Life is a bit hectic right now, to say the least. The news is on a constant repeat of worry and strife. COVID-19 is still plaguing the world, and the United States is struggling through various social and cultural changes. People are wrestling with how to find jobs. None of this even includes the daily travails which people have to deal with in their daily lives. Paying the bills on time. Making sure there’s enough food in the house for your family members. Ensuring that you can keep a roof over your head at an apartment home or your house. All in all, things are really out of sorts on a variety of fronts.
When life has people on the ropes, one place they look to for direction is churches. Churches aren’t just places where you find ornate candles, crucifixes, or clergy dressed in refined religious garb. These places of worship aren’t just about the “showy,” surface-level aspect of faith. They stand as bastions of strength for people’s religious values. When individuals are struggling with life, churches provide them with a sense of direction and even purpose. For those who have found a calling to help those in need through the services of a church, sometimes you have to build your place of worship from the ground up. In other circumstances, you can convert an existing property into a church. Today, we’ll focus on how to convert a property into a church.
1. Get the funding needed.
When you begin to look into converting an existing location into a church, you’re going to need money to have this done. Let’s say you’ve found an empty storefront in an outdoor shopping mall that you want to turn into a church. It has all the room you’ll need to conduct Sunday services and provide a place of worship for your flock of parishioners. If you don’t have enough money to convert this existing property into a church, it might be best to look into visiting private money lenders. These lenders will provide you, the borrower, with several types of loan options to fund opening up your new church. These can include private money loans, hard money loans, private loans, bridge loans, and traditional loans.
These financial institutions will be able to answer questions about higher interest rate options, the ins and outs of private money lending, and how your credit history might affect your private money loan options. Working with financial institutions like private lenders can help ensure that you’ll convert any location into a church. Just look for a private lender that offers solid customer service and an understanding of your financial history and future. You want your private lender to provide you with a private money loan you can handle.
2. Work with a real estate agent.
Some people may have an idea of what type of location they want to convert into a church. For others, though, bringing on the services of a real estate agent can be pretty helpful. These people will be able to help navigate you through many properties within the United States that can be converted into churches. Agents such as these will be the referrals that you need to find a perfect conversion-ready location for a church.
For instance, let’s say you’re moving to a new house from an apartment community run by John Foresi from Venterra Realty. You’ve felt a call to turn your new home into a small church, but you need some help finding a home that can serve those specific needs. Working with a real estate agent can help ensure that you find a piece of real estate for your home church for the best price. By utilizing the services of a real estate agent, you’ll ensure that you’ll have that place of worship that you’ve been seeking for all this time.
3. Purchase supplies for the church.
The other thing you’ll need to turn a property into a church is actual church supplies. These are the items that you’ll need to conduct the daily functions of your place of worship. Some of these church items that you’ll want to look into adding to your new house of worship are crossed, first communion candles, banners for different church functions, a sterling silver crucifix for your pastor, and clergy apparel. You also want to make sure that each pew at your converted church has such required accessories as Bibles and church service programs.
You don’t want your church to gain the reputation of having a track record of not being a prepared place of worship. You want your church to be the place where people can feel secure that their faith-based needs are being taken care of at even the most basic levels. Maybe they’re looking at your church for hosting a first-time baptism, or maybe even a wedding. Whatever the event, having a well-stocked supply of church items will help your newly converted church out in the long run.
