I am so excited to share about my new season as the Chief Solutions Officer for Smart Church Solutions. Let me share some about the past and where we believe God is taking and leading Smart Church Solutions and me.
I started my career in the world of Church Facilities in 1987 representing a company that specialized in church construction across the country. I had grown in that role until 2008…21 years. During that time I served about 500 churches with feasibility studies, master planning processes, pre-construction consulting, and construction services. I have made some lifelong friendships and had the opportunity to work with some of the fastest-growing churches in the country as well as small country churches. The Kingdom is vast and diverse, and I was blessed to serve a great cross-section.
In 2008, I started to shift our focus to facility management (what we refer to as Facility Stewardship). This journey took me down several very unfamiliar paths including a failed attempt at developing a “managed services” offering for church facility management. But it opened doors I could never have envisioned — clearly a God thing.
The Early Stages of Smart Church Solutions
Since 2008 we have taken Smart Church Solutions (back then it was Cool Solutions Group and still is, legally) in many new directions.
First, we developed an Event Scheduling software called MINISTReSPACE. I knew nothing about software then (and even now). We had a very rocky road from 2008 until 2014. It improved in 2014 with a rebranding to eSPACE and a software rewrite. But it was not until about 2017 that we saw God really start to bless it.
During that same time, we focused our energies on assisting churches to understand their facility stewardship responsibilities and offered coaching, consulting, and Facility Condition Assessments. I also started to serve churches that were looking for facility expansion projects as an Owner’s Rep. Given my background in church construction. This was a natural fit and one that we found a strong demand for. However, that offering was reliant on me personally leading each project.
Let’s fast forward to 2022. We now serve hundreds of churches annually with eSPACE and dozens of churches with Facility Condition Assessments. Our team has also developed other Facility Stewardship tools and offerings that have allowed our team to grow to just under 20 people. We have come a long way baby. (If you are my age you will understand where that last sentence came from.)
Given our growth and growing team, it has become clear that I need to commit all of my time to grow the company, developing our team, recruiting new team members, casting vision, and serving as the overall Facility Stewardship Evangelist. In light of that, I will no longer be taking on new construction-related project engagements. We may still assist a few churches, from time to time, with an evaluation of the best utilization of the resources God has entrusted to them. But my main focus will be assisting churches to be intentional, efficient, and effective with the facilities God has entrusted them to steward. These areas of concentration include but are not limited to the following:
Expanding the offerings of our eSPACE facility management software.
eSPACE is the only church-centric full suite of Facility Management software solutions on the market. But we intend to take it even further.
- Yes, it is the best-in-class event management and facility management software designed for the church market.
- But it also is the only full-service facility management software with major system integrations for HVAC, door access, and digital signage, with lighting coming soon.
- We will be expanding this offering to also include an energy management tracking module as well as predictive maintenance sensors. This will be a game changer!
We are taking our Facility Stewardship offerings and services to a whole new level.
With the development of a refined Facility Condition Assessment process and reporting tool, we will be able to serve even more churches with even more actionable data. In addition, we have added more Facility Stewardship Specialists to our team and are continuing to look for additional stewards to further serve local churches.
We are releasing a new and cost-effective tool for churches to get a snapshot of their facility’s “health.”
Our new Facility Health Assessment will provide a report to churches that will evaluate some of the major benchmarking criteria to determine the operational effectiveness of the church facility. (more on this in a few weeks!)
Onward!
I want to thank all of the churches, leaders, industry partners, and friends that I have labored with, shoulder to shoulder. You have enriched my life, and I am eternally grateful.
This is the new season for me personally and for Smart Church Solutions. That is the calling. That is the plan.
Let’s know how we can serve you and your church to be the most effective Facility Steward you can be.
ONWARD
