Years ago, when the Church Furniture Partner was just beginning to come alongside churches across the country with their church furniture and church furnishings needs, I first heard the “Good, Fast or Cheap Rule”.   I believe it was Randy Shellenberg, President of Comfortek Seating that first shared this rule with me though it has been an adage in the church furniture industry for likely decades.

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!