A day in the life of a church
14/09/13 05:20
One of the things that amuse me is that there are a lot of people who have misperceptions about what a church is and what those of us who work at church do with our everyday lives. It makes sense to me that with all of the different expressions of Christianity in the world, someone who is outside of the church might have misperceptions about what we believe. Since I enjoy talking about faith, I don’t mind explaining who we are and what we believe. The stories of our denomination and our particular congregation are fun to tell and I’m always glad to talk about our grass roots mission programs and our services.
After 35 years in the ministry it no longer surprises me that there are people outside of the church who think that we are a wealthy institution engaged primarily in philanthropy. We are a non-profit that invests all of its resources in serving the community. But we get regular calls from people who think that the primary way that we engage in that mission is by giving away money. The call to ask for funding for a lot of different things, primarily for real and immediate needs such as grocery money, rent money, money to pay utility bills, etc. But we also get requests for money to buy cars, gas and other things. We try to help where we are able, but we are not rich and are not able to fund all of the needs of our community. In the span of my ministry, churches that I serve have been burglarized three times and there have been a couple of other minor break-ins. In every case, the cost to repair the damages made by the person or persons entering the building exceeded the value of the items lost. Churches, at least the ones I have served, are not places of wealth and they are not filled with items that can be stolen and easily pawned. The average home has more items that could be stolen. And despite the fact that we pass an offering plate in worship, most of our income comes to us in the form of checks, we bank our income regularly, and there is rarely any cash in the building.
A church as large and complex as ours also has lots of members who don’t know what we do all of the time. They are aware of the major worship services. They are aware of the programs in which they participate. But they don’t know of all of the activities that occupy our building. It is a common occurrence for a member of our congregation to stop by in the middle of the week and be surprised at all of the activity. Church members will sometimes plan a meeting or event at the church and neglect to check with the office to see what is going on. We hear all sorts of expressions of surprise that our rooms are scheduled for mid-week use and not always available without advance planning.
So I had the idea of writing a blog that would be a typical day in the life of our church and sort of tell the story of what goes on in our church. The problem is that there are no “typical” days. Each day is a new adventure. So, in place of that, here is a run down of some of the things that happened yesterday at 1st Congregational United Church of Christ in Rapid City.
There was no time during the day when there wasn’t someone in the building. I arrived at the church unusually late at about 7:45 a.m. The preschool teachers were already busy getting ready for the arrival of students. It still amazes me that there are regular and active members of our church who don’t understand the size of the preschool program. There are eighty 3 and 4-year-olds in the program this year. Their primary space is just three large classrooms in the west wing of the building and those classrooms are organized and in order. They are also used by the church for other programs on Sunday mornings.
There was a group of college students getting a little breakfast in the kitchen. They are traveling as part of a program of Elon University in North Carolina and are touring the hills before engaging in a service project at Pine Ridge. I can tell where the wireless Internet access ends in the hallways by where the students sit in the halls. They all have mobile devices and connect to the Internet to communicate with family and friends and to do some of the research that is part of their learning experiences. Their two professors also need the Internet to keep up with their responsibilities.
By 8:30, our church office was open and Ryan was preparing bulletins for Sunday worship, answering the phone, and helping with a dozen different tasks. Our office has a very good coffee maker and so people who come to the church for various duties stop by for a bit of coffee and conversation and the office is a hub of activity. During the day there were volunteers watering plants, delivering firewood, seeing to the supplies for our food-coupon sales, entering attendance into the computer and a variety of different tasks in the building.
In the morning the janitors came through the building, cleaned all of the restrooms, vacuumed all of the carpets, dust mopped the sanctuary and washed the glass in the entryway. I enjoyed brief conversations with the workers as they came to my office to empty trash and recycling bins and vacuumed the carpet.
There are always surprises to our work routine. Yesterday Susan had to spend extra time in front of her computer because a wedding at which she was slated to co-officiate became a wedding that she was handling solo as a colleague was stuck in Boulder, Colorado due to flooding in that area. She had to write the service and be prepared for a rehearsal.
