Leadership, Listening, Learning and Leaning are four Living words which will be evident in any successful building project. In the first instance there must be Leadership, that is there is a Project Manager (PM) who will lead the project and whose leadership will be respected and honoured throughout the life of the project, both by the contractor and by the PM’s clients.

If this respect is not present, or the client constantly seeks to chip away at the PM’s authority in public, then the project is likely to be uneven, more costly and much less enjoyable.

Equally, the PM needs to demonstrate from the outset the key skill of Listening, that is giving sufficient quality time to listen to and understand the needs of all parties and then to respond rather than leading the project in a cavalier and insensitive way leaving all parties in their wake and being wilfully ignorant of the terrible impact their behaviour is having on the project. A third quality that both a PM and contractor will have is the ability and willingness to being open to Learning. Contractors should be willing to either innovate themselves or have clients that can innovate, often in ignorance, but in a way that can bring significant advantages to a project. The PM that encourages thinking beyond their own experience can help parties feel fully engaged and valuable members of the team and the contractor in particular will feel more confident as every effort is focussed on getting the project across the line as quickly and efficiently as possible but in potentially new and better ways. And finally, the PM and team that are Leaning on God throughout, as well as each other at times, will enjoy and share with one another the challenges, battles and victories as a project progresses knowing that, in the end, it is God who is in control and that He Loves to bless his children.

We at Church Growth Trust (CGT) are delighted to share that bookings for the next Living the Passion conference in October 2021 are now open and are already receiving lots of interest.

Living the Passion was born in 2007 when some highly trusted names in the evangelical world joined forces to arrange a weekend conference to fan the flames of passion for sharing the gospel in the UK.

The aim is to ambitiously seek to deepen spiritual life, broaden vision for church growth and church planting, energise leaders, inspire next generation leaders and provide an opportunity to foster relationships leading to increased and fruitful collaboration. These remain at the heart of what Living the Passion is all about.

The conference is being held in the Midlands (Daventry) and we are really excited and looking forward to our guest speaker Derek Burnside joining us. Derek has guest-lectured at Capernwray Bible School and other Torchbearer schools since 2001. He has previously been an RE teacher, a UCCF Staff worker, and was for 22 years on the staff/leadership team of Belmont Chapel, Exeter.

The bookings process has been made really easy, simply visit the website https://livingthepassion.org/ to book your place.

nowing when money is due to be paid out is crucial to the well being and smooth running of any contract. For this reason the contract has to be discussed in detail right at the start of a project and this will include both dispute resolution and payment of invoices when presented.

A key element of trust between building contractor and client is that the former will only invoice anticipated and agreed levels so that the client can manage its cashflow and equally that the client will pay all sums due when demanded so that the contractor can pay employees and bills for materials.  Any breakdown in this process will injure a project severely. For example the client must not use withholding payment of an authorised invoice as an unauthorised weapon with which to make some personal point of principle because “they sign the cheques”. All that this will do is kill the goodwill of the contractor.

Every client needs to understand that a failure to pay a contractor monies that are properly charged when they are due will, as sure as night follows day, lead to a potentially irreparable breakdown of the relationship between contractor and client and cause serious damage to a project. When this happens the sums of money or other issues which are supposedly in dispute are likely to appear as a pin prick when compared to the agonies that will result from the loss of trust that failure to pay will engender.  

Knowing when the money is due to be paid out is intended to help both client and contractor to keep the project properly oiled so that everything runs smoothly and to budget. Any variations to this can be addressed through the channels of communication established for this purpose.

Church Growth Trust (CGT) has let its church property in Norwich called Antingham Hall, located on the Heartsease Estate in the north east of the City.  The assembly at the Hall made the decision during 2020 that they could no longer hold meetings and so we have been seeking another tenant to run with the baton of gospel proclamation from the Hall.  Following a period of marketing the property to find an evangelical church, an offer for the tenancy was made by local organisation Call 2 Prayer, a charity formed in 2009, that offers a number of ministries and resources.  These include Teaching the Hebraic roots of the Christian faith, Discipleship Courses and Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  After a period of reflection, prayer and discussion with Call 2 Prayer, we believed that God was calling us to let to Call 2 Prayer.  

Jill Gower, Director of Call 2 Prayer, said, “God has been good to us in the provision of this wonderful building, which will allow us to continue our ministry after a really challenging period during Covid.  We are grateful for the gracious way in which the assembly has helped us plan for our occupation and have improved the building, leaving it in such good condition.  We look forward to working with Church Growth Trust in the years ahead.”  

