Make sure you have a big party for your grand opening because you deserve it! Better yet, don’t wait until the project is done before you celebrate. Celebration should be a constant thread throughout your development process. Development is a challenging, lengthy process, so be sure you celebrate small victories and milestones along the way. And each step of the journey is an opportunity to give God glory for His faithfulness and provision in the process.
At this point you’re probably feeling overwhelmed and discouraged. Please don’t be! You will not, at any point, be alone in this. Just Homes is here for you. Others have paved the way for you to do this work. You’ll have partners, and we will be here with you every step of the way to provide guidance, encouragement, and the energy to keep going.
Common mistakes to be aware of before you begin
In our conversations with pastors, developers, and consultants, we heard a lot of common mistakes churches make during this process. Here’s what you should avoid:
Absence of prayer: If your project, your site, and your people are not bathed in prayer, you will fail. If you are not leading with prayer, constantly seeking the Spirit’s guidance and the Lord’s voice in the process, you will lose your motivation and could end up harming rather than helping your community.
Poor relationship definition: you should anticipate all potential crossroads you may stumble upon with the development partners. For example, who will have access to the development fee at the end of the deal? How will it be divided? Who is the ultimate decision-maker? This goes for within your CDC, your church, and in your partnership. Who decides what throughout the process?
Lack of appropriate expertise and leadership: When an already overextended pastor tries to be the main internal driver of the project, things often get missed. Appointing another person in the congregation to play this role helps mitigate against this pitfall. Similarly, churches that don’t hire experienced professionals to represent their interests in the project are easily susceptible to bad deals. This includes financial advice, legal representation, understanding of tax law, and other areas. You will pay more in the long run for not hiring the necessary expertise.
Poor long-term planning: if you’re building or renovating a new church, do you have the funds for upkeep? Who will manage the property once it’s built?
This was a lot of information, and likely falls far outside the comfort zone of most faith leaders. However, more and more houses of worship in both the DC region and across the country are seeing that development is possible. Recognizing that church land resources are uniquely suited to meet the critical need for justice housing.
Just Homes is walking with you, so let’s take this one step at a time and begin to explore what is possible.
*The information above was compiled based upon dozens of conversations with a wide variety of experts with varying experience in the housing development space, including pastors, developers, consultants, and others. We owe a special debt of gratitude to Pastor Joe Daniels of Emory Fellowship, Pastor Lionel Edmonds of Mt Lebanon Bapsti, Pastor Patrice Sheppard of Living Word church, Jill Norcross of Virginia Diocesan Homes, Nina Janopaul of Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, and Raymond Nix of Nix Development & Urban Matters. Their input shaped this content and any wisdom offered here is a direct result of their generosity of lending their expertise so other churches can learn. Thank you.
