HOW TO START CHURCH BUILDING PROJECTS
What We Do
How We Help
Every building project, whether new construction, renovation or expansion, needs a team of professionals. We work with you to build a team that fits your needs. Project professionals may include:
- Architect(s)
- Engineer(s)
- General Contractor
- AVL Integrator
- Lender and/or Fundraiser
- Project specific professionals
The incipio strategic process
At Incipio Consulting, we help you determine who you need and when you need each member of your team.
The first step is hiring a guide. This will help with:
- A reality check of the scope and impact of the project
- Bringing forward questions that were not thought of previously
- Answering said questions before proceeding
- Developing a realistic budget
- Developing a practical pre-construction schedule with milestones and action steps
With a guide you and your team will be able to:
- Walk through an in-depth financial analysis that helps you understand your financial capacity and how to best fund the project.
- Work with our team to develop an affordable building plan that meets your ministry needs.
- Experience a process that allows your top leaders to clearly understand the total cost of the project in order to move forward together.
- Learn how to build the right team of professionals to deliver the project on time and on budget.
Our Expertise
Dave Benham
Career Overview
Dave’s church design expertise stems from over 40 years of experience in master planning and architectural design. He possesses extensive knowledge of both traditional and contemporary spiritual spaces, as well as the community and support spaces vital to each individual church’s ministry.
Dave began his career working on the Billy Graham Chapel in Asheville, North Carolina. He has since completed a wide variety of designs for worship centers nationwide, including:
- Crosspoint Church in Nashville, Tennessee
- Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina
- Connexus Church in Barre, Ontario, Canada
- Seacoast Church in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
He most recently served as the Director of Church Expansion at Ministry Solutions for 5 years following a 30-year tenure as the Worship Studio Practice Leader for LS3P Associates, a top 100 national architectural firm.
Dave and Incipio Consulting
Incipio Consulting was created to fill a need for financially responsible pre-planning services geared toward church building projects. At Incipio Consulting, Dave functions as your church team’s guide as you traverse the Incipio Strategic Process.
The Project Discovery Phase
Dave will work with you to understand your church’s vision and mission, and discuss a financially responsible means to achieve this goal.
He will assess the scope and function of your church project, focusing on the programming and conceptual layout, while balancing those needs with the developed project budget.
Dave is also responsible for design direction throughout the entire project. He will work with you to build a team that includes the architect, AVL integrator and general contractor.
Approach to Incipio Consulting
Dave utilizes his highly specialized architectural skill set in conjunction with cross-disciplinary problem solving and collaboration to create a unique design plan for each church project.
Personal Fun
Cycling is a passion for Dave. He is a member of the Challenge to Conquer Cancer – a group of cyclists who annually ride from Greenville, SC to Lewiston, Maine raising money for cancer research. The organization has donated over two million dollars to this cause over the last fifteen years.
Dave also enjoys travel and spending time in his downtown neighborhood with his wife, Toni. They enjoy attending concerts, the theater, and arts events. He and Toni love college football and attend games annually. He is the proud father of five adopted children and one step-child, which always makes holidays interesting!.
Reviews and Testimonials
Dave Poole, Expansion Pastor, Southside Church, Chilliwack, BC, Canada
"Working with Dave Benham was the most impactful, beneficial and strategic decisions we made in the process of our building project. He was able to proficiently mine years of our hopes and dreams and consolidate them all into one single design that met every one of our needs. Dave truly is an expert by definition, and it showed weekly during our design and development phase, but also through construction.
Dave’s proficiency maximized our staff team’s time, and allowed for maximum input and buy in from them, all the while honouring their time. Dave brought a relaxed and confident attitude that immediately created trust with our team, and really facilitated a creative process.
We don’t doubt for a second that Dave Benham is one of the reasons we are so satisfied and thrilled to be in our new home. His services definitely exceeded our expectations of not just himself, but also the building that we were able to complete."
Jimm Kyles, Lead Pastor, Anchor Bend Church, richmond, tx
"Dave led an intentional process for our building project, which carefully balanced our financial constraints with the facility needs of our growing church. His creative solutions to our design needs and his management of the architectural and construction teams saved our church both time and money.
The knowledge and fresh perspective on situations he brought helped us make better decisions that led to a successful project. I strongly suggest bringing his team on early in your process to get the most effective and efficient solution!"
Les newsom, lead pastor, christ presbyterian church, oxford, ms
"There are few things that can be quite as intimidating for church leadership as this realization: you don’t know as much as you need to know before you begin a building campaign. Dave Benham and Incipio Consulting are vital resources for your church to walk you through every step of the process.
For the last four years, Dave has become not just a co-laborer for the ministry, but also a trusted friend to “hold our hands” through a process and bring us into a building that we still rejoice over, we love it so much. If we didn’t have Dave alongside us in the process, it would have been a very different story. We can’t recommend him highly enough!"