Podcast

064 – Clean Exterior of the Church Building

Posted on September 22, 2020December 4, 2023 by Ryan Sparks

What’s in this Episode?

Who cares what the church building looks like? The church is the people anyway. And if you’re focused in on the building, you’re focused in on material things.Well, if that’s the way you’re thinking. A clean exterior is crucial and this episode of the Church Tips Podcast is going to push your buttons.

Read the Transcript

Church Building Care

Jonathan Hardy 0:16
So as I was driving on the highway, not too long ago, I came across a church that I was passing, and I looked at it and I just immediately was disappointed, was like, what in the world is going on? These are these thoughts going through my mind. And the reason is, because the building of this, where this church means was filthy, dirty. I mean, it was unbelievably dirty. And you know, how buildings will have like the wet streaks or like the dirt streaks where, you know, over time, the water running? I mean, it was just these streaks everywhere. It looked terrible. And I was like, oh, man, I mean, this is not, this isn’t good!

Dick Hardy 0:59
Bad statement!

Jonathan Hardy 0:59
Yeah. And obviously, in the role that we play, dealing with churches all the time, like these are, these are the thoughts you’re like, oh, man, you know, they could do so much better, probably reaching people if they’re building looked better. So today, we want to actually talk to you about the importance of a clean exterior of the church building. And honestly, this isn’t the only time we’ve seen this. I mean, you’ve seen this. I can’t tell you how many churches I visited before, where you pull in the parking lot, the weeds are growing through the cracks in the parking lot. The lawns not well kept, it’s not mowed, it’s just all these things. And these things are actually very important for having where your church meets. And so we’re going to talk to you a little bit about the importance. We want to give you three specific reasons why this is so important. And so Dick, let’s jump off.

Tip #1: Your Building is Representative of Jesus and the Gospel

Dick Hardy 1:06
You know, the, I mean, it should go without saying, but you know Jonathan and I say it anyway. Your building is a representative of Jesus and the Gospel. I mean, the most important thing that happens in that building is the presentation of the Gospel. Introducing people who are far from God. Introducing them to Jesus. And it just makes such a wrong statement of what you’re doing inside. I mean, that would just say that that’s not important. And so to me, if what we’re doing is the highest value thing on the planet, and it is, then that’s why taking care of the physical structure is so important. I can’t overemphasize it. In fact I can get kind of worked up thinking about that.

Jonathan Hardy 2:39
Settle down, settle down!

Dick Hardy 2:40
Churches don’t pay attention to the physical gift the Lord has given them, their structure, their property. As a representation of the gospel and of Jesus.

Jonathan Hardy 2:52
Well, even literally did not think of this until you’re saying this, but really the building the property, that’s a tool that we get to use to help introduce people to Jesus, because the church can… obviously the church is not the building, it’s the people can meet anywhere. But at least in the American church context, we often are…

Dick Hardy 3:08
Western culture.

Jonathan Hardy 3:08
Western culture, overall. We’re meeting in buildings. And so this is the tool that we use for the people to gather together. And so you know, I mean, just like any tool, you would have. The saw that you have, or the the mower blade, or you know, you sharpen it, you make sure you take care of it, you and and so…

Dick Hardy 3:26
Let me tell you something, I’ve been in his garage, and he takes care of his tools. He does a better job than dad does. But that’s true! You take care of those tools.

Tip #2: It is a Statement of Value

Jonathan Hardy 3:37
Well, and that really kind of probably leads to the second thought as to why this is so important. And it’s because this is a statement of value. So churches that… well let’s use the example of the church that I drove by, to me, they said, they communicated without actually communicating it, they communicated that they do not value cleanliness. They don’t value the… I mean, it almost kind of feels sloppy, kind of feels like.

Dick Hardy 4:02
Well, they don’t really value the tool the Lord gave them.

Jonathan Hardy 4:04
Right. Yes. And so it’s like it almost looks like oh, we don’t really care about the exterior, and what that communicates to people, but you know, so that’s not a value to them, but it should be.

Dick Hardy 4:16
It really should be. You know, you could tell it when you go through neighborhoods, you go through neighborhoods. Now you can make a judgement depending on where you, where you personally fall on this. But you go through neighborhoods with immaculate lawns and everything is neat and trim. Regardless of those people, you will say those people value that property. You go to other places that the weeds are overgrown, and I was talking Jonathan about a friend suggesting maybe helping her, but her whole property is… she’s just not taking care of it. Now I understand there could be circumstances involved with that, so don’t hear a wrong judgment with that, but the issue is value. What is it that you value? And to your point that not taking care of your building is a statement of value.

Jonathan Hardy 5:11
Well, what do you say to people who say, well, we don’t have the money. I mean, because they say, well, we want it to be clean. But, you know, we don’t have the money to go clean it because it costs, you know, however many thousand dollars to go out and do it.

