Will we look back on these days and remember them fondly? If you follow this blog you might remember that our small mission congregation purchased a church back in March, we moved in during Holy Week and celebrated triumphantly on Easter Sunday worshipping, at long last, in our own space! With property ownership, naturally, comes new and added responsibilities. Who will maintain the space? Over the last few months teams have been established consisting of dedicated and able-bodied volunteers for building maintenance; one to clean the inside of the church and another to mow, trim, and tidy up the church yard outdoors. By the grace of God our congregation has recently received gifts of a mower, a trimmer, and even a building in which to house the lawn keeping equipment! This past week it was the Goodneedles turn to clean and mow. We drove over there together; Mr. G got to work outside while I donned my rubber gloves and started scrubbing bathrooms (I like to get that out of the way first). Floors were mopped, the kitchen was cleaned until it sparkled, tables were wiped down, the vacuuming was done, windows were washed, the downstairs hallway was swept and, before I knew it, over three hours had passed!
I walked outside to find Mr. G. finishing up the trimming; it was a beautiful day, cooler and drier than it has been. I sat there in the sunshine while he used the leaf blower to do a final clean up and I wondered, as I relaxed from my efforts, will we look back on these days and remember them fondly? Will we recall, in the years to come, how we all pitched in as a community of faith and cared, together, for this physical space? I have never before been this invested in a church building; I suppose I had always just taken for granted that the bathrooms would be cleaned, the floors swept and the carpets vacuumed before I arrived for worship. Naturally, I knew that in former congregations we had sextons whose job it was to keep those church buildings clean, and landscapers who did the mowing; and yet, I can't recall ever thanking them or fully appreciating their diligence or the scope of their tasks. Mr. G and I were both tired when we drove back home last Friday. I asked him the question as we rode together: "will we look back on these days and remember them fondly"? He smiled. "I believe that we will" he responded, "I believe that we will"!
I believe so too!
Thanks be to God!
Life is Good!
7 comments:
Love this.
Our church has also been undergoing some similar changes. The long time keeper of the very large community gardens has moved to assisted living. The dear friend who loved to putter and tinker and take care of all building maintenance passed away suddenly. The folks who had installed and maintained the video/sound equipment for our LiveStream broadcasts moved away….. ow we have found ourselves taking over these chores and realizing just how much work it really involves.
i think it makes the body truly feel as one...good job to you and mr. g!
So very very true (both thinking back and remembering and how we take certain things for granted without saying thank you to those who do that work)
I think you will too. This post makes me think of Tanya who sometimes talks about cleaning her church, even waxing the floors. She also has neighborhood cleanup duty sometimes.
Having skin in the game changes your views on ownership
Japanese churches have never had sextons or janitors and it has always been the pastor's family or a women's group that will do the weekly cleaning. I remember when I was first married and went to help clean the church that we washed the sanctuary floor on our hands and knees. The other ladies thought it very funny that I didn't know how to wring out my rag with the proper wrist motion. Every time I wring out a rag I still remember those days fondly!
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