Master planning is one of the most important exercises a church will go through.  The intent of a master plan is to provide a "roadmap" for the church to follow in the development and ultimate build-out of the church property.  A good master plan will also illustrate (both numerically and graphically) the maximum potential of the property at full build-out.

When most people think about master planning, they envision a drawing of the campus showing color diagrams of existing and future buildings, parking lots, drives and ball fields.  While the master plan "picture" is the end product, it is important to focus on the ministry behind the drawing.

The master planning process begins with an in-depth analysis of the ministries of the church - both current and future.  The ministry needs to drive the space - not the space driving the ministry.  Many years ago a church could use standard "rules of thumb" for programming space.  With the advent of technology and new styles of worship and education, many of the old standard rules of thumb are now useless.  Likewise, it is crucial to understand how each ministry in the church (preschool, children, youth, adults, worship, fellowship, recreation, etc.) operates and design those spaces to fit the requirements.

Through in-depth ministry analysis, a space program is created which generates square footage requirements for each ministry of the church.  The next step is to balance the requirements of the space program with the physical parameters of the property - i.e. total buildable acreage, site drainage requirements, utility location and availability, zoning/building restrictions, existing building locations, access to and circulation through the campus, parking, etc.  Once all of the factors are considered and balanced, the visual part of the master plan begins to take shape which graphically illustrates the future campus.

Since it is unknown how our culture and ministries will change in the future, it is very important that the master plan be flexible.  We suggest looking at and possibly revising the master plan with every phase that is planned to make sure it still fits the ministries of the church.