.’s product line consists of Executive, Conference, Task, Reception, Guest and Soft Seating.  They have relationships with some of leading fabric manufacturers such as Momentum Textiles, C.F. Stinson, and Culp .  These relationships result in some of the shortest lead times in the industry for custom upholstered seating.

For today’s churches, Office Chair Inc. has positioned itself well as a mid-market manufacturer.  Their entire line is available at great savings to churches through Church Furniture Partner.  Please be sure and contact SYCM for all of your church seating needs.

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Churches will inevitably purchase one of four categories or “levels” of furnishings.  Most of the time, the primary determiner of which  level they will purchase is budget.  Churches need to be good stewards of their resources.  Overspending for church furniture is NOT good stewardship.  Understanding the different levels of church furnishings can assist the practice of good stewardship.

• Church Furniture Category #1 is JUNK! I know “Junk” is not a very sophisticated term, but it accurately describes a level of church furnishings unfortunately.  There’s a lot of furniture on the market that simply does not belong in any sort of church/commercial setting.  But as stated above, low pricing can be especially attractive to churches.   While I cannot list here all the church furniture that I place in this first category, I’m always glad to entertain your questions about what you’re considering.  Just contact me with your questions.
• Church Furniture Category #2 is VALUE! This is the most purchased level of church furniture.  By “Value” I mean furniture that is well built, but its construction is pretty basic.  Comparably inexpensive materials like steel, poly and wood are used in the manufacturing process.  The design and lines of the furnishings are somewhat simple and plain.  And the number of options and amount of customization that can be added is minimal.
• Church Furniture Category #3 is Mid-Market! I use the term “Mid-Market” to describe church furniture that does not use high-end exotic construction materials, but offers a substantial ranges of upgrades, options and customization.  In addition, the level of styling moves from somewhat simple and basic to classy and stylish.  I have identified several mid-market manufacturers over the years that I especially love to tell churches about.
• Church Furniture Category #4 is Design! I use the term “Design” to describe a level of furnishings that only a few churches are able to consider because of cost.  With this level you may pay extra because of who the furniture was designed by.  Materials that have only recently been invented may be used in the construction which will add to the cost.  And almost every fabric or option on the market is available on this level.

Please note that Church Furniture Partner takes great satisfaction in being able to generally move churches one step higher in category, for essentially the same dollars you would pay for the next level down.  As you consider church furnishings, they are consistently a source for great product at great prices.

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There’s one reason though I attend that overshadows all those above, I love to see first-hand new products that can be used wonderfully in the world of church furniture.  I’m always on the lookout for products and values that will benefit churches across the country.  This year’s trip to Neocon produced several of both.  Over the next few days I’ll share some of those findings with you.  I’m looking forward to it!

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Several years ago we started Church Furniture Partner.com with a very similar set of core operating principles. The result has been the opportunity to save churches a tremendous amount of dollars on church furniture that has then been able to be funneled into ministry. As I dialogued with Derrick, and then later read through his entire website, I can easily envision him doing the same for the Kingdom in the years ahead. I’m looking forward to watching Housetop Media’s ministry develop!

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Every Memorial Day I think about my Uncle Bud who died in World War II (European Theater).  I never knew him as I was born 15 years after he gave his life for his country.  Today I honor though his service, as our country honors the service of millions like him.

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Over the years that followed, I had the opportunity to attend several all-day conferences at this center.  I would sit in the main auditorium for hours at a time in the chairs they had purchased.  When I first sat down in one of these chairs, I immediately noticed how comfortable it was.  But what surprised me was how comfortable it was even after sitting in it all day.  I remember commenting on several occasions to staff members of the conference center how much I appreciated their choice of seating.  Like each of you, I had experienced many times at other venues discomfort after being seated for less than an hour.  Being comfortable on a chair after several hours of sitting certainly enhanced my experience at their events.

Several years ago we needed several hundred chairs for a similar environment at our church.  I decided early on we should purchase the same chair the conference center had purchased, one that was perfectly suited to the desired application.  I made the necessary inquiries and discovered the ELAN Series from Comfortek Seating.  My decision was confirmed early on when I learned the nickname for the ELAN is “The Eight Hour Chair”. That was seven years ago now, and we could not be more pleased with our decision. Several other churches have now made the decision to purchase this same chair after visiting New Hope and enjoying ours.

Since our purchase I have discovered several other manufacturers produce similar chairs to the ELAN from Comfortek Seating.  However, none carry the attractive pricing that Comfortek offers to the church community.  So from years of personal experience as a consumer, and now for the past few years as Church Furniture Partner, the ELAN has been and continues to be my favorite church chair!  You can read about its attributes here.  And as always, feel free to contact me with questions and comments.

One more quick suggestion:  Be sure and connect with Church Furniture Partner if you have interest in the ELAN or any other type of church seating.  Their expertise and pricing strategy is of great value to churches across our country.

Related posts:

1. Church Sound Booth Chairs that Last!
2. Church Seating Criterion #6: HANDLING
3. Church Seating Criterion #3: STORAGE

The results?  Only a couple of manufacturers reported their prices would increase mid-year, and then only on select items.  The rest indicated they were prepared to carry their 2010 cost structure through the remainder of the calendar year.  Some shared they do believe there’s a genuine need for increases, but recognize that doing so during these tough economic times would be difficult and even self-defeating.   So Church Furniture Partner believes pricing for the remainder of 2010 will be static for church furniture.  That’s good news for churches!

Related posts:

1. 2010 Church Furniture Pricing
2. Church Furniture Prices Stay Static for 2010
3. Taking Church Furniture to Market: Part Two – Dealer Networks

What do I mean by a “Hybrid Approach”? As you might suspect, this is a strategy where the manufacturer both sells direct and markets their products through a dealer network.  But how are they able to motivate dealers to distribute their products when they’re in a sense competing with these dealers by selling direct?  It would seem that no dealer would advance the products of a manufacturer doing so.

Well, the reason dealers are willing to do so is summed up in one phrase, “two-tiered pricing”.  Suppose our manufacturer makes church seating that they sell for $75 a chair to churches direct.  The church believes they’re getting the best price possible on their worship seating because they’re purchasing direct from the manufacturer.  But what the church does not realize is dealers for our manufacturer can purchase the same chair for $65 a chair which leaves room for the dealer to mark the chairs up a few dollars and still save churches some money.  The idea that a third party (our dealer) could be added to the sale of the chairs from the manufacturer to the church and still produce savings defies logic, yet it happens every day.

