If just a drive around my city is any indication, church construction is booming. My own church just opened its highly anticipated new student building, much to the delight of our youth.

Naturally, with tight church budgets, the million-dollar question, so to speak, on every church leader's mind when it comes to construction is, "How much will it cost?"

I want to point out a free, online tool from the National Association of Church Design Builders: the Project Pricing Profiler. This tool just asks a serious of questions that address the various aspects of a construction project, all affecting the financial bottom line. Fill in your answers, and the NACDB will provide you with a ballpark estimate of what your building project would cost, based on those variables. I encourage you to visit www.nacdb.net and check out this great resource.

You'll find a packed construction section this month, as we address a variety of issues, including costs, that come up during the new construction and/or renovating process…everything from guaranteeing funding to keeping your members interested and involved from start to finish. You definitely will want to keep this issue handy if you're considering a project in the near future.

As always, we cover some great topics this month, and another one that I want to point out is our coverage of the changing face of Sunday school. The children and youth in your congregation are so focused on and influenced by various media, and your Sunday morning programs may need to be re-vamped to appeal to this particular generation.

I'm always interested in hearing from you. You can reach me at jill@rpnmag.com.

God Bless,

Jill Pinheiro
Managing Editor