A Fresh Approach to Building Maintenance

I remember so well when "Mr. Bud," who chaired the building maintenance committee in my first pastorate, told me "Pastor Billy, I know hate is a strong word.  But I hate that word 'maintenance.'"  He would tell me this enough times that he made me think.  To Mr. Bud, we should not just maintain our buildings; we should pursue a level of excellence and future preparedness.
Churches are discovering the beauty of investing more of their funds into ministry versus real estate, property ownership, and building maintenance.  But for the majority of us, we still have facilities on our balance sheet.  And we, as pastors, understand that the church is not a building, even if some of the dear folks we shepherd aren't quite there yet. 
Churches and ministries have a tendency, though, to neglect their buildings.  In our defense, we are often cash-strapped, and it takes significant cash to keep up a building.  I know of several ministries that were almost forced out of existence, though, due to a failure to keep up their property.  The church where I currently serve is relocating.  Admittedly, a big reason why relocation became our only reasonable path forward was decades of letting things go.  So what's the answer?  
God began to put on my heart a shift in mindset when it comes to building upkeep.  With a nod to "Mr. Bud," I have changed the name of our Building & Grounds Maintenance Team to Facility / Property Stewardship Team.  As Mr. Bud said, we are not maintaining a building or piece of property; we are stewards of these things.
I like the fact that this perspective underscores the spiritual nature of the decisions we make concerning our property.  Also, instead of doing the very cheapest thing to band-aid a problem, we will consider doing it right the first time, even if it takes more money, to avoid having to redo it. 
When we relocate, by God's grace, we will be building a new building.  It will be warrantied, efficient, and new.  To keep it nice, it will serve us well to think of our responsibility as building stewardship versus building maintenance.  

Building Maintenance: Let's get someone to fix the leak for free, maybe a church member.
Building Stewardship: Let's get a credentialed contractor to fix the leak, and advise us as to any underlying issues that may cause this leak to recur.

Building Maintenance: Let's take ceiling tiles from the kids Sunday School classrooms to fix the damaged ones in the Sanctuary.
Building Stewardship: We don't need unfinished construction in kids Sunday School classrooms.  Let's purchase new ceiling tiles, and do it right.

P. S. If you cannot afford to be a good steward of your building, maybe it is time to apply for a grant or liquidate your real estate and go mobile.  Visible cracks, peeled paint, rusted out doors, and pest control problems say more about your theology than they do about your frugality.  Of course, these ideas are most applicable to churches in the States.  In a missions context, the particulars would likely be different.