I encourage you to always check with low overhead dealers such as Church Furniture Partner before purchasing.  You may be surprised at the savings your church may realize!

Related posts:

1. Taking Church Furniture to Market: Part Two – Dealer Networks
2. Taking Church Furniture to Market: Part One – Manufacturer Direct
3. Church Seating from Overseas

Our church furnishing manufacturer can decide they’re going to utilize a “Dealer Network”.  In other words, churches across the country can still call the manufacturer and even learn about their products, but when it comes time to purchase those products, the church will be referred to a “dealer” who distributes that manufacturer’s products.  How does this approach impact churches?  Here are some thoughts:

• Dealers will represent several or even dozens of manufacturers.  The ability to be as well-informed about each manufacturer’s products as a manufacturer is about their own, is certainly more difficult.  Some dealers do this well, many do not, but most of the time can obtain the information the church needs.  However, remember that you can still call the manufacturer for specific information.
• Most dealers do not “stock” many products.  When an order is placed with a dealer, the dealer in turn places an order with the manufacturer and the items are shipped from the manufacturer to the end church user.   The dealer becomes the portal for the products, even though they may have never seen them first-hand.
• The above reasons may sound like “negatives” for the dealer approach, and they are in some cases.  But the great advantage that a dealer network offers churches across the country is the possibility of substantial dollar savings!  Manufacturers with dealer networks do not invest great dollars into the marketing of their products.  They count on their dealer network to market their products.  So if the manufacturer operates with lower overhead costs, and they have dealers who stress low overhead and efficient operations, the savings for churches can be substantial.  The key is to determine which dealers can really save your church money!  Some will, and some will not.  I encourage you to be sure and check out Church Furniture Partner as they’re a dealer who will definitely do just that, save your church money.

Related posts:

1. Taking Church Furniture to Market: Part One – Manufacturer Direct
2. Church Furniture Prices Stay Static for 2010
3. 2010 Church Furniture Pricing

Our church furnishing manufacturer can decide they’re going to be “Manufacturer Direct”.  In other words, churches across the country can call the manufacturer, learn about their products, purchase their products, and take delivery directly from the manufacturer of their products.  Sounds simple doesn’t it?  It also would seem to be the most cost-efficient for the church.  But is it?  Over the years I have come to believe it’s not.  Here’s why:

Our church furnishing manufacturer wishes to have their products purchased by churches across the country.  For those churches to purchase their products, they must first know about their products.  And this effort translates into huge marketing costs.  One church chair  manufacturer I work with that sells directly to churches has told me that 50% of the cost of each of their chairs goes to recover their marketing/advertising expenses.  They have their in-house sales force to compensate.  Their promotional materials cost major dollars.  Advertising expenses are substantial.  And the more expenses the manufacturer has in marketing their chairs, the more they’re forced to charge churches for their chairs, or to cut the quality of their chairs.  Neither option is to the advantage of churches.

As I stated earlier, I used to believe that buying direct was the most cost-efficient for churches.  I no longer do!  In my next article I’ll discuss the advantages of a dealer network for church furnishing manufacturers and their church customers.  Looking forward to it!

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1. Church Furniture Prices Stay Static for 2010
2. 2010 Church Furniture Pricing
3. Built in America!

Churches are a prime candidate for the use of contract furniture.  However, often residential and non-commercial levels of church furnishings are purchased and over time the difference in quality is demonstrated as the level of use exceeds the intended level of use for such church furnishings.  I highly recommend that churches consider contract level furnishings for their high traffic/public use environments.

Church Furniture Partner has access now to over 200 manufacturers and often has been able to assist churches in acquiring contract level furnishings for a residential level price.  I encourage you to contact SYCM for all your church furnishing needs.

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1. 2010 Church Furniture Pricing
2. Church Furniture Prices Stay Static for 2010
3. Built in America!

Church Furniture Partner has recently become an authorized distributor for Carpets for Kids.  I encourage you to be sure and obtain a quote from them for all of your area rug needs.

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1. Faith-Based Area Rugs
2. Lesro Reception Seating Introduces the Mystic Collection
3. Allied Molded Products “Designer” Waste Receptacles

The term “Designer” simply means the choice of styles, materials, finishes, colors, etc. are numerous and extensive.  As the interior decorating of the church is carried out, perfectly matching waste receptacles can be manufactured to complement the decor of the environment.  There are several manufacturers who provide a limited number of waste receptacles, there are only a few who provide an extensive amount.

Recently I had the chance to connect with Allied Molded Products.  Their product line is amazing and their color choices are literally limitless.  I love this description they provide on their website, “Leading companies know that receptacles and planters come in all shapes and sizes and are a requirement for any consumer oriented business. These same companies know that they have one chance at making a first impression, and the front door of their facilities is where that impression is often made. Allied Molded Products architectural products are enhancing and complementing the brand image these companies look to portray and that is why these companies select Allied Molded as the receptacle and planter manufacturer of choice.” These words can certainly apply to today’s churches equally well.

Church Furniture Partner is now a provider of the entire Allied Molded Products line.  The combination of Allied’s designer products and Church Furniture Partner’s low prices is a winner for churches across the country.  Be sure and check both out!

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1. “Green” Waste Receptacles
2. Become the Designer for the Table You Want!
3. Maximizing Banquet Table Seating Capacity

Permanent Seating: This style of seating continues to dominate most church environments.  My use of the descriptive “permanent” does not denote that the seats are affixed to the facility, though that can certainly be the case.  Rather the implication is that in this type of application, the chairs rarely need to be moved.  The use of the room is quite static throughout the various programs of the church, therefore the “function” of the seating for the room is static as well.  The seating needs for the room simply do not vary.

Flexible Seating:  With the growing need for worship and other church environments to lend themselves to various applications and uses, the use of flexible seating has increased significantly over the past couple decades.  By “flexible” I mean that the seating can be used in different configurations such as in rowed auditorium style seating as well as more informal arrangements such as around tables.  These chairs tend to be less bulky and a bit lighter than permanent seating.  They also then to cost a bit less.  However, the assumption is that they’re consistently being used in the room they’re located in and not stored.  If the chairs need to be stored, rather than flexible seating, the description that applies best is transitional seating.

