Dear Ones:
Visiting the sanctuary just now, it appears our entire congregation is suffering from a misunderstanding.
Our sanctuary — any sanctuary — is a house of God, and because we are God’s people, that places upon us a duty of order and cleanliness, one we must punctiliously & precisely observe, and teach our children to observe.
At the end of the service, every one ought to
1. Take your bulletins & papers with you.
2. Replace the hymnals, Bibles, & prayer books into the rack.
3. Fold up the kneeler.
4. Take with you toys, crayons, markers, & coloring books you have brought for your children.
5. Pick up any stray papers or trash off the floor. If you see it, it is your duty to pick it up.
6. Straighten anything you notice that needs straightening, whether blankets or worship booklets or whatever. If you see it, it is your duty to pick it up.
7. This admonition applies as well to all the areas downstairs. Please do not simply meet, eat, & retreat without taking part in common clean up duties.
a. Make sure your children put up any toys they take out, and that the nursery is orderly and everything put up before you leave.
b. Clean the table where you eat, including taking away your plate and wiping off the table.
c. Restore your chairs to their proper place under the table.
d. Put trash in the trash cans, first making sure there is a garbage bag in the trash can.
e. Pitch in to wash dishes.
f. Pitch in to sweep after meals.
g. Glance around to see if anything else needs doing, or anyone else needs help, and volunteer.
h. We have no garbage pick up at the church. Please take away the full garbage bags and be sure to re-line the trash can with a new trash bag.
8. Finally, look around, searching with your eyes to find anything untidy or disorderly to straighten out, trash to pick up, or garbage to empty, or things to be put away, or lights to be turned off or candles to be snuffed or doors to be shut. If it needs doing, you need to do it.
9. Please teach your children to care for the building as well, e.g., don’t drag hands along the wall, don’t kick doors, pick up after yourself, all that same care you teach them for your own home, because the sanctuary is the home of God’s people.
If you believe you are too busy or too important for these tasks, please remember that our Lord Jesus Christ himself emptied himself of all the glory of heaven to become: /a servant of all. /He washed the disciple’s feet. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, to /serve /his people.
From that perspective, cleaning up the sanctuary is a tiny duty, joyful to perform.
Yours in the bonds of Christ,
Franklin Sanders
Rector, Christ Our Hope RE Church
PO Box 178
Westpoint, TN 38486
888)218-9226
931)766-1128 – FAX
moneychanger@wildblue.net
www.the-moneychanger.com