Before your co-op sends a single email to a single church, your leadership team needs to know exactly what you are looking for. A building search that starts without a clear specification turns into months of touring spaces that were never going to work.
The fastest way to shorten a search is to do the homework first. Sit down with your board, walk through the ten questions below, and write the answers down. That document will become the backbone of every conversation you will have with a potential host.
When our homeschool group was looking for a new chruch, we had a shared Google Doc that all members of the board had access to. Their document also had a table in the same doc on a different tab with facts about each church as someone visited. It made it easy to see at a glance what each church had to offer.
Answer These 10 Questions First
1. How many children and families are in your group?
This is the headline number. A church looking at your request needs to know whether they are hosting 25 people or 250. Be honest about your current size and your realistic projection for the next two years.
2. How many classrooms do you need?
Map your class schedule against your age groups. Count concurrent classes, not total classes. If you run six classes at once, you need six rooms, period.
3. Do you need a large gathering room?
If your co-op opens or closes the day with a chapel, assembly, or all-family meeting, you need a sanctuary, fellowship hall, or gym large enough to hold everyone at once.
4. Do you need a room to eat in?
Decide now whether families bring lunch, eat in classrooms, or gather in a single dining space. A church that does not allow food in classrooms is a non-starter if your group needs scattered eating space.
5. Do you need a nursery?
If you have moms with babies or toddlers, a dedicated nursery room with appropriate furnishings is not optional. Note whether you need cribs, gates, or a sink.
6. Do you need a kitchen or gym?
These are often the make-or-break amenities. A gym for PE, recess, and rainy days. A kitchen for warming food, washing dishes, or running cooking electives. List both as required or nice-to-have.
7. How many weeks do you meet?
A church evaluating your request wants to know the commitment. Are you asking for 12 weeks, 30 weeks, or year-round? Spell it out.
8. Which days are you open to meeting?
Be as flexible as you possibly can here. A church may already have Wednesdays and Thursdays booked but have Tuesdays wide open. If you can shift your meeting day, you instantly open up more buildings.
9. What hours do you meet?
Include setup and cleanup time, not just class time. A 9-to-noon co-op probably needs the building from 8 to 1. Churches need accurate hours to check against their staff schedules and other groups.
10. How much rent can you afford, and what is your plan if the answer is higher?
Do the math before you tour anything. Know your per-family ceiling. Decide in advance whether you would raise dues, downsize, or walk away if a church asks for double your budget. Make the hard call before emotion enters the conversation.
What to Do With Your Answers
Type the answers into a single one-page document. Share it with every board member. Use it as the source of truth for every email, tour, and member update. When you all speak from the same sheet, you stop sending mixed signals to the churches you are courting, and you stop confusing your own members about what the group actually needs.
If you take the time to do this work once, and the rest of the search gets dramatically easier.
As You Research
As you research, enter your information into a table. Our group kept a line for each church in a table. It included:
- Church name
- Address
- Pastor’s Name
- Number of classrooms
- Days available
- Cost to use
- Storage space? yes/no
- Notes
By the time 10 churches were contacted/visited, it could get very confusing to remember the right information. A table…along with photos taken at visits were a huge help in narrowing down choices.
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