Rowland Constructors Completes Arizona House of Worship

Rowland Constructors of Scottsdale, Ariz., completed construction of three new buildings and related site work on an adjacent parcel near the existing campus at Desert Gateway Baptist in Gilbert, Ariz.

Rowland Constructors of Scottsdale, Ariz., credits a “great partnership” with church leadership at Desert Gateway Baptist in Gilbert, Ariz., with helping them construct three community-attracting buildings, extra parking and outdoor common areas. Image courtesy of Rowland Constructors.

Desert Gateway Baptist Church hired Rowland Constructors to break ground in May 2009 on nearly 19,000 square feet of new facilities on 4.75 acres. The project includes a 590-seat, state-of-the-art worship facility, children and adult education classrooms, a large fellowship hall and administration offices. Site work included two new child play areas with play structures over rubberized areas, exterior circulation and fellowship areas beneath angular shade canopies, 135 additional parking spaces, and landscaped retention and common areas.

"Working with Desert Gateway Baptist Church on their new campus has been a great partnership,” says Paul Alessio, managing partner for Rowland Constructors. “The church is making a positive impact on the Gilbert community, as well as the state of Arizona, and Rowland is proud to serve this growing congregation."

www.rowlandconstructors.com  www.desertgatewaybaptist.org

Pew Research Statistics Underscore Today‘s Outreach Opportunities

A survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C., from May 8-Aug. 13, 2007, highlights the current prime landscape for churches to reach the unchurched of their communities. The study details statistics on religion in America and explores the shifts taking place—then and now— in the U.S. religious landscape. Based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans age 18 and older, the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey finds that religious affiliation in the United States is both diverse and fluid.

Pew reports on its website that more than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion—or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religion altogether.

The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.

For more information on the survey and its results, see http://religions.pewforum.org/reports.

www.pewforum.org

Virginia-Based Grant Writing Consultancy Celebrates 10 Years

Here-4-You Christian Grant Consulting, a Front Royal, Va.-based company that provides funding development and grant writing services mostly for Christian churches and ministries, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Jeffrey Rodman, president and CEO, Here-4-You Christian Grant Consulting, Front Royal, VA

In honor of the occasion, Here-4-You is offering discounts on its services throughout March 2010. This includes its Jump Start, Grant Catalyst, Grant Ready, and Full Service Packages, its Grant Feasibility and Grant Market Analysis, and its Christian Funding Directory.

Jeffrey Rodman founded Here-4-You Christian Grant Consulting in February 2000. He had developed enough of a client base to leave his full-time job as a non-profit executive director to devote all of his time to the company, serving as president and CEO. Rodman, a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and a Certified Grants Specialist (CGS), is a national authority on grant writing for Christian ministries and churches.

Learn more about the company and its services at www.npfunds.com or (866) HERE-4-U-1.

www.npfunds.com

Florida Community Sees First Church Rise Up in its Area

Orlando, Fla., builder H.J. High Construction Co. and local Cuhaci & Peterson Architects teamed up on North Park Baptist Church in Orlando‘s Baldwin Park area to deliver the community‘s first house of worship. Image courtesy of H.J. High Construction Co.

H.J. High Construction Co. of Orlando, Fla., has completed construction on a new worship facility for North Park Baptist Church in the city‘s Baldwin Park community. The 18,000-square-foot church houses worship space, classrooms, a preschool facility, and administrative offices. H.J. High reports that this is the first church located in the Baldwin Park area. Orlando-based Cuhaci & Peterson Architects LLC designed the new structure for North Park Baptist Church.

www.c-p.com  www.hjhigh.com  www.northparkbaptist.org  

Meet a Builder with a Strong Financial Services Arm

A conversation with David Sims and David Dennison of Building God‘s Way, Ogden, Utah
By Carol Badaracco Padgett

Left: David Dennison, director of finance and underwriting, Building God‘s Way, Ogden, UT. Right: David A. Sims, JD PhD, president and CEO, Building God‘s Way, Ogden, UT

WF Newsbyte: What does your company offer, briefly?
Sims and Dennison: Building God‘s Way | Financial assists church and Christian ministries [across the country] by providing comprehensive, coordinated and creative funding solutions analysis, consultation, advice and financing options for securing mortgage financing for construction, refinance, purchase, debt consolidation and renovation projects.

