Our Process
Step 1. Conduct a preliminary, free phone conference with stakeholders in the church and local community about the situation affecting their building.
Step2. Initial meeting, assessment, and opportunity mapping of the local area. Draft a report, submit this to the church, and discuss the implications of our findings.
Step 3. Build relationships between the church and relevant stakeholders. Take the initial assessment into a thorough planning phase with input from cost consultants, architects, quantity surveyors etc. This will include:
- Detailed opportunity and need mapping: who is in the local area that can bring energy, enthusiasm and skills; are there government or regeneration programmes with which the church can be linked?
- Considering the position of the church, the expertise church possesses, we examine what ideas and opportunities best resonate with its mission.
- Business assessment. What opportunities do the structural survey, valuation and architect's drawings present?
- Option appraisal leading to decision by the elders, congregation and church authorities and then a detailed business plan. (Depending on what is proposed, this may lead to fundraising, agreeing contracts with partners e.g. health authority, planning permission applications, building works etc.)
Step 4. One church, 100 uses oversee the development. In this phase there is the option of One church, 100 uses taking on the role of the developer and accepting the liability for the building, before handing back control once the build is over. The advantage to the client is that, unlike a commercial developer, we do not need to make a substantial profit, making our developments more flexible to their needs.
We are also able to play a less intensive role, whereby we help churches improve their community engagement without significant structural changes to the buildings. Alternatively, if a church feels confident they can take on the running of a development themselves; we can provide guidance and advice from afar with monthly meetings or phone conferences.
One Church, 100 Uses anticipates working intensively with approximately 50 churches over the next five years to attract major funding and redevelopment for their buildings. We also expect to provide advice and consultancy to an estimated 30-60 additional churches, facilitating strategic entrepreneurial thinking.
One church, 100 uses has worked and continues to work for numerous URC Synods, including Southern, Wessex, East Midlands, and Northern. In the last two of these in particular we have helped stabilise churches in very deprived neighbourhoods. For example, in Redcar, the church was very worried about a leaky roof; in fact it was just condensation. We helped the church raise some £20,000 for repairs to the building and successfully applied for planning permission for a new entrance. The church now rents out some upstairs rooms to a local charity for domestic abuse, helping to fulfil its mission whilst generating some income.
We are working with a range of denominations, including the Church of England, Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, and Free Churches. In addition to working with the central bodies of denominations, we have often worked with churches on an individual basis. These include churches in financial difficulty as well as those looking to expand.