Dick Hardy 5:24
I would argue that the Lord has given you, I don’t care how big or small your church is, the Lord has given you the people. This isn’t let’s go pay the highest priced building cleaner. This is, we’re going to get some volunteers together, and we’re going to take care of our building. And it’ll happen because the pastor views it as important, the leader views it as important. And when the leader can say this is important, and why it’s important, the very things we’re talking about, then it will get done. And you do it with volunteers.

Jonathan Hardy 5:54
Well, this is a sidebar. But I think it’s very important for us to be thinking about, as it relates to the cleanliness of the building, on the exterior, the property, the parking lot, all these things, is trying to put yourself in the eyes of a visitor, because then as you’re trying to recruit people, and you say, hey, well, we want to make sure that we put our best foot forward as someone that comes to visit the church, I can guarantee that the church that I visited, that had the parking lot full of weeds. I mean, again, I wasn’t looking to go there, because I wasn’t, you know, we have our church home, but I was looking, you know, obviously through through the lens of a visitor thinking, well why would I want to come here, if I’m a visitor, when I see that this looks sloppy to me, this doesn’t look well kept. That means to me that says they don’t care. So putting yourself in. And then that way, that’s an easy way for you to get people to help volunteer because like, hey, we want to reach more people, we want to put our best foot forward, guys, come on, let’s come help. Let’s clean. Scrub the building, let’s go weed the parking lot, you know, whatever.

Tip #3: It is Stewardship of What God has Given You

Dick Hardy 6:52
Clean doesn’t cost money. Being clean, being neat doesn’t cost money. Or it costs very little. You know, the other thing I think is just, and it tags right off this, is really the stewardship of resource. While we taught you used a great illustration of it being a tool, you know, the Lord gives us that and we have the responsibility to be a good steward of what has been given to us. That’s good. I mean, you know, the New Testament examples where Jesus is talking about a stewardship. People taking care of the talents that have been given to them. And the Lord has given each church, whatever facility it is, and we need to steward it, we need to steward the resource. Budget, if you do have to budget dollars, you know, in that church’s case, I would say, okay, you know, here we are in, we’re recording this in 2020. We say, okay, we can’t do it in 2020, but we can do it 2021. And we’re going to begin to set money aside to, you know, if we have to rent some power washers or something, we’ll do that, but set that money aside to be able to do that. And you’ll be able to see that you’ll get done, what you need to get done because you’re properly planning and stewarding. You know, and we talked about this way back in one of our episodes we did Episode Seven, How to Balance a Church Budget, where you’re saying, well all of our money’s allocated. Well, if it’s a priority for you, you’ll be able to talk about how, and we talked about in that episode, how to move money around in order to do the most important things that you want done.

Recap for this episode on Church Exterior Building Care:

Jonathan Hardy 8:25
Yep. Well, good. Let’s recap real quick, the three reasons why the cleaning of your building and your property is so important. First of all, it’s a representation of Jesus. Second of all, it’s a statement of value. And then the third is its stewardship of the resource that God has given you. You’ll want to make sure to check out Episode Seven, if you have not done so on church budgets, how to balance the church budget, but we hope that through this, you’ll be able to say, okay, what are some things I can do in my church context right now to our facility, if you have a facility that you meet at, to help put the best foot forward, keep it clean, so that you can reach more people. And on that, I want to mention too, this is a leadership thing. I mean, this is you have to lead the way. And so whether you’re the lead pastor, or whether you’re the administrator who oversees facilities, or whatever your role is, this is a leadership thing, because you have to take the steps in the action necessary in order to keep pushing the ball forward. And so one of the ways that you can continue to improve as a personal leader is through the four secrets masterclass. That’s a presentation I put together. You can watch it anytime online. All you have to do is go to leaders.church/secrets. Again, that’s leaders.church/secrets, sign up, get access to it right away. And that’ll help you be on your way to leading better and really processing ways in which you can be more effective as a leader and when you do so, that’s going to help you make a bigger difference in the church as a whole.

Dick Hardy 9:55
Exactly.

Jonathan Hardy 9:56
And then, what else?

Dick Hardy 9:57
Well, we want you to do subscribe. We thank you for watching this or listening to this podcast. Subscribe on whatever platforms you listen to and YouTube. We’d love to have you follow us on social media. And by the way, if you subscribe, you’ll see some statements on there the people who have reviewed Church Tips, and we’ve got one here from Randy Mays, “Listen up. Great people who understand ministry inside and out. Great resource for people who want to grow their ministry. No need to learn it the hard way.” Well, thank you, Randy for that great review. If you review, we may read yours along the way.

Jonathan Hardy 10:34
There we go.

Dick Hardy 10:35
Anything else Jonathan?

Jonathan Hardy 10:34
That’s it. Thank you so much for being with us today. We look forward to seeing you next time. Take care.

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Podcast

064 – Clean Exterior of the Church Building

What’s in this Episode?