Transitional Seating: With many church environments today, rooms will need to be reconfigured many times during a week.  When this is the reality, seating that’s simple to handle and simple to store is important.  Some transitional seating options of today can be stored in 25% the space it takes to hold a comparable level of permanent seating.  Transitional seating tends to be very strong and will weigh far less than what permanent and flexible seating will.  While these types of chairs will be more expensive,  they can  be a wise investment over the years of use they’ll provide.

For a visual overview of these three types of church seating, check out this presentation from Church Furniture Partner.

Related posts:

1. Permanent, Flexible or Transitional Seating?
2. Church Seating Criterion #1: COST
3. Church Seating Criterion #4: DURABILITY

• Weight: The most common style of worship chair weighs around 20 pounds.  If you have to reset a 500 seat auditorium, that means more than 10,000 pounds have to be moved.  That will build a few muscles!  In addition, standard worship chairs stack six or seven high, and the higher you have to lift a chair, the more that weight affects your handling.  There are lighter-weight alternatives of chair styles for worship of course, but the trade-off is always higher costs.  However, I always encourage churches to take a serious look at these options as the benefits over time for handling can be tremendous.
• Gripping Points: Handling chairs becomes far easier when the chairs have convenient gripping points for lifting and moving.  Some worship chairs provide such gripping points, others do not.  If your application calls for chairs to be moved regularly, making sure such gripping points are available is important.  Look for a bar running laterally across the top back of the chair.  These provide a great grip point and with a wise choice of frame finishes, looks great as well.  It’s far better to have your hands rub on metal than repeatedly on the fabric itself from a “fabric wear and tear” viewpoint.
• Chair Trucks: When moving a large number of chairs, not having enough chair trucks can greatly impede the process.  I recommend one chair truck for every 100 chairs that need to be moved.  This provides a good balance between those stacking the chairs and those moving them.  Make sure your chair trucks have good quality tires and side rails to help prevent chairs from slipping off the side of the bottom plate for safety is important.  Church Furniture Partner has a great selection of chair trucks at low prices so be sure and obtain a quote from them if you’re planning to purchase.

Related posts:

1. Church Seating Criterion #5: AESTHETICS
2. Church Seating Criterion #3: STORAGE
3. Church Seating Criterion #2: COMFORT

• Chair Frames: I believe the most attractive frames are still those made out of wood.  The problem of course is that wood frame church chairs are much more expensive than steel frame church chairs.  There are now a dozen or more metal frame finishes available for churches.  The ability to match chair frame to chair fabric has never been more available for churches.
• Fabric Choice: Every manufacturer now have standard lines of fabrics as well as upgrade lines.  The reality is that there are also thousands of additional choices from mills around the world.  Choosing from these mills may cost a bit more and take longer to access, but almost all are available.  Some premium fabrics in our day though can double the price of a chair.
• Chair Backs: The back of a chair is seen more than the seat.  When you’re sitting in a seat, you’ll be looking at back of the chair in front of you.  Do you want to see all fabric as you look forward?  We call this a “covered back”.  However, covered backs do cost more and if your chairs are going to be moved a lot, covered backs tend to provide less handholds and the fabric may wear more as a result.

Enjoy the process of choosing worship seating that perfectly compliments your environment.  And don’t forget, you’ll find great chair aesthetic choices at Church Furniture Partner.

Related posts:

1. Church Seating Criterion #4: DURABILITY
2. Church Seating Criterion #3: STORAGE
3. Church Seating Criterion #2: COMFORT

• Frame Strength:  Far and away, the primary factor that determines chair durability is the strength of the frame.  How do you determine if the frame is strong?  Specifications to consider include the gauge of metal used to construct the frame.  Also look for how many lateral cross members the chair has, both connecting legs to each other and those under and behind the seat.  Lateral stability is accomplished through these cross members.  Is the frame a wire rod frame or of tubular construction?  Tubular almost always provides more stiffness and longer life for the chair.
• Fabric Endurance:  Fabric is rated in “double rubs”.   This term refers to how fabrics are tested before they are released for the church furniture market.  Essentially a machine rubs the fabric twice, imitating a person sitting down and getting up.  That equals one “double rub”.  Look for fabrics that have a minimum of 150,000 double rubs for their rating.  Some will have twice that, but unfortunately some will have far less.
• Foam Quality:  Chair foam quality can have a huge range.  Some foam will be very soft at first and this may lead to a church chair purchase based on the appearance of comfort.  However, keep in mind that foam will only get softer over time, never firmer.  I recommend you choose a chair that is more on the firm side when purchasing.  In a few years you’ll not be “bottoming out” like you will by purchasing a softer foam.  Also, it’s wise to only purchase chairs that have the foam compressed before applying the fabric.  This way as the foam softens over the time, the fabric will stay taut and not wrinkle, something I see often.

As always, there’s more I could add here.  Please contact me with any questions you might have.  You can also forward questions to Church Furniture Partner where you’ll find expertise on this subject and some recommendations for chairs that exhibit great durability.

Related posts:

1. Church Seating Criterion #2: COMFORT
2. Church Seating Criterion #3: STORAGE
3. Church Seating Criterion #1: COST

When I counsel churches on chair purchases, I always ask them what their storage situation consists of.  If they have more storage than they know what to do with, then the range of their chair choices is broad.  Of course, there are few churches with that much storage.  Most need to maximize every bit of storage they possess.

The reality is that chairs that provide both excellent comfort and efficient storage will cost more than chairs that provide excellent comfort and a low price point.  If there was a chair that provided all three positives, manufacturers could not keep up with the demand.  Because it does not exist, churches have to choose which of these three factors are most critical to them.

Here’s a key point to remember:  When you’re involved in a church construction project there’s a square foot price for the project.  If a church is able to construct less square footage through the purchase of chairs that store efficiently, the savings can be significant.  One of my favorite chairs for churches literally stores in about 25% of the space needed for the most popular church chair style.  Granted it costs about twice as much per chair, but the construction savings realized far exceeds that additional cost.  My counsel in new construction settings is always the “win-win” of saving dollars and obtaining chairs that maximize storage.

