In the Live Workshop

Bruce Woody is President & CEO for HH Architects and a frequent speaker on both large and small-scale church/faith-based campus planning projects. Since joining the firm in 1990, he has served as Design Lead or Principal-in-Charge on the vast majority of the firm’s large-scale projects, many of which are award winning. Bruce is best known for his creative problem-solving skills and the passion he has for design, which is evident in each long-standing partnership he has developed through his 30 years with the firm.

He currently serves on the boards of Sunny Glen Children’s Home and the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design Dean’s Association. He is an active member of Texas Society of Architects, American Institute of Architects Dallas Chapter, and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

Leet’s define what a Master Plan should include. It seems simple but is it? What happens if a church doesn’t have a master plan? Then let’s dig deeper into the process: What does the church need to bring to the table? What does the architect ask a church to provide? What does the architect do with that information? What does the draft plan look like? What is the discussion with the church about that draft? We’ll go from a church with no plan to one with a design.

Mark R. Ashcraft is a Senior Associate of HH Architects. He serves as the Creative Director for the firm and has been blessed to work with many ministries during his 18 year tenure.

He is passionate about sharing the strategic thinking behind faith-based design, how it shapes the user experience, and the importance of being ministry driven in those efforts.

Chris Lewis is the Senior Relationship Manager at Thrivent Church Financing. Chris tells real-life stories, learned from his many years of experience working with churches and financing their expansion projects. The stories are told anonymously, but the principles learned can help ministries understand the importance of realistic planning and leadership. If your ministry is considering growth options, allow the “scars and the glory” to speak to you in this season of expansion. Whether refinancing or improving your facilities so you can spread the Gospel and make a bigger difference in your community, Thrivent shares your vision and hope for the future.

Chris was born in Brazil, where his parents served as missionaries. Chris learned 3 languages: Spanish, Portuguese and English. In 2006, after assisting the church he was attending with a capital campaign, Chris discovered that there was a need for lenders to work with growing ministries. Over the years, Chris has worked with growing ministries by providing sustainable financing solutions for construction, acquisition and refinancing.

Brad Leeper is the President and Principal of Generis Partners. How can your church obtain the capital needed for the construction in a way that makes sense in the current environment? Brad’s unique approach allows him to serve larger and growing churches with significant funding requirements.

Brad has a strong understanding of the multisite church strategy and other pioneering church movements. He is drawn to larger, innovative, growing churches and the challenges of helping them expand in the area of generosity, practically and spiritually.

Frank Barry is a founding executive team member and COO at Tithe.ly. Prior to being at Tithe.ly, Frank spent nearly 15 years helping churches, charities, and nonprofit organizations leverage technology to advance their mission. He also spent five years serving as a youth pastor. When Frank is not helping churches use technology to advance the kingdom of God, he’s spending time with his triplet boys and their superhero mom in San Diego, California.

Frank will help us examine the tools you need to engage with your church online, stay connected, increase generosity, and simplify the lives of your staff. There are a variety of tools: text and email messaging, church apps and websites, church management software, digital giving.

Dave Milam is the Vice President of Strategic Design at Visioneering Studios. He stands firmly at the intersection of ministry, design, and visual storytelling. Dave served in the church for over 20 years. Dave has a heart for guiding pastors through unique challenges of ministry to awaken the beauty that God has placed within them and their facilities. His writing has been featured in LifeWay, Outreach Magazine, Influence, Christian Standard and other national periodicals.

There are upcoming changes in worship space. With people only going to church 1.5 to 2 times a month, how will an online church help them stay in worship when traveling or at a child’s ball game? As congregants continue to watch your services on Sunday or Monday nights, how will this change worship auditoriums? There are also safety and security issues. The landscape of doing church is changing. Learn with Dave from his vast experience with churches around the nation.

Danae Dougherty is a Managing Principal at Visioneering Studios. Wanting to understand the holistic relationship between interior, building, and site design, Danae pursued an undergraduate degree in Interior Architecture and a Masters Degree in Architecture from UCLA.

Her national project experience includes concept design to construction administration and everything in between. Project experience includes healthcare, commercial, education, retail, hospitality, non-profit and faith-based.

Robert Bergmann is the Creative Principal at Visioneering Studios. As a small child, Bob loved art and design. The first building blocks that brought design into reality were his Lego set. Later, his first full-time job in an architect’s office allowed him to design resorts and theme parks worldwide over 20 years.

Before joining Visioneering Studios, Bob served as the Principal Designer at AECOM (the world’s largest A&E firm). This opened the door for design work with Disney, Universal, Warner Bros, and international resorts. By November of 2002, Bob became the first designer at Visioneering Studios, leading our team in delivering mind-blowing solutions for our clients.

Jeff Beachum is a Multiplication Specialist at Portable Church®. He comes alongside church leaders who are engaged in launching multisite campuses and new plants. Jeff brings a rich background to his current role with Portable Church®. He has worked in the commercial real estate appraisal profession both before and after serving a number of years as a pastor in the local church. Jeff led the Indiana Commercial Board of Realtors for several years before being called back to his home state of Michigan. Using this cacophony of opportunities he has had, Jeff is now helping church leaders build and grow the momentum of their multisite strategies or planting new churches.

Why not launch the church in the community you want to land in now, while you are planning and building a church facility to dwell in permanently? Examining the experience of PCI’s Church Partners like Life.church, LibertyLive Church, Manna Church, and others—all serial multiplication churches—we share 10 proven and compelling great reasons to start with a portable campus before and during the building process of a permanent campus in a new community. Learn the secrets to multiplying exponentially! Don’t mark time! The build/buildout process for a commercial building, or a merger that includes a facility renovation, can easily take 2-3 years. Too often the main reason for the project is lost in the journey—that of generating momentum for a community of healthy engaged people.