WF Newsbyte: Tell us about the Funding division of Building God‘s Way. How are that division and the company overall uniquely qualified to help church leaders with successful project funding?
Sims and Dennison: Building God‘s Way (BGW) has three funding divisions: BGW Forward in Faith (capital campaign services for churches across the country, headed by Rev. Terry Bates); BGW Financial (capital finance and consultation for churches, schools and non-profits around the country, headed by David Sims and David Dennison); and BGW Development (capital campaign and development consultation, headed by Jerry Twombly). [BGW] also serves its clients‘ comprehensive economic, stewardship and endowment needs through BRS Consulting Inc. (http://www.brs-consulting.com), an independent company located in Little Rock, Ariz., headed by Rich Jensen.

Building God‘s Way | Financial is uniquely qualified to help local churches, schools and other ministries successfully fund their projects through its creative and coordinated consultative approach financing. We currently work with over 45 lenders throughout the United States that prefer to partner with ministries by serving their financing needs. Our lender base represents all of the major market segments of church finance, including national and regional commercial banks, private equity funds, Christian credit unions, investment banks, broker/deals (church bonds) and others.

WF Newsbyte: Do other builders offer these funding services—why or why not? And what‘s the advantage of having a builder who also offers a program for funding a project?
Sims and Dennison: Most builders do not have an internal financing division, although many may claim to. Builders recognize the value of having an internal funding mechanism since the most common reason that a construction project doesn‘t make it to completion is usually lack of financing.

Building God‘s Way | Financial works closely with our 25 BGW builders and architects to help determine the project parameters for our clients based upon borrowing and fundraising capability in addition to possible cash contributions. We have found that this coordinated approach has greatly served the Kingdom by helping to ensure that the local church and other ministries do not over-extend themselves financially and, ultimately, the financing is available when the time comes to begin construction.

WF Newsbyte: Just as your building efforts help a church reach out to and minister to a community, do your funding services help in this effort too?
Sims and Dennison: Many times Building God‘s Way | Financial will partner with the local church to create a program that allows the local church congregation and others in the community to provide the necessary financing to complete a building project. This financing structure provides the unique opportunity for the congregation and community to unite together to fund the expansion of the Kingdom of God while personally receiving the financial benefit of the church mortgage.

WF Newsbyte: Give me an example of a church that, in the past year, has used both your building services and funding services. Describe the project for us.
Sims and Dennison: Recently, Building God‘s Way | Financial and our partner Building God‘s Way builder in California, Hilbers Contractors, partnered with Yreka Church of the Nazarene in Yreka, Calif., to provide building and financing solutions. Yreka Church of the Nazarene had worked with Building God‘s Way to design and build a 12,000-square-foot facility with a construction cost of nearly $1.5 million. With the assistance of Building God‘s Way | Financial, the local congregation and community were able to partner together to provide the necessary financing to fund the construction of their new worship facility. The local church received over $250,000 of gifts from church members and others in the community, with the remaining financing provided through an internally placed bond program. The financing process allowed many in the community who were not members of the church to partner with Yreka Church of the Nazarene by investing in the expansion of the local church.

WF Newsbyte: What‘s the most important ingredient in getting a church project funded—in raising funds from a congregation? What must they understand for the project to be successful and economically viable?
Sims and Dennison: There is a unique mixture of ingredients that Building God‘s Way | Financial looks for and helps the local church identify and achieve in order to fund an expansion project. Some of those ingredients include a capital campaign in which church members faithfully and sacrificially give to a building fund, structuring the financing in a way that allows for the optimal level of debt service/mortgage payments compared to the annual budget of the local church, and many other aspects that the church needs to undertake in order to prepare themselves for financing.

Specifically, Building God‘s Way | Financial works with the local church to structure the financing and project parameters in a way that ensures that the ministry will undertake the appropriate project size that will not jeopardize other core ministry initiatives.

Interested church leaders can visit BGW’s website at www.BGWFinancial.com and request a free Funding Solutions Analysis (FSA) for projects. For questions, contact either David Sims at (501) 442-3585 or David Dennison at (719) 264-9906.

www.BGWFinancial.com