God Bless The Building Manager (July 30, 2006)

Blessed are those who work behind the scenes.

A few years ago at my former church I came down from the pulpit one Sunday a bit discouraged because I could tell people just weren't with me that day. (It is not hard to tell when hardly anybody is paying attention.) Somebody reassured me later that it wasn't that the sermon was so dull, but that the temperature was so hot. It was high summer and the church had no air conditioning. I was relieved to hear that explanation, and bought it eagerly. Of course it wasn't my fault! Who can preach so compellingly as to overcome the stifling opposition of a sanctuarial hotbox?

Air conditioning matters. It matters spiritually. A veteran missionary friend in Colombia told me that when Wycliffe Bible Translators got AC in their offices at the mission compound in Loma Linda, everyone's productivity suddenly skyrocketed.

When Faith Bible Church’s AC went out on Sunday, I thought sadly, "This is going to kill Vacation Bible School this week." Our volunteers' hard work stood to drown in a sea of triple-digit heat.

But it didn't. The AC got fixed. It got fixed because one of our members took a day off work on Monday - with whatever consequences he'll have to bear for that - to spend more than 5 hours at the church to make sure the repairers could get the unit working again.

Thanks Lenny!