I don't think that the Church has to PAY or HIDE Linux specialists. I was clerk, Branch President, Teacher, eccetera, without having being payed or Hide by the Church.unless the church wants to pay for and hire a team to be Stake Technology
I still serve as Building Specialist for free and I can serve in the same way as Stake Linux Specialist.
It seem to me that having Linux into Church Pc will prevent several "abuse" of it. If you don't install a package manager no one can install unwilled software. (Save through :/Configure - Make - Make install procedure.
And even if they know how, they don't know root password, so they can install them only at user level (if it's whorth of). So you can know Who installed What!
I don't think that Church Pc are hw update every week, if something doesn't work it will be replaces with an approved piece, so .. no matter at all.
Linux is not ready for Desktop? I install it for my 8 year old nephew and He was able to use it in a 10 minutes. Access internet, lanch programs, games, switch on and off. What need more in a Church Pc?