Insurance and Risk Management for Building a New Church

Building a new church can be stressful, especially setting up guidelines and hiring the builders to ensure you have the best plan. You’ll need to hire contractors, develop a building plan, and manage progress until completion. It is a big undertaking, but it may be necessary if your current building can no longer house your congregation.

Building a New Church

One of the essential considerations in mitigating the many risks of building a new church is insurance. Church building insurance is a great way to do this. However, you can also start by following these four steps for practical church construction.

Organize Your Finances

Building a new church will require you to organize your finances. Disorganized finances are a significant liability for churches — even more so if you’re about to start construction on a new building. If necessary, you must prepare to fund the project or obtain financing. Keep in mind, though, that taking on debt may not be the best thing for your ministry. Alternatively, you may look to your congregation for funding assistance. Then, you may look for special tithes that can transfer over to a new building fund. It is preferable to a loan for many churches, but it may take longer.

Choose the Right Contractors

Finding the right contractor for your church building project is the next major step toward completion. Generally, you will need to start by commissioning blueprints from an architect and then using those blueprints to seek out construction bids from several candidates. You should look for contractors who have great reviews, but more importantly, you should seek contractors who have prior experience working on church buildings. If you find a contractor who meets these criteria, you should consider moving forward.

Assess Any Risks in the Project

Once you’ve organized your finances and chosen a suitable contractor, you should consider your strategy for risk management. When there is construction, there are always risks, including liabilities such as safety hazards, potential injuries, and even expenses that surpass the original estimate. To protect your church from the impact of such liabilities, you should develop proactive strategies to prevent risks — for example, incentivizing safe practices amongst contractors — and be prepared if a liability comes to fruition. You can achieve the latter by investing in church building insurance.

Welcome Your Congregation

When your new church building is complete, it’s time to welcome your congregation and get ready to worship in a new space. You should thank everybody involved in the construction — including your congregation — and assess any new liabilities that may be present in your new building. To combat these risks, you should invest in insurance that provides coverage beyond construction. Just because construction is over, it doesn’t mean liabilities disappear. Find coverage that keeps your church protected.

About Porter & Curtis

Porter & Curtis is the premier insurance agency providing integrated risk management to religious organizations. If you’re seeking a policy for a unique exposure, we can help. Call us at 610-891-9850 or contact us via messaging for more information.