Being Very Serious (Part 40)

Churches require a lot of maintenance year round. Whether it is the building itself or the grounds it is the responsibility of ALL the church members to make sure their properties are maintained. When the parking lot is full of grass and the yard's not cut neighbors begin to wonder if the people who attend there really care about their facilities. It doesn't matter the size of the structure, the layout of the land, or how many attend the church. What matters is that someone is invested enough in that local ministry to make sure their facilities are presentable to the public.

You can tell a lot about a congregation by how they take care of their facilities. I understand that the lack of money is the reason a lot of things don't get done, but just about anybody can use a mower, weed eater, or rake to make sure the grounds are taken care of. The same for pushing a vacuum or emptying a trash can. I would always cringe when I came to church on  Sunday and whoever was responsible for yard/church maintenance hadn't done their job. I always took it as a personal reflection on myself if the job wasn't done. I can't even remember how many times I just did the job myself because my workers didn't show up and do their job.

I was blessed at UCOG to have Brother Robert Austin do our yard maintenance for us and Brother Rick Boulware and his mother clean the church. I never had to worry about either because even when Brother Robert's equipment malfunctioned he made sure the work was done. John and Teresa Ramsey were great leaders and workers at DCOG because if they said they would do the work, it would get done. I could always count on their help in keeping the property and church maintained. Brother Tim Dabbs did the yard work for us at LCOG and did more than his fair share of extras to make sure the property was taken care of. Brother Stephen Seymour did the same for the church (and believe me it's hard to keep an eighty year old building clean). It's people like these that pastors need more of in their churches today to help them make sure the church grounds are properly groomed and the church facilities maintained.

The people that usually complain the most about unkempt yards or unclean churches usually never lift a hand to help do the work. Many think because they pay their tithes that's the limit of their sacrifices for their church. But if there's not enough financial support, as in many of our smaller churches, without volunteers many things go undone. Folks, the pastor cannot do it all. Somebody has to help him/her get the job done and it has to be more than just a few.

So the next time your pastor asks for someone to help with the yard/church maintenance don't be shy. Speak up, show up, and do what you said you would do. If everyone does their part it's easy. But if just one person fails to honor his/her responsibility, it throws everything out of kilter. What begins to happen is those few who are faithful workers get overloaded and burnt out. And when they get burnt out it all falls on your pastor and pretty soon he/she is so worn out they beg the Lord for a change of scenery.

I read a survey not too long ago about how churches attract and keep visitors. One of the first things new people considered before attending any church was how the property looked. They also considered how the restrooms were kept in the church before they decided to stay. Those things may seem trivial to you, but apparently they are important to somebody. So if you don't want the job, give a little extra in the offering for the purpose of hiring someone to do it. What a wonderful surprise it would be for everyone in the church to pull up on Sunday and see everything inside and out clean, comfortable, and cut. If you take care of what you have, God will supply you with even more.