WHEN AND HOW TO BUILD FOR RECREATION

Thinking about building a recreation or activities building?

There are many reasons for a church, organization or community to build a recreation facility.  Some of these are good and many are not so good.  When you are considering building for recreation you should know your needs and your financial capabilities.  Remember the old saying, “Look a gift horse In the mouth”?  This is not suggesting that you check the teeth or the health of the mouth.  It is telling you to count the cost of money and effort before you take the gift.  Many organizations are offered a large gift to build a recreation building and jump right into the mode of hiring an architect and acquiring the needed property to build without ever really considering the cost.  There are many hidden cost to operating and maintaining a recreation facility.  Also, there is the question of need and priority.  Many times the need seems to be present but the timing and priority are not right.

 

When is a Church or Organization Ready to Consider Building a Recreation Facility?

First, consider the need and then consider your readiness to build.  What do I mean by consider the need?  What are your goals for your organization?  Have you determined these goals, written them down and then prioritized them?  If not, then the first step in your planning process is to do just that.  After your have written and prioritized your goals, evaluate each one and determine if you have accomplished the ones that preceded the goal to build a recreation facility.

 

Let me explain.  Let’s use a church for an example.  Consider these goals and the priority that we have placed them.

·         Pastoral Ministry

·         Music Ministry

·         Education Ministry

·         Youth Ministry

·         Children’s Ministry

·         Outreach Ministry

·         Women’s Ministry

·         Men’s Ministry

·         Recreation or Activties Ministry

 

Criteria for Evaluating.  What are the criteria for evaluating each of these Ministries?

·         Is the ministry or program successfully accomplishing what you want it to accomplish?

·         Is the Ministry or program properly housed and equipped?

·         Is it meeting all of the criteria that were listed?

If so, you are ready to move to the next area of ministry and evaluate it.  It is not wise to consider making a major investment or starting a new area of ministry until the basics are strong, properly operating, adequately housed and fully equipped.  Any time you short cut these steps you are asking for heart ache and frustration.  Whether you are leading a church, community or private organization you still need to follow these steps to successfully reach the full potential of your ministry or program.

 

Things to consider!

What is the cost of a planning and constructing a recreation facility?  What will be the everyday operating and maintenance cost?  What will be the cost of equipment, promotion and supplies?  Who will supervise the daily operation and teach the classes? Who will use the facility and when?  How will it impact other programs or ministries of the organization?

 

There are many helps available to help you evaluate your need to build.  Listed below your will find some of those resources and links to other web sites that will help you.

 

 

John Garner with Life Way Christian resources wrote a very good article on “Recreation and Sports Ministry Facilities”.  He recommends two very good resources.

 

Recreation and Sports Ministry Facilities

By John Garner

Churches today build recreation facilities for the wrong reasons with little or no thought as to how to use them or how much they will cost after the facility is built. A recreation facility could be the best thing a church does or the worst nightmare it could imagine.  Here are some things to consider.

Wrong reasons to build

Here are seven wrong reasons to build. If your church is building for one of these you might need to stop and reevaluate.

1. “The Everybody Has One” syndrome

Just because the church across town has a gym, is no reason to build. Keeping up with the Jones just might keep your church from being all it could be.

2. “The Survival” Mode

Many churches think that if they build a recreation facility that new people will join

and bring their tithe money or maybe unify the church to get it over a dissension

problem. This is just not true. The realities of running, staffing, programming and

budgeting in a recreation facility often causes financial and membership problems to be magnified.

3. “Getting the Cart Before the Horse”.

Churches should hire a person who is called into this ministry at least a year

(preferably two) before the facility is built. This person starts programming without a facility so that when a facility is built the building compliments the ministry and becomes a natural next step in the ministry’s genesis.

 

4. We Will “Keep Em Off the Streets” or the “Youth Building “myths.

If youth wanted supervision, they would not hang out on parking lots. A properly run facility will be properly staffed and supervised. A properly staffed facility will not appeal to those young people who do not want supervision. Also, if a recreation building ever gets the “youth building” label, adults will not come. However, If you build and decorate for adults the teenagers will come.

5. “Our Community Needs Recreation” reason

No church can provide recreation activity for the entire community. Churches do not have the money, manpower or scriptural mandate to do so. You can loose your.  Christ Distinctive. easily when overwhelmed by the community. A balanced

intentional plan for reaching the community must be in place.

6. The “Sports Complex” mindset

Sports is one programming area of recreation ministry. Be sure you provide for

fitness/wellness, arts and crafts, children, continuing education, camping day

camping, fellowship, games, and sports. Make a facility as multi-purpose as you can.

