Pennies from Heaven Part III: Working for the Church

Walton Construction didn’t always build churches. It didn’t want to hassle with committees and meddlesome church members.

Then, two airplanes plowed into the World Trade Center in September 2001. The economy sank, but demand for new churches increased.

“People really were a lot more family-oriented,” said Rick Quint, Walton’s senior vice president and managing director.

Out of necessity, Walton started working on churches – but on one condition: Church committees had to communicate often and effectively with their congregations and church leaders, something they were notoriously poor at doing.

“It’s just tough to deal with 1,200 or 2,000 members of a church who think they know what’s going on (and) maybe a committee of seven or eight who knows what’s going on,” Quint said.

To Quint’s delight, Walton has enjoyed much success building churches since 2001. Churches now generate about 20 percent of Walton’s local revenues.

The company has built a dozen churches in the last five years and worked on projects at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, James River Assembly and Central Assembly.

Larry Phillips, principal engineer for Pellham-Phillips Architects and Engineers, agrees that educating church committees about the construction process is vital to project success.

“It’s their church and they know what personality needs to be brought out through that architecture,” he said, “yet we really have to guide them into what is practical. That’s a little bit of a challenge when we do churches.”

Churches comprise about 15 percent of Pellham-Phillips’ revenues. It’s currently designing a $7 million facility for First Assembly of God Church in Lebanon and has designed projects for James River Assembly, Second Baptist, Schweitzer United Methodist and Wesley United Methodist, among others.

Walton’s Quint said church construction can be rewarding in ways commercial construction can’t be.

“If Jack Stack decides to go build a new manufacturing plant, he’s building that manufacturing plant for one sole purpose, and that is to increase profits, increase productivity (and) to line his pockets,” Quint said. “When you build something for a church or a community, you’re doing it for a completely different reason, and that’s very rewarding.”

Many needs

Once churches are built, they need everything that other businesses need, sometimes more. Church operations require food, office supplies, printing, furniture, electronics and, of course, loans from banks for all of the above.

There are plenty of businesses willing to fill those needs.

“We have a myriad of churches here locally that buy from us,” said Bill Abbott Jr., president of Springfield Office Supply.

Abbott said churches and their volunteer committees often lack the planning and organizational skills of commercial businesses, which causes his company to react quickly and flexibly. “Sometimes they have to shoot from the hip,” he said.

Sam’s Club spokesman Olin James said churches often buy food in bulk. However, Sam’s doesn’t offer churches any special discounts.

Churches also don’t receive discounted interest rates on loans from Empire Bank, although they tend to get very good rates because of their reputation and collateral.

“One of the important things in lending is character,” said Joe McCarty, Empire Bank’s chief lending officer. “That’s obviously not normally a problem in church lending.”

Churches also pay off loans quicker than most businesses – in three to five years – because churches conduct capital campaigns.

Church lending isn’t all positive, as collecting on a defaulted loan with a church could be awkward and bring negative attention to a bank. That fear hasn’t kept Empire from building a church loan portfolio of $50 million.

Aurora-based printer MWM Dexter Inc. also has built a sizable portfolio of church business.

President Chris Dale said it generates $3 million annually, about 30 percent of its business, from printing bulletins, postcards, calendars and offering envelopes for churches across the country.

Direct line

Blake and Debbie Souter’s Covenant Manufacturing makes pews and other church furniture in Ozark. The company was founded in 1997, and the Souters bought it in 2004.

Blake Souter said they’ve made furniture for more than 100 churches in the Midwest, and he expects business to double this year. He credits adding salespeople and new management philosophies for the growth.

No area business may have captured the church market more effectively than Jay Jones’ Springfield-based AVman Presentation Systems.

Jones started the audio-visual supply and installation company in 2001 and now has “thousands” of clients internationally.

“Our business is totally focused on worship technology,” he said. “We work with churches and missionaries all around the world.”

Jones said 60 percent of his business comes from churches, which typically spend $5,000 to $20,000 to equip their sanctuaries with lights, sound equipment and video screens.

AVman is the prime vendor for Assemblies of God General Council. On Aug. 1, it shipped $500,000 of equipment to Orlando, Fla., for the Assemblies of God Fine Arts Festival.

Jones became a Christian in the 1990s and purposely started AVman to service churches.

“It’s been my passion for years to form a company that is ministry-based and helping churches,” he said.