Serving People Through Facility Maintenance

by Andrew Pust

“It’s hot in here!” “The roof leaks!” “The breaker to the toaster keeps tripping!” And the list could go on. At times the life of a maintenance person seems like a never-ending list of complaints and problems with total insanity just another radio call away. It is important to respond in a timely manner to reported problems. The difficulty is having so many things to repair and people clamoring and pressing to get their problem fixed first; we just don’t seem to ever catch up. Is it possible to meet the needs of our fellow team members without becoming worn out, depressed, and frustrated? The answer is most definitely yes, but only when we approach the problems and challenges of maintenance with the right attitude. That attitude is one of both service and stewardship. Service is simply doing something for someone else. Stewardship is the wise use of the resources at our disposal. The goal of maintenance is to serve people while being good stewards of the tools and resources that God has given us.

Crucial to our ability to accomplish that goal are communication and initiative. It is impossible to truly meet the needs of people without communicating with them. Lack of initiative (not looking for ways to improve on your own without outside pressure) is revealed by consistently acting on the urgent and putting off the important. Over time, this lack will undermine the trust required for real communication to take place. Failure here will lead to frustration and bitterness.

As you can see from the Maintenance Chart diagram (click here), maintenance can be viewed as a continuous cycle with stewardship as the outer boundary and service to people as the core. The bottom half of the chart deals with the action involved in maintenance. Responding to a problem, completing regularly scheduled inspections, making an accurate assessment of a problem, and doing the actual repair are all necessary steps on the action side of maintenance.

The upper half of the chart is planning. A well thought-out and executed plan, which includes regular inspections and upkeep, will forestall many urgent maintenance problems. However, not all problems are considerate enough to give advance warning. The first step in planning is to look at all the options. Simply repairing the problem may be the proper option, but many chronic problems could be solved by going a step further and asking if they could be prevented in the future by scheduled upkeep. Maybe an improvement would eliminate the problem completely.

Balancing the priorities of the whole ministry with the current need is the second step of planning. This is the battle between the urgent and the important. A good goal to strive for is spending 75% of time and resources on important matters and 25% on urgent matters. Reality for many maintenance departments and personnel is just the opposite, resulting in so many urgent requests that there appears to be no remedy in sight. The third, and perhaps the most frustrating step of planning, is dealing with limitations. This could be termed the reality factor. Resources such as time, money, and abilities have real limits which must be honestly evaluated, set, and honored. Fatigue, frustration, burnout, debt, and injury, are just a few of the products of failing to live within our limits.

An unsuccessful maintenance program will, even with all good intentions, try to save some time or resources by shortcutting the cycle at one point or another. Conversely, a successful maintenance program will not shortcut the cycle at any point but will, through wise planning and skillful action, faithfully oversee what God has provided, all the while communicating with and seeking to serve people. Romans 12:10-11 exhorts us to “be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” It is my desire that each of you would be encouraged and enabled to confidently and joyfully fulfill your responsibility to serve others while maintaining the facility that God has entrusted to your stewardship for His glory.

For Maintenance Chart diagram, click here.