Kevin Jones is the Business Development & Marketing Director for Portable Church. He has been at Portable Church Industries for over 18 years and has been using PCI systems for over 22 years through 3 different church plants.

Through Portable Church Kevin has helped over 600 plants and multisites get off the ground. That’s a part of the over 3,000 churches that Portable Church has served!

Tim Cool is founder of Smart Solutions, but more importantly, the husband to Lisa and father to 20 year old triplets. His passion is serving churches to be intentional with their facilities … and he loves hiking in the North Carolina Mountains.

What Will the New Facility Cost to Run? Now that you are planning your new facility, have you thought about the budget it will take to run it? An obvious expense is the utility costs of electricity, gas and water. Also consider regular cleaning and maintenance costs. This could be in more employees or outsourced cleaners. There are new costs in materials as well, such as cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and other equipment. Everything adds up and you need to know that number for your church budget once the new facility is built or renovated.

Michael Martin is president of Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. With its mission of Enhancing Trust, ECFA now certifies nearly 2,300 Christ-centered churches and ministries based on its high standards in financial management, governance and gift administration. ECFA is also a leading provider of church resources, including the free ChurchEXCEL subscription at ECFA.church.

Michael will address the financial aspect of prudent debt. If a church takes on too much debt, it will adversely affect their budgets for years to come. Churches want new buildings, but need to be wise with the finances.

Only in the Recorded Classes

Bishop David G. Evans is a leader in today’s global ministry. His passion for soul-winning is evident in his signature altar calls, touching hundreds of lives during each ministry opportunity. No stranger to excellence and consistency, the undergraduate degrees he earned in education and economics served as stepping stones to what he would spend his adult years doing: educating people and building thriving ministry organizations.

His 27,000-member Bethany Church in Lindenwold, New Jersey, is the headquarter church for his Abundant Harvest Fellowship of Churches, a pastoral covering for more than 175 churches in the United States, Africa, and India. In addition to the ministry’s record label, non-profit arm, and two books, Healed Without Scars and Dare to be a Man, which together have sold nearly half a million copies, and soon to be released … Elevate from Perdition to Providence and Where Did I Put That Sock! Bishop Evans’ ministry reaches millions of people through his radio program, entitled OnPointe! and television show Elevate. Gifted. Seasoned. Sage. David G. Evans is a voice of empowerment sent to revitalize the believer.

Reverend Nicholas Smith is the Executive Assistant Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church. Nick is the long time designated successor to Bishop Evans. See their video on their relationship and plans here.

Pastor Smith works hand-in-hand assisting pastor-teacher Evans. He is a long-time friend of XPastor, with some outstanding articles on the site.

Steve Hron is Vice President of Cass Commercial Bank’s Church and Ministries Division, will walk you through some of the credit markers that lenders look to when counseling a church to prudent debt levels, including specifics on the impact of the COVID season. Bring your questions for this interactive session.

The Word says, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” Cass Bank helps churches thrive through sound counsel and tailored financial solutions. When it comes to borrowing money for a project, Cass helps churches strike that delicate balance between faith and financial prudence.

Andy Satkowiak, the Development Manager at Gyve, a Division of Cass Bank, will do an interactive presentation on Gyve’s unique Round Up feature. This is an ideal mechanism to engage new donors, which leads them to a discipleship path of good stewardship. Bringing in new donors is a fantastic way of encouraging other donors, both large and small, to participate in your next vision project.

Andy leads the Sales and Development at Gyve, a generosity platform that provides donation management and donor analytics to hundreds of churches and non-profits across the nation. From his experience as a psychologist and as a business executive, Andy has been guiding churches in the use of the platform as well as crafting a stewardship strategy to make an impact for the Kingdom.

Chris Lewis is the Senior Relationship Manager at Thrivent Church Financing. Chris tells real-life stories, learned from his many years of experience working with churches and financing their expansion projects. The stories are told anonymously, but the principles learned can help ministries understand the importance of realistic planning and leadership. If your ministry is considering growth options, allow the “scars and the glory” to speak to you in this season of expansion. Whether refinancing or improving your facilities so you can spread the Gospel and make a bigger difference in your community, Thrivent shares your vision and hope for the future.

Chris was born in Brazil, where his parents served as missionaries. Chris learned 3 languages: Spanish, Portuguese and English. In 2006, after assisting the church he was attending with a capital campaign, Chris discovered that there was a need for lenders to work with growing ministries. Over the years, Chris has worked with growing ministries by providing sustainable financing solutions for construction, acquisition and refinancing.

Teresa Loker is the Director of Church Loan Underwriting at Thrivent Church Financing. Few people have overseen $1.3 billion in church loans and she is an expert! Understand the process of a loan, the data needed and length of processing time. COVID-19 has added new wrinkles to loans and church expansion as well. Bring your questions from your church’s hopes and desires; get great answers in this interactive workroom. As Thrivent posts on their website: Hear how partnering with Thrivent to refinance their mortgage provided Judson Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee with the opportunity to be on track to fulfill their vision.

Teresa has been helping ministries nationwide with their financing needs for the last 25 years. She was previously with Bank of the West in their Religious Institution Lending Division. As the Managing Director of Credit, she oversaw a $1.3 billion church loan portfolio with direct management of the underwriting team. During her tenure, she was also a relationship manager and played a key role in business development. Her career experience also includes jobs in retail banking, commercial real estate and asset based lending. She is also fluent in Spanish.