What about settings where new construction is not taking place?  I’m still very partial to chairs that store well.  In the long run, the extra dollars paid for the storage attribute will not be missed.  But over the long run, chairs that store well will be appreciated often.  And to help your church afford the advantages of great storing chairs, be sure and check them out at Church Furniture Partner.  They’ll guide you well in your church chair purchase.

Related posts:

1. Church Seating Criterion #2: COMFORT
2. Church Seating Criterion #1: COST
3. When Purchasing Church Furniture, Consider Storage Costs

• More Padding does NOT Mean More Comfort:  One of the most common assumptions I see well-meaning people make is that a chair with three inches of padding will be more comfortable than a chair with one inch.  This is simply not the case.  Thickness is not as important as quality and contour.
• All Foam is NOT the Same:  There are many options manufacturers can choose from when selecting the foam quality levels they utilize in their products.  There’s not enough room in this short article to detail all of these options, but quality of foam cannot be overstated.
• Width of Chairs are Important Considerations:  I recently talked to a church that purchased several hundred chairs because a great price that was offered them.  It was only after the chairs were delivered and paid for, they realized the chairs were two inches narrower than the chairs they decided against.   Never purchase less than an 18″ wide chair for dining and a 19″ wide chair for worship (20″ for worship is the standard).
• Foam will Only Become Softer:  It’s a fact that foam will never become firmer after you purchase chairs, only softer.  Don’t be overly concerned if the sample chair you have seems a bit stiff.  This likely is a indicator that a higher quality foam is being employed that will serve you better over the long run.
• Don’t Overlook the Effects of Contour:  Many chairs are simply a flat piece of plywood with foam on top of plywood and fabric or vinyl holding the foam to the wood.  But the human body is not flat as we know so discomfort tends to develop very quickly.  Contour molded chairs with less padding and upholstery will often provide superior comfort.  Testing this principle out before purchase is very important.

As always, there’s much more that could be added to this principle of chair comfort.  I encourage you to work with a church chair provider like Church Furniture Partner.  They can provide you not only great pricing, but wise counsel and sample chairs.

Related posts:

1. Church Seating Criterion #1: COST
2. Flex Back Chairs – Pros and Cons
3. Church Seating Reviews

If your church chooses to use a committee for such an important assignment, I would advise that you begin the process with a complete list of the seven criteria that need to be weighed in reaching a recommendation.  Without an intentional effort to do so, the issue of cost will be raised early and often at the expense of the other criteria.  Make sure that each of the criteria is discussed individually and that the committee together determines which criteria are most important to the church.  Over and over I’ve heard churches lament that price and price alone was allowed to determine their seating choice, and it was not long before that became obvious to the church constituency.  Remember, “The pain of poor quality lasts long after the joy of saving money!”

I’ll be sharing about the other six critical criteria to consider as your church chooses its worship seating over the days ahead.  I’d love to hear your comments so please share them with me.  And one more thing:  If you ‘re right now working on a church chair purchase, I’d encourage you to check out Church Furniture Partner.  Their prices are simply the lowest for every level of church seating!

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1. Church Seating Reviews
2. Permanent, Flexible or Transitional Seating?
3. Theater Seating Satisfaction

As I have assisted hundreds of churches over recent years with their church furnishings needs, similar thoughts to those that pastor shared have been far too common.  I believe there are seven main criterion that a church needs to consider during their chair search.  Too often, only a couple of these seven are taken into account, and the result is a purchase that is often regretted over the years following.

My next several posts will explore each of these seven criterion.  We’ll take them one by one and provide insights and recommendations about each.  I’m looking forward to this project as church seating, whether worship seating, classroom seating, cafe seating, or that of several other environments is a substantial part of the life of a church.  People will sit far more in your church than they will stand.  These articles will help the choices of seating we make not to be regretted over the years that follow.

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1. Church Seating from Overseas
2. Permanent, Flexible or Transitional Seating?
3. Church Cafe Seating: How High?

For a complete list of qualifying products, please contact Church Furniture Partner.  They’ll supply you not only with the sale list, but also the steepest discounts in the country.  When in need of church furniture I encourage you to always check with them first.

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2. When Purchasing Church Furniture, Consider Storage Costs
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• Dining Height:  These tables are 30″ high and the chairs around them are standard height chairs, which means the seat is about 18″ from the floor.  Certainly this height is most common in all settings.
• Counter Height: These tables will be 36″ high which is the same height as most kitchen counters.  Chairs are going to have seats that are 24″ from the floor.  This height of tables and chairs is becoming increasingly popular.
• Bar Height: These tables are the tallest at 42″ high, taking their name obviously from the normal height of bars around the country.  The accompanying seating or stools, are going to be 30″ high.  Most settings will have some bar height tables and stools.

As you furnish out your church cafe or coffee-shop, you will want to consider which heights will be best for your application.  I find most churches will choose two of the above heights and use some of each in their project.  You’ll also want to check out  Church Furniture Partner for great pricing on all three cafe styles of seating.

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1. Maximizing Banquet Table Seating Capacity
2. Church Seating from Overseas
3. Lesro Reception Seating Introduces the Mystic Collection

Recently Lesro introduced a new collection of reception furniture named Mystic.  This tapered back collection features a combination of metal, wood and fabric that is very environmentally friendly.  And all Mystic price points appear to be very friendly for churches needing to outfit their office reception area. 

I encourage you to take a look at Mystic if your church is looking to furnish their reception area.   Church Furniture Partner is a great source for church furnishings as they have a huge selection of products along with the lowest prices in the country.

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2. Faith-Based Area Rugs
3. Permanent, Flexible or Transitional Seating?

Church Furniture Partner conducted a non-scientific survey regarding flex back chairs.  Surprisingly we found that several who had purchased flex back chairs believed they were less comfortable over extended periods of time than chairs without a flex back.  The primary reason given was that because the chair was consistently “flexing” as its occupant moved about, the back of the occupant tended to NOT relax, but actually tense up.  A position of comfort was therefore actually harder to obtain.  In other words, the very thing the flex back chair is intended to provide was perceived by several as NOT being delivered.

I would encourage churches considering flex back chairs to try out several over an extended period of time before making such a purchase.  It may be that you can save the church a considerable amount of dollars, and not sacrifice any comfort features by purchasing standard back chairs.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about flex back chairs.  And if you’re looking for church seating, I encourage you to visit Church Furniture Partner for a great selection and low prices.