Speaking for Church Growth Trust, Chief Executive Giles Arnold said: ”We are very pleased that Call 2 Prayer have agreed to take the tenancy of the property.  As there was no evangelical church interested in taking the property, we are delighted to let it to this evangelical ministry.  We look forward to the Lord using their ministry to bless those living on the Heartsease Estate and the neighbouring areas of Norwich.”

uggling a number of different elements in a project at any one time was once seen as a sign of management strength, reliability and even competence. It was thought that the person who had so much on their plate must be important and clever. But the juggling approach has two fatal flaws.

Firstly, just as in a circus, juggling is putting on a show of cleverness and business. The reality of course is that sooner or later the project manager is going to drop a ball. The performance will stop, potentially catastrophically. It is just a matter of when and over what. There are stresses and strains of decision-making in any project. Some may be time critical. At these points it needs a level head and calmness to make the judicious decision in a timely and accurate way, not someone who can barely string five words together in 30 seconds.

The second fatal flaw is that in having made a decision the project manager does not have the ability both to keep it under review and react equally calmly and with humility if that decision turns out to be wrong. Honesty and humility are vital to the integrity and deliverability of any project. The project manager who can be seen unhappily juggling so many different things and unable to react coherently should not have been chosen to lead a project. Calm and sound judgment is crucial in picking the project manager and an essential quality in the project manager. All projects need a judicious leader, not a performing juggler.

We at Church Growth Trust are always looking to improve what we provide to churches and our supply of briefing papers, one of our free resources available to view and download, are papers that we regularly review to provide you with the most relevant and up to date guidance on various topics relating to church properties.

One of our newer briefing papers, Copyright & Licensing, which was added last year, has recently been reviewed and updated. This was a timely review as the updated guidance provides details on relevant licences with CCLI for live streaming which has, due to the pandemic, been more relevant with how churches have been and are still holding their church services.

Copyright & Licensing briefing paper

ntercession and Inspiration are vital elements to a successful project. From Inception, ongoing prayer for the protection and success of any project is Indispensable. So too is the willingness to remain open to Ideas that will bring Impetus and energy.

So far these fortnightly articles have stressed the need to stay focussed and remain on track throughout a building project. They have warned against changing ideas and plans mid-project. This is because variations outside what has been agreed in a contract or delaying works can prove costly. What is more such changes normally do not bring any genuine benefits. By contrast, seeking a solution to a knotty on-site technical or financial problem through prayer and the exchange of thoughts can often trigger Inspiring answers and outcomes. This process must recognise that the project manager is the one who will make the final decision. However, Innovation when up against difficulty is often essential.

An openness and willingness to listen to what God is saying through others with their experience and engagement can be Instrumental in finding often quite Innocent-looking but powerful answers to apparently Intractable problems. We should commit ourselves to Intercede continually for a project and expect to be Inspired.

Planning permission has now been received for the application made on behalf of Castlefields Church for a replacement church building on their existing site in Derby City Centre.

Castlefields are an independent evangelical church with a thriving congregation who have outgrown their current modestly sized single storey building and so approached CGT to review the feasibility of developing their existing site to provide a new building that could meet the current needs of the church and all of its community outreach work, building in scope also for future growth.

Over the course of a few months CGT developed some feasibility design options working alongside the church members, including undertaking visual presentations of design proposals to the church members, before settling upon an agreed design proposal which could be submitted to the Local Planning Authority for Pre-Application submission.

The outcome of the Pre-Application submission was broadly supportive, and with a few minor changes the design proposal would then be ready to be submitted for a Full Planning application. After holding a church meeting to discuss, where the design proposal was re-presented to the members, it was decided to lodge a Full Planning submission to the Local Authority.

Over two floors the design includes a Worship Hall that can seat up to 200 people, a kitchen and servery, three generous meeting rooms with kitchenettes and fully accessible WC provisions on each floor. The proposed building uses modern methods of construction with large expanses of curtain wall glazing to the principal elevation, which is in keeping with the urban context of the surrounding buildings which have developed around the existing church building in recent times.

Now that Planning permission has been received the church alongside CGT are currently considering their next steps forward in this exciting journey, and are thoughts and prayers are with the church that the future holds great things for their ongoing vital witness in the centre of the city.