THE PARAGON ANGLE: Stewardship

[00:00:00] Let's hear from Paragon 360 and the Paragon Angle. More importantly than hiring local or choosing the lowest price or getting three bids or any of that nonsense, make sure you get it right the first time. I'm not an accountant, but if you have to do it all over again or pay more to fix it later, you are not saving anything. Welcome to the Paragon Angle. I want to have a quick conversation about how stewardship

[00:00:29] matters when trying to choose a group to help you with your next church renovation or upgrade project. As a company that does renovations and expansions for churches of all sizes all across the country, we have seen a lot. This is what I want to tell you. More importantly than hiring local or choosing the lowest price or getting three bids or any of that nonsense, make sure you get it right the first time. I'm not an accountant, but if you have to do

[00:00:55] it all over again or pay more to fix it later, you are not saving anything. We had a small church call us about a renovation project several years ago that included some aesthetic changes to modernize the space along with audio, video, lighting upgrades, and some acoustics. They felt our initial cost estimates, although very preliminary, were too high and they decided to go out and hire a small company. Won't say from where, but they were really not

[00:01:21] an AVL integrator. They were a small scenic company. They ran out, collected some AV partners that week, and sold themselves as an integrator. They threw some AVL systems in the church, skipped commissioning and training, and left. Now we got called in the next year because they were having significant issues. Lighting units that were not even UL listed, making tons of noise and not functioning, hung at ridiculously steep angles, light spill all over the screens. The PA

[00:01:51] system pointed at the back wall with domed ceilings with no attention at all to acoustics, except for some panels on the wrong wall that were reflective when they were supposed to absorb. Because of the lighting, the video image was terrible. So just an absolute colossal failure of a project, right? We went down and looked at the project with the church, but we had to walk away from it. Why? Because none of those issues were their biggest problem. The most serious issue

[00:02:19] was rigging. Not only would we have the cost of replacing all that gear, we were going to have to re-rig everything. There was going to have to be some structural steel work needed. The rigging was so dangerous. If we were going to touch anything in that space, we were going to have to fix everything because of the potential liability. So you can imagine that this was not easy for the church to digest. And why? Because they didn't want to pay for that. Who could blame them? They already paid for it, right?

[00:02:47] They didn't have the money to do it twice. They had the money to do it once. They raised money for the project once. They had to move out of the space until they could find funding. All of it would eventually have to be replaced. They will spend much more than the $75,000 they saved up front to get all this fixed. It had to come out. It's not only the wrong gear, but it was not providing for their needs. But it was dangerous to the congregants. It's a huge liability for the church. Someone could be

[00:03:14] seriously injured. My question, where is the stewardship in that decision? How did that three-bid process serve them? The company had a well-documented bad reputation and no one would call them an AVL integrator. Make sure above all else that you're working with the right group. I can tell you after 30 years of doing this, these church renovation projects, it's easier to get it wrong

[00:03:41] than it is to get it right. Get it right the first time. That is way more important than the absolute best price, some friendly connections down the street that can service it, meeting some arbitrary timelines or anything else. Get it right the first time. That is good stewardship. For more information on Paragon, check out paragon360.com. I hope this was helpful and we'll see you on the next Paragon Angle.