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1. Church Sound Booth Chairs that Last!

If you’re thinking of a substantial furnishing purchase, the first few months of 2010 might be the time to do so.   Be sure and check out Church Furniture Partner to help the dollars you do have available for furnishings maximize what can be purchased.

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Church Furnishings Manufacturer “One” decides to lower their costs and acquire worship chairs from overseas. They contact various overseas manufacturers and select one to produce a worship chair for them. Within several months, chairs are being shipped from overseas and marketed though North America. However, over time, Manufacturer “One” becomes troubled by the growing quality issues these chairs are exhibiting. Yes, production costs are down, but warranty costs are increasing dramatically.

Eventually Manufacturer “One” decides to invest in their own manufacturing facility overseas. They desire the cost savings that are available, but they need to take steps to raise the quality level. So they increase their level of involvement and oversight. Key personnel are trained in North America and then relocated overseas to insure that needed quality standards are adhered to and maintained. A substantial financial investment take place. And eventually, these worship chairs are being provided to churches in North America and the manufacturer has achieved its goals of both lower costs and improved quality.

The story does not end here though. The previously used overseas manufacturing facility is still set up to make worship chairs. Since Manufacturer “One” now has their own facility, the rejected facility begins to look for other North America manufacturers and even “dealers” to market their worship chairs that have now been “rejected” by Manufacturer “One”. Eventually one or more agree, and the inferior chairs are once again available to churches in North America. These chairs look very similar to potential customers, yet there are substantial quality issues that have been addressed by Manufacturer “One” in their own facility that are not addressed in these worship chairs, leaving church customers often very disappointed when they are not aware of the entire story.

Church Furniture Partner has researched manufacturing practices for most of the church seating available in North America today. While these practices are always in flux, we do have those manufacturers that we would recommend to churches and those we would caution you about. Feel free to contact me with any thoughts are questions you might have regarding church seating.

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2. Permanent, Flexible or Transitional Seating?
3. Theater Seating Satisfaction

I decided it was time to care for this issue once and for all, so I began investigating seating solutions that would last. There were many great products I researched and came to believe would work for us. The problem was each of these solutions were very expensive solutions. I kept looking at church furnishings from manufacturer after manufacturer.

Then I discovered the Elan Drafting Chair from Comfortek Seating.  This extended height chair seemed to promise both the strength we needed and the price we desired.  We tried out a sample chair and loved it.  We ordered three more for our guys and they were very pleased.  Now several years later, every one of these chairs is in perfect condition.  I’m confident none of the Elans will ever join our now disposed of collection of broken predecessors.

For a great price on the Elan Drafting Chair, available in upholstered and non-upholstered versions, you’ll want to check out Church Furniture Partner.  Sample chairs are available for your church to try out!

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These changing stations are made from durable, easy to clean, high density polyethylene which is inherently bacterial resistant. Their clean design fits virtually all decors and is excellent for church budgets. All models are ADA compliant and include built-in liner dispensers as well as all necessary mounting hardware, safety straps and buckles.

As churches seek to obtain the most from every dollar, these changing stations have become a Church Furniture Partner Best Buy! Also, you’ll find pricing well below the going rate for these units at Church Furniture Partner.

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• Blow Molded Tables: These plastic resin based tables have become very popular as they are the least expensive lightweight folding table.  Essentially these tables consist of a table-top that is created via plastic being blown into a mold (Blow Molded) and then a steel frame being attached to the top.  But there are several quality levels with these tables.

1. Non-Commercial Rated Imported Tables: These are the tables you will often find at various warehouse clubs around the country.  They are very inexpensive, but their weight ratings are low and their quality suspect.   Their warranties can sound great, but are often meaningless.  And if you need a good number of tables, chances are there will not be enough in stock at the store and you will have to order them.  I always advise churches looking at this level of table to consider the following option.
2. Commercial Rated Imported Tables: These tables are similar in look and style to those above, but they possess a sturdier construction.  Often the steel will be of a higher gauge, there will be more cross-members  under the table and more connection points to the top.  Their load rating will be higher and they will carry a BIFMA certification and valid warranty.   And you can actually get this table delivered to your church for the same money as the above option if you shop well by working with someone like Church Furniture Partner.  Manufacturers of this type of table include National Public Seating and Correll.
3. Commercial Rated Domestically Produced Tables: This is a fairly unique product from Correll.  These tables are made in the States and are very study.  In addition, these tables have two features that especially appeal to churches.  First, they are available in two solid colors (mocha brown tops with brown legs and gray tops with black legs).  These are very attractive compared to the typical speckled off-white/grey look of the above models.  Secondly, these tables have a profiled edge that is very attractive compared to the two inch flat edge found on the above models.  This allows for table skirting when desired, and just looks far more attractive when uncovered than those above.  This table does cost more then the imported models, but less than the ABS Tables we will look at next.

• ABS Plastic: ABS stands for “Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene,” a composite plastic that is both lightweight and strong enough that football helmets are often constructed from it.  ABS tables possess a degree of interior framing since they have an inner core to accommodate this.  As a result, ABS tables have an inherent strength not found in blow molded tables.  Manufacturers of this type of table include Midwest Folding Products.  I have found that Midwest consistently provides the same quality level of ABS as other manufacturers, but for less dollars.  These tables are more expensive than blow molded tables but cost less than the aluminum tables we will look at next.  And again, I would recommend Church Furniture Partner for the lowest prices and best service on ABS tables.

• Aluminum Tables: The “Cadillac” of lightweight tables for the church market are aluminum tables from Southern Aluminum.  These tables are strong enough to support 4,000 pounds of weight (about four times that of commercial blow molded tables) and yet weigh less than either blow molded or ABS tables.  They come with an amazing lifetime warranty (a real one with no loopholes)!   I have seen these tables used in several churches and the custodial staffs rave about them because of how well they hold up and how easy they are to handle.  These are the most costly lightweight tables for churches, but once they are purchased and paid for, there will be no regrets on the part of the church.  These tables are also available at the lowest prices through Church Furniture Partner.

I always recommend that churches go with the highest quality of tables their budget can afford.  The joy of saving a few dollars at purchase time, will quickly be forgotten as the quality of the tables are demonstrated over time.