7. The “We Will Win Souls” rationale.

If you are not winning souls now, you won’t after a recreation facility is built. A

recreation facility is simply a tool. Used intentionally, it can assist your members

build relationships with people thus, providing opportunities to witness in a nonintimidating atmosphere.  Building for the wrong reasons can hurt a church and its ministry for years. However, built for the right reasons at the right time in the life of the church, a recreation facility will compliment the overall church and be a natural next step in ministry growt

 

Readiness to build checklist.

The Church Architecture Department along with the Church Recreation Program has come up with a checklist to determine readiness to build a recreation facility. See how your church stacks up.

 

___     Does the church have an existing recreation program that involves children, youth, adults and senior adults?

 

___     Does the church have a full-time staff person other than the pastor with recreation programming responsibility?

 

___     Does the church understand the additional manpower, both volunteer and paid, required for proper operation of a facility?

 

___     Does the church have adequate financial resources to perpetually budget each  year for the ongoing expenses of church recreation programming, staffing, maintenance, equipment, utilities, insurance, etc.?

 

___     Does the church have a plan for controlling, staffing, and hours of operation of the building?

 

 

___     Can the current need for a facility be met by rented or borrowed recreation space from community groups (schools, community center, YMCA, etc)? If so, has the use of these been maximized?

 

___     Is there an ample amount of space given to education, worship and parking space needs for at least the next 5 years?

 

___     Does the church own adequate property for expansion of worship, education, Recreation and parking facilities for he foreseeable future?

 

___     Does the church have a long-range master plan for the stewardship of all property owned?

 

___     Can the church afford to build commercial quality, durable construction that fits with other buildings on-site and purchase heavy-duty commercial quality equipment that will withstand the recreational use and potential abuse of such a facility?

 

___     Does the church recognize that a recreation building alone will not make it grow, or more evangelistic?

 

If the answer to these is yes; full speed ahead! You are a good candidate for a church recreation facility or multi-purpose facility. If the answer to one or more of these questions is no; the church should 1) Reconsider building until these issues have been addressed, or 2) plan to address them in the early planning stages of the project.

 

Recreation in the Church.

Recreation ministry is a ministry that assist churches in accomplishing their mission as a part of the Kingdom of God. Churches do not have to have a facility to do recreation ministry. Ministry requires a desire to use what is available to accomplish what God has called a church to do. A recreation facility is a tool used to allow the ministry to take the next logical step.

 

Beginning a Recreation Ministry is Like starting a New Church.

Think of building a recreation facility like starting a new church. Does a new church start go out and build a multi-million dollar building right off the bat? No, they start in a storefront or school or in other rented or donated space and build the membership and ministry to the place where if they don’t build something, ministry and church growth will be hampered. Surveys are done, proven steps are followed, a lot of hard work and prayer go into establishing a foundation for something that will have lasting impact. A facility enables and facilitates expansion of ministry. When a church starts a recreation ministry, it starts on a journey that can touch and impact the culture around it. When the time comes for a facility to be constructed because the next step is at hand and not building would stifle ministry, then a church has a good foundation on which to build not just a building, but a ministry that will touch lives and make a difference for the Kingdom of God.

 

Two Good Resources.

The Church Recreation Program of Life Way Christian Resources has two primaryresources to help churches that are thinking about building a recreation facility.

 

1. The Guidebook for Planning Recreation Facilities is an eighty four page book that will walk any size church through the thinking, planning, design and construction phases of building a recreation facility This book includes floor plans, diagrams, and listings of equipment and considerations for each area of a recreation facility. Designed for building committees, this book is also good for architects to reference for specific church recreation applications.

 

2. The Operating Manual for Church Recreation Centers is a complete day-to-day guide for efficient operation of any size facility. This resource contains over 400 pages of helps for programming, budgeting, volunteer systems, forms, sample policies, staffing, publicity and promotion, job descriptions, calendaring and much more. If your church has a recreation facility, you need this manual.

 

Another resource is the National Recreation and Sports Facilities Seminar held in Nashville every third week in September. Running Monday evening through Thursday noon this very intensive seminar covers critical areas of planning and programming from design principles, equipment purchase, staffing, tours of existing facilities, maintenance, floor options, risk management, and more.

 

To get either one of these resources or a brochure on the National Recreation and Sports Facility Seminar, call 1-615-251-3848 during business hours. These resources are not in the materials catalog.