Strategic facilities planning, often known as master planning, is an anticipation of the facility needs over time, and a plan for implementation in a manner that is financially feasible. A pre-requisite to an effective master plan is to have a clear God-given vision for the future of the church’s ministry. See Ministry Planning- It Starts with Vision

A clear vision for the future of a church’s ministries is the first step in anticipating facility needs. A common problem is that the growth of the church tends to occur across many ministries simultaneously. The ideal goal would be a facility that has areas dedicated to each ministry. While it would be nice to simply construct one dedicated portion of the building at a time, (a Worship Center then an educational wing, then an Office wing, then a youth center) this is often not feasible because of the needs of each ministry. As a result, while there may be designated wings on the plan for the ultimate development of the property, the intermediate steps will likely require the sharing of buildings and areas between ministries, and a future conversion of spaces to provide an area dedicated solely to one ministry’s use.

Strategic facilities planning usually starts with the end or ultimate development in mind. From this point, the design is worked backwards, breaking the plan up into a series of reasonable steps to allow the church to ultimately achieve its goal. For example, if the ultimate goal is for a 2,000 seat Worship Center, other ministry spaces can be planned in proportion to this future capacity. The appropriate staff size can be projected establishing the area required for administration. The educational spaces, youth areas, nursery, fellowship space, etc can all be planned in proportion to this attendance. Once the capacity or size of each space has been established, the plan can be arranged around a good circulation pattern that unites the entire facility in a cohesive manner. This plan is then broken down into reasonable and affordable phases. Often the first phase for worship is a multi-purpose Worship Center that can be shared by multiple ministries. In the ultimate development of the plan this space may very well become the gymnasium for the church, when a dedicated Worship Center is built. (Facility Planning – Multi-Purpose Worship Centers)

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