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1. Maximizing Banquet Table Seating Capacity
2. Become the Designer for the Table You Want!
3. Steffywood Changing Tables

I have found that there are basically two ways for churches to acquire the answers they’re after:

• One is to farm out the project to an audio-visual subcontractor/designer. You essentially hire and pay for the expertise of an individual and/or company. My experience is that most of the time you’ll receive good advice and counsel. The downside is that churches often feel obligated to purchase their screens from that same individual or company who served as their “expert” and I’ve seen far too many pay substantially more than they should have for their screens.

• A second option is to use some of the online planning tools that companies like Da-lite provide free of charge.   In most situations where churches are installing screens, the calculations needed to determine the correct size are really easier than one assumes.  You simply enter the correct measurements and needs for your environment into the tools provided, and you’ll obtain the same recommendations you might pay significant dollars for.  Additionally, you’ll now be able to shop for the best prices on those screens without feeling obligated to anyone but your church.  In most environments, I recommend pursuing this second option first.

Let me also mention that when you’re ready to purchase your screens, you’ll almost always find the lowest pricing at Church Furniture Partner.  Be sure and contact them for a quote before you purchase.

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• Use 52-54 inches as your spacing between round tables.  In other words, there should be no point in your room where any table edge is closer than 52-54 inches to the tables in any direction.   This will allow the chairs at adjacent tables to be pulled back from their respective tables without undue congestion.
• Consider using a variety of sizes of round tables.  In most cases, 72″ diameter tables create wasted space.  60″ round tables are by far the most popular size we recommend.  However, there are times that a few 54″ round or 48″ round tables will fit into a spot that another 60″ will not.  You can add a few seats with a smaller size table versus forfeiting that space altogether.
• Make sure your choice of seating for your tables does not  negatively impact what a table will normally seat.  Most banquet chairs are 18″ wide.  Occasionally a church will use 20″ or 21″ wide chairs which results in the lost of one seat at each table.  That can have a large impact in reducing the number of seats in a sizable room.

If you need help with your table layout, please feel free to contact me and I’ll be pleased to do so.  And when it comes to the best prices on tables and seating for these areas (along with waste receptacles and tablecloths), be sure and contact Church Furniture Partner!

Related posts:

1. Become the Designer for the Table You Want!
2. Permanent, Flexible or Transitional Seating?
3. Dress Up that Courtyard with Ultra-Play!

Proper hygiene is very important when it comes to fighting colds and various flu strains.  Hand-washing is vital since these spread rapidly without diligent hand-washing.  And parents of those in your nursery and children’s environments will appreciate the extra care you ‘re demonstrating when it comes to the health of their children.

For pricing on any of these various units from Angeles, please be sure and check out Church Furniture Partner as their pricing will likely once again be the lowest in the country.  Stay healthy!

Related posts:

1. Steffywood Changing Tables

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Well, the cost of church furnishings are generally driven by the cost of three important raw materials.  One is steel.  A second is petroleum.  The third is wood.  Over the past several months, none of these basic commodities has seen a substantive increase.  While there are certainly concerns that the increasing money supply could stoke an inflationary period, we have yet to see that take place and therefore a corrosponding increase in commodity prices happen.

From my perspective, most church furnishing manufacturers appear determined to start 2010 with a pricing structure very close to that of the second half of 2009.  With the economy dragging along as it is, the desire to hold off on any price increases as long as possible most describes the prevailing trend for the forseeable future.

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But on to the sale!  Jonti-Craft is offering an additional 23% off of their wood children’s seating, an additional 16% off of their poly shell/steel leg “Berries” Collection Chairs, and an additional 13% off of both their Ridgeline and Rainbow Accent Activity Tables.  Over the years I have worked with Jonti-Craft, I have never seen such substantial savings.  If you’re in the market for children’s seating or tables, I encourage you to take a close look at this special opportunity.

Please be aware that Jonti-Craft does not sell direct to the end user, and instead works through a dealer network.  You’ll likely find the greatest percentage of savings passed on to you by Church Furniture Partner.  Be sure and take a look at their Jonti-Craft pricing!

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With that as a backdrop, I’ve noticed recently that several church seating companies are using the phrase “Built in America” or something similar as they market their chairs.  And what exactly does “Built in America” mean?  Most often it means a number of parts and pieces for their chairs, manufactured most likely by a variety of third-party companies, arrived in American and were assembled here and their chairs were therefore “BUILT in America”.

I’m happy to share my knowledge of church furniture with churches across America.  There are some chairs that are produced off-shore that are of excellent quality and a great value for churches!  There are others that are simply not worth being invested in by any church desiring to make a wise purchase.  Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have on this issue and we’ll do our best to be of assistance.

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1.  Melamine:  This original surface is still sold today.  Melamine is essentially a paper surface that is applied over a press-board surface.  These boards are relatively inexpensive, but also can be scratched quite easily and begin losing their erasability almost with their first use.

2.  Painted Metal:  With this type of whiteboard, paint is sprayed onto a steel or aluminum surface.  As a result, these surfaces last longer than melamine.  They also tend to be smoother, which helps the erasability some, but does not eliminate the ghosting.  These surfaces are still able to be scratched very easily.

3.  Hardcoat Laminate:  This type of surface is relatively new to the market and therefore less common in churches today.  One of the advantages is that the surface generally has a lifetime warranty against such factors as staining and ghosting.  However, scratching is still very possible with this surface.

4.  Porcelain:  This is by far the most durable surface.  It is created by heat as a ceramic mixture is fired onto a steel surface.  The result is a surface that resists scratching , does not stain, erases magnificently,  and almost always carries a lifetime warranty.

From a cost standpoint, the price of each board increases as you move to each higher quality level of surface.  I almost always recommend to churches either a hardcoat laminate surface or the porcelain surface.  I’ve not seen churches satisfied over the long term with either painted metal or melamine surfaces.  Some involved with church furnishings will choose to go with melamine because of cost considerations, but I encourage you to think hard in before doing so.   Be sure and check with save your church money before your purchase, as often you may be able to move up one quality level for the same dollars because of the church-friendly pricing they offer.

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The good news for the church was they were fully insured in regards to their building and church furnishings.  The bad news is their electronic media was destroyed and there were no off-site back-ups.  Basically all church records and their entire database were lost forever.  Did you know that even a hot mug of coffee represents a hazard to electronic media?  Imagine what a major blaze does to such records.

