Wall raising at St. Peter Chanel Catholic Church, Roswell. (Photo by Michael Alexander, The Georgia Bulletin.)

Parish Conceptual Project Approval: Define and Review Project (Step 1)

We have presented this process in two distinct ways: in a Process Diagram and Narrative Description. These are intended to be complete in and of themselves with links to all relevant documents in both sections. Please use whichever description suits your method of thinking.

Narrative Approach

The following outlines the essential tasks that will guide parishes as they consider the need to start a large capital project. Step 1 helps gather the information needed to complete the Project Case Template which is submitted in Step 2 to obtain the Archbishop’s Conceptual Approval. Please follow the sub-steps outlined below that correspond to the process diagram.

Define and Review Process

The process starts by defining the parish’s needs and goals.
This requires first assembling the small project study team to define the facility project. A set of guidelines in developing the small project study team are provided by clicking Parish Team Formation Guidelines.
Once the team is established they should define the facilities’ needs based on the parish’s overall pastoral plans and objectives to improve overall parish spiritual life. To assist in this lengthy but important process, we have provided several supporting documents.

Defining Project Objectives helps you better understand your parish’s facilities needs based on typical parish facilities.
The “Rules of Thumb” document developed by LifeWay Christian Resources (a Baptist organization that generously shared it with us) will help you with typical metrics and sizing for church facilities.
The Geo-demographic Analysis and Parish Reports aid in revealing the demographic breakdown of Catholics in the area as well as understanding growth in the Zip Codes for families that are registered in your parish.
The Sanctuary Seating Capacity Survey results can aid in understanding the number of sanctuary seats that a Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of Atlanta has available per family to meet their weekend masses.

All of these tools should be used along with the parish’s plans to identify and prioritize the most important facilities’ needs and projects, plus provide some sense of sizing for the type of project.

Review Historical Projects

After identifying the key facility needs and goals of the Parish, it is important to assess the feasibility of the desired project.
To get the initial rough estimate of your building costs, please use the CCSI Cost Estimator. This is a step by step budgeter based on the number of people to accommodate and the type of building.
The CCSI Cost Estimator includes room for soft costs. However, you may refer to the Potential Soft Costs list to see what’s included.
To further understand the potential financial implications, the parish may review historical projects to see past budgets, designs, time lines and issues for similar types of buildings and facilities. The Historical CCSI Building Costs Examples provides examples of past building costs in the Archdiocese for seven types of projects.
With this information, you can develop a “best guess” range of total project costs.

Identify Financial Capabilities

The parish also must understand its own financial needs and limitations.
The parish should develop historical income and expense estimates to gauge its financial capacity using the Financial Assessment Tool. This tool aids in providing a high level view of the parish’s financial capacity as well as providing a low risk and high risk range of potential dollars for a large capital project.
The Geo-demographic Analysis and Parish Reports provide average income statistics for all residents of particular zip codes as well as other pertinent demographic information.
Also, while considering a new project, a parish should review its current major maintenance needs and set aside savings to cover these capital maintenance requirements. The Capital Maintenance Inspection Questionnaire can aid in identifying these smaller projects.
The parish can then evaluate if the “best guess” range of total project costs fits within the low to high risk estimate of potential project funding.

Confirm Parish Support

Finally, it is important to confirm parish support for the project.
Confirmation of Parish Support is a form to document this support as part of the project case template.

After all tasks have been completed, with the Pastor’s approval and Parish’s support, proceed to Step 2: Obtain Archbishop’s Approval.

Process Diagram

Participants

Pastor
Parish Pastoral Council
Parish Finance Council
Parish Business Manager
Archdiocese Planning and Facilities
Archdiocese Finance Department (consultation)
Archdiocese Stewardship Office (consultation)

Inputs

Parish financial data
Parish background and knowledge
Current Parish Master Plan document

Key Outputs

Pastor decision to further investigate defined project
Estimated “best guess” range of total project costs
Documented parish financial assessment
Documented parishioner support

Process
Stage

Process
Description

Supporting
Information

Form small project study team
Define objectives, positive outcome, and improvement to parish spiritual life.
Update Parish master plan – including demographic data

Learn about prior projects – budgets, styles, time lines, and lessons learned.
Estimate “best guess” range of total project cost based on type of project, size and cost projections from historical examples.