Peter makes some good points that raise other questions.
He writes:
My congregation spent a lot of money on air conditioning for our school a couple of years ago. It was part of our plan to pass down what had received. Will there be an LCMS school in Munster in 40 years? Who knows? We can't control everything. But we could reasonably anticipate the likelihood that IF our school is still functioning in 40 years, it will be air-conditioned.
I muse:
Well, maybe, if the equipment lasts that long, which it probably won't. Or it will be too demanding of power for the time 40 years from now, or inadequate to cool the air because the climate has changed. OTOH if everything stays the way it is now, you're good.
Peter writes:
Changing societal standards and the move to electronics in education, longer school years and the possibility of year-round education, state air quality standards, etc. made that seem like a safe bet. Now, if our school goes belly-up in the next years, those hundreds of thousands of dollars will have been wasted.
I comment:
Well, not "wasted." You just didn't get as much out of your investment as you expected.
Peter:
But we shouldn't just assume it will go belly-up because of the theology of the cross. If we can agree with the premise that IF the school is still there in 40 years it will be air-conditioned, that means that at some point the decision will have to be made to spend the money on that. And it will never be mission-critical in the short term. There won't be a budget year when air conditioning for a school that has been functioning without air conditioning for decades will become urgent. But every year we decide not to do it, we kick the can down the road.
Me:
One of the problems "left behind" by some pastors I know of, and in one interim I served, was "deferred maintenance," that is, not getting things fixed that should have been fixed. You avoid spending a thousand dollars one year, then the next year, and then you get hit with a $40,000 emergency need a year later.
Peter writes:
Now let's say that the decision proves to be bad, a mere building of bigger barns when the institution's life is about to be demanded of it. Okay. What should we have spent the money on?
I comment:
Another good point, because in the long-term, that is, the very long term perspective (or maybe short term, who knows these days?) we haven't a credible clue about when an institution's "life is about to be demanded of it."
We we hang loose and not get ourselves trapped into paralysis by analysis. We take our best shots based on our best thinking even in the midst of uncertainty.
I liked the ending of "Great Balls of Fire" the bio-pic about Jerry Lee Lewis. His cousin, the preacher Jimmy Swaggert, thinks rock 'n roll and the way Jerry Lee plays the piano is completely "of the Devil." Obviously, the rocker disagrees - or doubts the Devil - and says to his cousin: "Well, if I'm goin' to Hell, I'm goin' there playin' the piano."
Rock on.