A Culture of Deferred Maintenance
Many of our churches are 30-50 years old, some even older. Over time we’ve acquired buildings and property. It’s interesting when I visit some of our churches I notice that our buildings are falling into disrepair and look unkept. This is because of a culture of deferred maintenance.
“The carpet is fine, it’s only 20 years old”. “Nobody looks at the back property during church”. “We don’t have that many kids to warrant new paint”. You’ve heard comments like this many times. This is what I mean by a culture of deferred maintenance. If you don’t continually improve your facilities you will end up in a place where the majority of your church is outdated.
Here are a few ways to overcome this:
Always be Improving
Never let a month go by where you are not cleaning, fixing, or improving a part of your facility. Keep your volunteers in a place where they are constantly maintaining the things they are using. If something breaks, replace it. If something needs to be cleaned or sorted, do it. Don’t put it off. Clean as you go will keep the tasks smaller
Do an Annual Facilities Audit
Take your board and others through your facility and do an annual audit to determine what needs to be upgraded and improved. Bring in someone from the outside and get some fresh eyes on the matter. Thom Rainer has an excellent facilities audit HERE.
Budget for Facilities
Many churches do not set aside money for their facilities on a monthly basis. You should be putting aside money every month to improve your facility. Some churches will fundraise for these expenses and that is ok, but I would recommend you put away something every month for facility improvement.
Good Enough isn’t Good Enough
I know that there are differing perspectives when it comes to how things look but I want to encourage you to think in terms of “company is coming”. Imagine the most exquisite guest coming to your house, what would you do? You would clean the place up. That’s who is coming to your church each week … guests that matter so much, Jesus died for them. Let’s walk through our facilities with that in mind.
How about you? What renovations are you doing to keep your facility up to date?
Jeremiah works as an Effectiveness Coach with the ABNWT District of the PAOC. He is a passionate and creative leader who believes that the church is the hope of the world. He uses collaboration, innovation, and inspiration to challenge churches and their leadership to engage in the only mission Jesus ever sent his church on: making disciples.