FireKing Data Safes are a phenomenal value given the cost of such a loss for a church.  In a FireKing Data Safe, computer media is protected from fire, dust, magnetic fields, unauthorized access, accidental damage and electrostatics.  Their three hour data safe will maintain an interior temperature of less than 125 degrees Fahrenheit when exposed to fire for three hours at 1925 degrees Fahrenheit.  This same data safe passes not only the Fire Endurance Test, but also the Humidity Test, the Fire and Impact Test and the Explosion Hazard Test which are the most extreme ratings United Laboratories uses.

This type of Data Safe is an amazing and critically important product for churches today.  If the church that burned before Thanksgiving had been utilizing one, the complications from their fire would have been far less.  Others will care for rebuilding the structure and furnishing the building.  But the church will spend years dealing with the ramifications of destroyed records and data.  I encourage you to strongly consider having such a Data Safe in your church.

Please know that Church Furniture Partner now handles the full line of FireKing Products and because of the critical importance, will pass along these products to churches at the lowest prices in the country.   You can contact them for more information.

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Certainly the Southern California climate enhanced the ability of the crowd to gather outdoors during breaks and meals, as well as evening concerts.   But the furnishings played a substantive role in this enhancement as well.  I loved being able to relax around a table with other conference attendees and enjoy both great weather and wonderful fellowship.

Since then I have noticed a trend nationally of churches incorporating similar areas on their grounds.  This is true even if the climate is one that’s not as year-round friendly as that of Southern California.  And often the furnishings that are being used are those made by Ultra-Play Systems.

Ultra-Play specializes in manufacturing high quality commerical grade outdoor furnishings.   Their lines include picnic tables, benches, receptacles, grills, bleachers, bike racks, etc.  Their products are protected by a unique thermoplastic coating that is amazingly durable and holds its new finish for many years.  It’s great to be able to have these products outdoors all winter in colder climates, and not have them suffer a bit from the environment.  Ultra-Play has become a favorite of mine because of their quality and surprisingly affordable price-points. 

If your church has interest in enhancing your grounds with some outdoor furnishings, be sure and ask for a quote from save your church money as their Ultra-Play pricing is the lowest I have found.  Enjoy those outdoor areas!

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Magnuson Group has introduced the Valuta Series of “Green” Waste Receptacles.  Designed by Q Design, Valuta is a versatile family of modular waste and recycling receptacles.  Constructed of steel, Valuta offers 20, 40 & 35-gallon body units, each with three pivoting top options and six customer selectable icon/references for easy sorting of waste, paper, cans and bottles.  Valuta comes in a variety of powder coat colors, and all models include an internal rigid liner.   Best of all, the price points for Valuta seem to be very reasonable compared to other similar lines we’re aware of.

If your interested in using any of the Valuta line in your church to enhance environmental awareness, please be sure and contact Church Furniture Partner as their pricing will inevitably be the lowest in the country.  I’m sure Valuta will serve your church well.

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While the lightness of these tables have been appreciated by custodians and volunteers across the country, there has been one primary trade-off.  Plastic lightweight tables, while highly functional, are not very aesthetically pleasing.  Colors and surface choices in plastic tables are minimal.  At the same time however, no one wants to go back to the days of heavy tables to obtain a more attractive look.

Enter the iDesign Aluminum Tables from Southern Aluminum.   Architects and interior designers love them for their beauty as well as for their lightweight feature.  This is a niche market for Southern Aluminum because the name is just as it implies.  Gary Vitatoe, Regional Sales Director for Southern Aluminum describes iDesign this way, “iDesign means that you become the designer and tell us what you want.  You pick the shape of the table that you want, the size of table, the leg style, and then the fun begins as your designer influence takes over.  Selecting  the laminate, perimeter edge color, and leg color can be an easy task or it can be overwhelming because of the hundreds of laminate selections available.  As the only manufacturer that will allow the customer to fully design their table(s) to meet their needs, our tables will enhance any room setting in which they are placed.  Conference rooms, dining halls, cafeterias, commons areas, class rooms, break-out rooms, and employee break areas all become transformed into brighter, more crisp and inviting areas when furnished with iDesign tables.  Cost wise, iDesign tables are surprisingly affordable as they are about half of what you would expect to pay for another manufacturer’s table that would be similar in appearance.  That is where all similarities end though as you will also find that because the iDesign table is all aluminum, it weighs up to 40% less than other tables of its type.  These are beautiful and lightweight tables to enhance any setting at an affordable price, all backed by an unprecedented written lifetime guarantee…that’s iDesign,only from Southern Aluminum.

If you’re interested in a quote on all Southern Aluminum products, be sure and check out Church Furniture Partner for the best pricing in the country.

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Some time later I learned about Grantco Manufacturing.  Grantco makes a complete line of “soft play” church furniture for children’s ministry.  As a part of that product line, they provide a superior bean bag chair that has proven to be extremely durable with double stitched seams and over-stuffed with beads. The vinyl exterior is easy to clean and disinfect. These bean bags come in multiple sizes and are quite cost competitive.  And despite the significant quality of these bags, they are less expensive than many you will find in department and home furnishing stores.   Many churches are trying out the bean bag option in a select classroom as an experiment.  You may want to do the same!

If you decide to pursue this idea, you’ll want to check out Church Furniture Partner as a source for bean bags.  Their pricing will make bean bags even more affordable for your church.

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Over the years, because of the numerous building projects we have experienced at New Hope, I’ve had the opportunity to show several visiting building committees through our facilities to assist them with church furnishing ideas.  Almost every time, the products from Steffywood capture their interest.  I’ve seen several churches purchase the same products we have at New Hope such as this changing table.  And I then hear later how much their nursery workers and visitors love them.  It’s a great choice for your nursery.

For the best pricing on the entire Steffywood line of products, be sure and contact Church Furniture Partner for a great quote.  Give Steffywood a close look for your church nursery!

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If you have a dozen children in a first grade classroom, likely one size chair will not fit each child comfortably.  If their chair is too large, you will find a child antsy.  If their chair is too small, he or she will be quite distracted.  Helping each have a chair that fits their height well will increase their focus and attention.

