I am a member of the International Facilities Managers Association (IFMA). This organization has nearly 20,000 members worldwide. Being a member of this trade association, I also have the opportunity to join other groups for members only. One such group is a Community of Practice for Religious Facilities. This is a new community for IFMA and as such had a kick off webinar the other day that I attended. When I logged in, I was very surprised to find that the person leading the webinar was a Facilities Manager for the LDS (Latter-day Saints, i.e.Mormons). Being an evangelical, I would not have placed them in the category of “religious facilities”, but that was not the case for IFMA…which I understand given their paradigm.
LDS Church
The webinar was interesting…but not earth shattering or even ground breaking. But there was one piece of information presented that I was not aware of at all. According to the presenter, all LDS facilities are managed by a “denomination” Facilities Manager (FM). The gentleman leading our call was in Montana and had a large territory that covered about 3 states with over 40 LDS facilities. He was the FM for all of these facilities and had on-site custodians for general repair, room set up and general oversight but not for preventive maintenance, major repair or forward planning of capital reserves or system replacement. He indicated that the LDS were firm believers in the stewarding of their facilities so every facility was assigned a professional FM right from the end of construction.
That got me thinking. I cannot recall ever driving by a LDS facility that looked unkept or shoddy. I live about 5-6 miles from a LDS church and drive by it regularly. The grass is always mowed. The shrubs and landscaping is always neat and tidy. The brick and stucco always appear clean and do not show signs of wear or deterioration. The sign lights are always lit as is the steeple. I have never been inside a LDS facility but my guess is that they are as well kept on the inside as they are on the exterior. Why? Because they take their facilities seriously and actually have a plan to care for them.
That is a convicting reality. Why do we, the church (big “C”) of Jesus Christ…including mainline, evangelical, fundimentalist, etc not have the same sense of stewardship for our facilities? Do we not see them as important? Do we not see them as an asset that needs to be maintained? Do we not consider them to be of value? Do we not understand the natural deterioration that occurs with every building starting the day construction is complete?
How do you see your facilities? Do your LDS neighbors set a better example than we do for our community and those far from God? While our facilities can not save a single soul, they sure can distract people from visiting and learning more about the grace and forgiveness of a loving God.
Makes you wonder….
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Tom
Great blog and good thoughts…we can all learn to be better and do better.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Dean
Two words, DEEP POCKETS! All of the evangelical churches I know have a great desire to maintain ALL of their facilities. The one that do really well at have large budgets to support that or an extremely dedicated and talented volunteer program. The rest of us fall somewhere in between. It is my understanding the LDS churches “bill” their membership 10% which would equate to 100% giving in order to stay in good graces with the church. Evangelicals do not promote that practice and therefore often have to make many difficult decisions between facilities and missions or benevolence or programs or …. the list goes on. The 80-20 rule did not just materialize out of thin air, it is a reality and the ratio is dropping as I type. Is that the only difference, I doubt it but I’m sure it’s one that tips the scale quite a bit to one side. My opion instead of my wonder.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
TIm
DEAN: Great input and much appreciated given your experience as a FM at your church and the great work you do with NACFM.
I agree that there is more to the story…and the deep pockets is part of it. Could you imagine what our Evangelical churches could do if we had churches that were collecting 10% tithe? I would suggest that churches would not have much if any debt and there would be ample money for not just FM, but for lots of other ministry opportunities. Now that would be a beautiful thing.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Author CommentHaines Maxwell
Tim….great post! While I’m concerned when we go tooooo far on the “God’s people must do everything with excellence” (ministries that insist on gold-plated faucets is an example that comes to mind), the scriptures clearly tell us to do whatever we do with all our heart, with all our might, and to do it well. (Ecclisiaste 9, Colossians 3, and other places!). Thanks for what you are doing. Keep up the good work and continue to help the good workers with the upkeep. (That just came to me…it’s a gift).
August 27th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
TIm
Thanks Haines….I agree that it is not right to go overboard with any of that thinking. I do think we need to take a better look at “doing things as unto the Lord”. God is not a God of just “good enough”. He is a God of order and beauty (just look at creation and particularly the mountains). While we each have a different definition of excellence, the church as a whole needs to better define stewardship…it is not just about tithes and offerings or our “time”.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Author CommentBrad
Have you ever been to a church event? At the end there are only a few that stay and clean up – the rest move to the feeding place. Same with the day to day task of maintaining the building and grounds … only the volunteers(few)who are there to help. Our churches do not run the building and grounds as a business. Having a PLAN. Our mission field (home churches) are missing this task.
August 27th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
A.J.C.
Your blog reminds me of an incident during our pastorate in Portland, Oregon (Emmanuel). Mr. Clyde Griffin was a retired prosperous chicken farmer who passed our church many, many times with passive observation. He had a Wesleyan background in more youthful days.