The Stained Glass group met in the kitchen. The Watercolor group met in room 24. During the day I came and went with errands to run, hospital visits to make, and other activities that took place in other locations. At no time did we need to lock the building, because it was continually occupied by multiple groups.
After the wedding rehearsal, the dinner was held in our fellowship hall. The family and friends of the bride and groom had eaten and were settling into an evening of board games when I left the building. And that was just 12 hours after I arrived – only half of a 24-hour day. The college students were spending the night again and will be there when I arrive in the morning.
And that is just one day. It’s usually busy and it’s never boring.
After 35 years in the ministry it no longer surprises me that there are people outside of the church who think that we are a wealthy institution engaged primarily in philanthropy. We are a non-profit that invests all of its resources in serving the community. But we get regular calls from people who think that the primary way that we engage in that mission is by giving away money. The call to ask for funding for a lot of different things, primarily for real and immediate needs such as grocery money, rent money, money to pay utility bills, etc. But we also get requests for money to buy cars, gas and other things. We try to help where we are able, but we are not rich and are not able to fund all of the needs of our community. In the span of my ministry, churches that I serve have been burglarized three times and there have been a couple of other minor break-ins. In every case, the cost to repair the damages made by the person or persons entering the building exceeded the value of the items lost. Churches, at least the ones I have served, are not places of wealth and they are not filled with items that can be stolen and easily pawned. The average home has more items that could be stolen. And despite the fact that we pass an offering plate in worship, most of our income comes to us in the form of checks, we bank our income regularly, and there is rarely any cash in the building.
A church as large and complex as ours also has lots of members who don’t know what we do all of the time. They are aware of the major worship services. They are aware of the programs in which they participate. But they don’t know of all of the activities that occupy our building. It is a common occurrence for a member of our congregation to stop by in the middle of the week and be surprised at all of the activity. Church members will sometimes plan a meeting or event at the church and neglect to check with the office to see what is going on. We hear all sorts of expressions of surprise that our rooms are scheduled for mid-week use and not always available without advance planning.
So I had the idea of writing a blog that would be a typical day in the life of our church and sort of tell the story of what goes on in our church. The problem is that there are no “typical” days. Each day is a new adventure. So, in place of that, here is a run down of some of the things that happened yesterday at 1st Congregational United Church of Christ in Rapid City.
There was a group of college students getting a little breakfast in the kitchen. They are traveling as part of a program of Elon University in North Carolina and are touring the hills before engaging in a service project at Pine Ridge. I can tell where the wireless Internet access ends in the hallways by where the students sit in the halls. They all have mobile devices and connect to the Internet to communicate with family and friends and to do some of the research that is part of their learning experiences. Their two professors also need the Internet to keep up with their responsibilities.
By 8:30, our church office was open and Ryan was preparing bulletins for Sunday worship, answering the phone, and helping with a dozen different tasks. Our office has a very good coffee maker and so people who come to the church for various duties stop by for a bit of coffee and conversation and the office is a hub of activity. During the day there were volunteers watering plants, delivering firewood, seeing to the supplies for our food-coupon sales, entering attendance into the computer and a variety of different tasks in the building.
In the morning the janitors came through the building, cleaned all of the restrooms, vacuumed all of the carpets, dust mopped the sanctuary and washed the glass in the entryway. I enjoyed brief conversations with the workers as they came to my office to empty trash and recycling bins and vacuumed the carpet.
There are always surprises to our work routine. Yesterday Susan had to spend extra time in front of her computer because a wedding at which she was slated to co-officiate became a wedding that she was handling solo as a colleague was stuck in Boulder, Colorado due to flooding in that area. She had to write the service and be prepared for a rehearsal.
The Stained Glass group met in the kitchen. The Watercolor group met in room 24. During the day I came and went with errands to run, hospital visits to make, and other activities that took place in other locations. At no time did we need to lock the building, because it was continually occupied by multiple groups.
After the wedding rehearsal, the dinner was held in our fellowship hall. The family and friends of the bride and groom had eaten and were settling into an evening of board games when I left the building. And that was just 12 hours after I arrived – only half of a 24-hour day. The college students were spending the night again and will be there when I arrive in the morning.
And that is just one day. It’s usually busy and it’s never boring.