you've been good advice from many but one part of your OP stuck out to me--that his idea was to get the LA in order to make a profit for the church. I'm going to make a guess that if there are that many ladies at the church quilting, then your area may have many, many quilters and at least some LA already. As many have said about selling quilts--there isn't much profit there! And you would be competing with your area LA who are already established. While the idea of getting a LA for the purpose of charity work, or to provide a way for quilters in the church to finish quilts at a modest fee---then go for it. But I do think your group should look long & hard at the idea of making $$ on this. I heard from a LA rep last year, that while it's still possible to make $$ as a LA quilter, the "competition" for that has really increased with the advent of the many affordable mid-arms and sit-down quilters. And now, with the addition of the ruler systems for domestic machines, I suspect this will only become more competitive.