We had mounted a lighted sign in the front yard, kept the lawn mowed, painted the building, etc. This caught his attention and in his words said,”It looked like the church had come alive. It made me feel like I wanted to come home.” He started attending regularly and he and I became very close friends. We loved each other dearly as Christians. He included us in his “will”.
As to the Mormon issue:
- They are neat in appearance.
– Note the appearance of the two-by-two mormon missionaries going door to door. Always these
are neat with their white shirts and dark trousers and neatly trimmed hair.
– We have visited their main grounds in Salt Lake City and in Hawaii = neat and not
cluttered.
- They appear to be very well organized.
– CARING for the material needs of their members.
– Storage barns and caves in mountains containing food so as to be able to care for their
members in the event of a disaster. I understand they are well organized by rotating the
food items to prevent spoilage.
August 27th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Hugh Allison
Point well taken. And you are right.
One of the thoughts I had is that we Christians extend our grace theology to things like this, and all too often we use “grace” as an excuse for our laziness.
Mormon theology is works-oriented (earning/losing God’s favor by what you do), so it makes sense that this thinking would extend to their facilities.
August 28th, 2009 at 8:21 am
TIm
The following was a post on this blog from one of the Linked-In groups
“I believe that they are passionate people and understand that first perceptions set the stage for introduction and belonging AND they have a great work ethic!”
August 28th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Author CommentTroy
As to the “deep pockets” Mormon clergy are not paid. Congregation members devote their time and talents to the Church including clergy, teachers, secretaries etc… Imagine not having to come up with payroll every month. That would leave a considerable amount in the budget for buildings and grounds.
And a comment about this: “Mormon theology is works-oriented (earning/losing God’s favor by what you do), so it makes sense that this thinking would extend to their facilities.”
It isn’t as much about “doing” for Mormons as it is about “becoming”. Doing right things leads to being good. Add that to Grace and you become who God intends you to become.
August 29th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Leisl
ALSO…10% paid by LDS members is called tithing and is paid voluntarily by those who wish to enjoy all of the blessings of obedience to that Law of God. Not every member of the LDS faith pays tithing by choice and is not kicked out.
The members also take turns cleaning the inside of the church buildings without pay. It’s just part of shared responsibilities of membership. These buildings bear the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and should be worthy of that sacred name upon them by being as neat, clean, orderly and well-kept as possible.
August 29th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Jon
Mormons view their meetinghouses as literal houses of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Therefore they are maintained and kept as to be worthy of Him and His presence. If you’ve ever been to a Mormon temple you would see that the cleanliness standard goes even a step higher. I’ve been inside many and those most sacred places are immaculate 24/7. It’s amazing to me that these facilities are maintained mostly by local church members, all voluntarily.
August 29th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Christy
Great article. Very refreshing to hear the positive comments about our facilities, appearance and work ethic. Instead of the press crushing us for our conservative Christian values and beliefs! Our buildings do bare Jesus Christ’s name and I am honored that other sects would compliment our standards!
August 29th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Dennis
Good points Tim. A little monthly preventive maintenance will save churches money in the long run on major repairs allowing them to spend that money on outreach and other ministry needs. If one can’t afford to give back monetarily through tithing to the church, volunteer it makes a difference.
August 31st, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Lynne
I appreciate the kind words about how we members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints choose to maintain our facilities.
First I do have issues with some of the comments. First of all the principals of tithing are biblical principals that can be found in the King James Version of the Holy Bible. It is not a principal that is foreign to all brands of Christianity. Second we do not believe that we “gain or lose” Heavenly Fathers favor by what we do. James 2:14-18 teaches us that because we have faith in God and Jesus Christ we do good things. For faith with out works is dead. Verse 18 says Yea, a man say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. We were given a new commandment “To love one another” that my friends is why not one member of our leadership is paid from local Bishops all the way to the First Presidency. We don’t have to come up with salaries to pay these men. Our tithes and offerings go towards the maintenance and upkeep church properties. These tithes and offerings are all voluntary there is NO mandate that we give tithes and offerings other than the biblical teachings.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Lana
This article made me smile. I am a youth leader in the LDS church and this Saturday is our turn to do the weekly cleaning of the church building. The youth will clean the bathrooms, vacuum the floors, wash the windows, empty the trash and when it is all finished…we will have donuts!
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
B.S. (not the kind you're thinking of)
Great insights into the Mormon church. I would never have expected that comments on Mormon facilities would lead into such a great discussion. I look forward to reading future blogs.
September 12th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Postlude to “Why do Mormon (LDS) facilties look so good?” « Cool Solutions Group
[...] on August 27th I posted a blog entitled “Why do Mormon (LDS) facilities look so good?” I was very surprised at the number of people that opened and read the blog…about 3 times my [...]
September 19th, 2009 at 11:39 am