Pastor's Blog: Parking Pains
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Every church has its own set of challenges, some of which can also be seen as growth opportunities. What determines whether the church is derailed by the challenge or whether it becomes a stronger fellowship for it is its response. Obviously, the healthiest churches are those that do what is necessary to grow from their challenges.
You may have noticed this past Sunday that our parking lot was totally full. There wasn’t a parking place available, which meant that some folk came to MBBC ready to participate in worship and found it necessary to move on because there was no room for them in the lot. Nothing pains me more than to hear stories of people who have been turned away because we had no place for them.
The reality is that our parking is no longer adequate for today’s needs. When the Sanctuary was built 50 years ago many families drove together to worship in one car. Today, a family of four is likely to come in four cars! You can see how our parking capacity gets depleted pretty quickly, and especially so on those Sundays when we have combined worship, which is what our schedule looks like for the remainder of the year.
So, here’s what I’m asking you to consider. For our larger families, consider coming to church in one car. For our younger members, think about parking with the staff down at the Junior High School and making the short trek up the hill. For our Deacon leadership, consider the Junior High School or the front yard of the Yellow Missionary House. Any of these options will free up spaces for new folk and our members who need to be closer to the church.
Any Sunday you can follow this plan would be helpful, but we’ll especially need to implement it this coming Sunday morning and the following Christmas Eve Sunday morning, along with our Christmas Eve services that evening.
Thanks for your willingness to give consideration to helping us in this matter. Christmas is a special time and it’s wonderful that folk would want to celebrate it with us. So, let’s make sure that we create the space that is necessary for them in this Christmas season so that they might want to continue sharing with us on a more regular basis throughout the year.
“Make room for us in your hearts” (2 Corinthians 7:2a).