I received the image below from our cleaning lady (Stephanie) who found the entrance to the Discipleship Building like this when she came in on Monday morning (Memorial Day). Because of the holiday many groups met on modified schedules or didn’t meet at all. Obviously, in the confusion everyone just walked past the lights and open doors. When I think about something like this I have several immediate concerns.
- Vandals could access the building and seriously damage our only adult discipleship facility. I have been at a church where something like that happened at it leaves the congregation very upset and feeling victimized. The reality is it takes one or two mischievous neighborhood teens to create a serious situation.
- Most of our AC units were running to make up for the warm air being let in. I can hear my parents right now “Are you trying to air condition the whole world?” Not only is this a real expense to the church but those AC units have a lot of milage on them and it was a challenging summer. We need to avoid putting a lot of stress on them.
- Lastly, and I believe it is the most likely and dangerous. Stephanie enters the building to find a startled wild animal. Imagine being alone and walking in to find a deer, snake, or dog in one of the rooms, panicked and ready to get out. Also, I don’t want to even think about how to fix the situation where a skunk sprays inside the building.
These are all reasonable concerns and I am sure there are other ones too. The fix is easy. If you are leaving, shut the doors and make sure they are locked. If there aren’t greeters or security at the door we really don’t need to leave them open and unattended.