Chair sizes are measured from the floor to the top of the seat.  Most adult chairs are 18″ high.  While the above chart is helpful, you can also measure from the floor to the back of the knee on children to determine what size chair will work best for them.  You’ll likely be surprised at the variance you’ll find within the same kid’s age group!

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1. Buy the Best Coffee Equipment: In my opinion, this means buy Bunn-O-Matic!  I have personally used other options and have researched churches that have made other choices.   My non-scientific findings are churches that chose Bunn-O-Matic have no regrets, while those that chose other brands often do.  You may ask, “But doesn’t Bunn cost more”?  That’s a fair question with a simple answer.  There are many vendors that can provide Bunn-O-Matic equipment at a wide range of prices.  For churches though, if you will take advantage of Church Furniture Partner and their special relationship with Bunn, you will find prices well below the going rate, and Bunn will become a viable option for your church.  Go with the best!

2.  Calculate how much coffee you brew each Sunday: Too many churches buy coffee equipment that’s not meant to prepare the volume of coffee they need to brew.  The result is that people wait for coffee and also that the quality of the coffee is degraded.  Coffee is intended to be brewed at a constant temperature.  When the equipment is overtaxed, then the water temperature varies and the flavor is affected.  Determine how much coffee you’re going to brew, bump that amount a bit to accommodate special days, and then obtain a recommendation from Church Furniture Partner as to what level of equipment is needed.

3.  Determine where you need the coffee served: Are you going to have coffee located in several satellite locations, or is there going to be one central location where everyone gets their coffee?  This will help you determine what size of air-pots or thermo-servers you will need to purchase.  By the way, the days of keeping coffee under heat in a serving area seem to be over.  Studies have concluded that the flavor of coffee degrades under heat.  With the quality of today’s air-pots and thermo-servers, whether you use one location or several, I recommend them enthusiastically.  There’s no need to keep the coffee under heat and degrade the flavor, or pay for the electricity to do so.

I hope this this helps your church.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Right now I’m going to go have a cup of coffee!

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However, there’s always a downside to every great opportunity. That’s actually what prompted Brad’s phone call. Every week they’ll have to set up environments for their Children’s Ministry. The rooms they’re going to use are rather bland in decor before set-up, plus they have athletic surfaces that will need to be protected (versus the brightness and attractiveness of today’s children environments). Brad simply asked, “Any suggestions George?”

I immediately thought of the new faith-based collection of area rugs from Joy Carpets.  Joy now has 16 distinct Biblical themes integrated into the collection, and each rug comes in several sizes so that any size room is a candidate for their use.  You can place them down each Sunday morning, and both protect the floors underneath the rugs, as well as add bright, captivating Biblical themes to the rooms. It’s really a great solution for many of the “portable churches” of our day.

If you’re interested in faith-based rugs, you’ll want to connect with Church Furniture Partner as the prices you’ll find there will always be the lowest in the country for churches. I’ve seen that be the case several times now with these rugs. So far the Creation-Themed Rug seems to be the most popular one for churches. If you have a moment, let me know which one is your favorite from Joy Carpets.

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Over lunch I had the opportunity to speak with the church’s Executive Pastor and some other staff members.  To a person, they spoke highly of their new building and their church furniture and how happy they were with everything except two areas.  One of those was their sound system, and other was their theater seating.  They were dealing with a general displeasure from their congregation and found themselves sadly finding the complaints warranted.

Theater seating in the church market is dominated by three or four manufacturers and most of the product is made offshore.  The thinking seems to be, “The church will only use these on Sundays and we don’t need a performing arts quality of seat for a one-day use application.”  Couple that with the reality that churches are always looking for a lower price, and my discomfort in that theater seat was explained.

It’s interesting though that when I am in most performing arts centers (and under their seats looking for the manufacturer’s name) I don’t find the names of any of the manufacturers that are most common in the church market.  And the comfort and quality of that performing arts seat is immediately evident.

Who do I see the most in those performing arts settings?  Inevitably it is American Seating.  Manufactured in Grand Rapids, MI, this seat stands out.  Recently American Seating has taken steps to enter the church market in a more prominent manner as Church Furniture Partner is now partnering with American Seating nationally to help churches obtain a superior product level for similar dollars.  If you’re thinking of theater seating for your church, I encourage you to check out American Seating before you purchase.  You’re going to be using these seats a long time.   You may avoid being in the situation those staff members I had lunch with were in!

1. Permanent, Flexible or Transitional Seating?

Permanent Seating:  This style of seating has become very popular over past two decades and is often referred to as “pew-style” seating.  The chairs are wide and comfortable, they fit seamlessly next to each other and they are more on the “formal” side of the spectrum.  While they are technically “portable”, their weight and size (along with the space needed for their storage) better fit the definition of permanent.

Flexible Seating:  With the growing popularity of multi-purpose areas for worship, the need for flexible seating has increased as well.  The best “flexible” seating provides close to the comfort of permanent seating, while having the ability to be used in both rows and around tables.  These chairs are a bit narrower, a little lighter, and store more easily than permanent seating.  They also cost a bit less because overall there are less raw materials needed in its construction.

Transitional Seating:  With many settings today, the room may need to be configured several times during the week.  When this is the case, seating that is easy to handle, easy to store, and very stackable becomes desirable.  Some transitional seating can be stored in a fourth of the space it would take to store a comparable amount of permanent seating.  Some models are also amazingly strong and yet weigh half of what permanent and flexible seating chairs may weigh.  These will often cost more at purchase time, but can  be a great investment when all factors are considered in the purchase.

For a visual overview of these three types of worship seating, check out this presentation from churchfurniturepartner.com.

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As we visited more, he shared with me about the actual chair his church was purchasing 800 of. It had an attractive price of $40. I asked a few more questions and learned that the church was building for $130 per square foot. I processed a few numbers in my head and asked him, “What if you could buy a chair that would be far stronger, far lighter, just as comfy, and while it would cost $70 each versus $40, would result in a savings for your church of over $30,000?” His interest immediately became obvious.

Churches can always use storage space, but storage space can be just as costly as people space.  With your church furniture purchases, you will want to consider storage costs as a part of your church furniture worksheet.  You may find like my friend did that you can buy a better product, save on storage space, and experience an overall savings for your church.  I’ve seen it happen many times!

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