MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED
M AT T K A U T Z K Y
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D I R E C T O R O F FA C I L I T I E S
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BLACKHAWK CHURCH
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MIDDLETON, WI
Intuitive.
Proactive.
Peaceful.
Spanning more than 130,000 square feet,
Blackhawk Church transitioned from a (scraps of)
paper-based facilities management system to an
intuitive platform — all with zero downtime.
The platform’s implementation has even fostered
the pursuit of a guiding principle for the church:
providing a peaceful place of worship.
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
In 2007, Matt Kautzky and his wife, Corey, were looking for a church
to call home in the Madison, WI area. They visited Blackhawk Church
for the first time as it hosted its final service in its Madison campus. The
following Sunday, the church would open the doors to its new facility in
the nearby suburb of Middleton.
Though it was unusual timing, the Kautzkys knew they’d found what
they were looking for. “It just felt different to us,” Matt recalls. They
followed the Middleton move and immediately got plugged in, serving
on the church’s welcome team.
While Matt’s spiritual house was now in order, he says his professional
life was lacking. He was growing disillusioned with a successful, but
demanding, real estate management and development career.
So, when an operations management position opened up at the
church, he and Corey discussed it. Her concerns were the same as many
church employees who come from the for-profit world: What about how
hard you’ve worked for your career? What about funding?
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CHURCH EXECUTIVE | JAN / FEB 2020
“But I had an exceptionally bad day one day, and I applied,” Matt
recalls. Having confided in Corey about the opportunity and after
prayerful consideration, he was soon managing the day-to-day setup of
Blackhawk Church’s facilities — primarily, making sure the buildings
were clean and ensuring space and assets were allocated properly,
whether it was for a small meeting or a large-scale conference.
A few years into his role, Matt began working alongside the facilities
manager. When the long-time facilities manager moved on, Matt took
over the role.
Matt’s biggest initial challenge wasn’t learning how “things are
done,” facilities-wise at Blackhawk Church. Rather, he aimed to
improve those processes at a 130,000-square-foot church with complex
mechanical systems.
It was a far cry from the smaller churches Matt grew up attending.
“The mentality that surrounds a small church is lovely, and I loved
being a part of it,” he says. “But when a church grows to this point, there's
a fork in the road. You have to decide how you want to plan, budget and
manage these buildings that can be beasts, and who’s going to be along
for that ride.”
“Quite frankly, I think it’s very hard for a lot of nonprofits to make the
transition to owning real estate and assets, and understanding what all
that means,” he adds.
Fortunately, given his real estate and development background —
plus, years of firsthand experience with the church’s previous facilities
manager — Matt was in the ideal position to step up Blackhawk’s
facilities management game.
Paper wasn’t cutting it
The first pain point Matt aimed to eliminate was the church’s paper-
based facilities maintenance system — literally. Small scraps of paper
with maintenance requests were collected on Sunday, sorted by the