Cars in the Parking Lot

A number of years ago I heard about a frustrated business owner, whose business was not going as well as she had hoped, and she believed that her employees were slacking off, and that was the root of the problem. In a staff meeting she proclaimed, "I want to see those cars in the parking lot!" You know, that is a measure of what is going on at a facility. The cars in the parking lot.

That crossed my mind a few weeks ago when I arrived a little late to church on a weekday. There were already a number of cars in the parking lot, and there was no church meeting scheduled for the day. These were the cars of the employees, and some students in the Lights ON for Learning program.

That started my mind rolling. Our church staff roster lists eleven members. There are six persons who receive a paycheck from the Community Caring Conference. There are three employees of Blackhawk College who report directly to the church building to do work for the college. And this does not mention various supervisors who work in other locations and have some responsibility for activities that take place here at the church. The way I think of it, some twenty persons think of the church as the place where they work.

This is a high water mark for the time that I have been here. The Church of Peace itself has three more employees than last year - their jobs are funded by various grants we receive. In an economy where unemployment is up it is good to be working in the opposite direction. (We do wish that the jobs we provide were higher income.)

Many years ago when there was debate about whether the church should move or stay at its present location one of the reasons to stay was to provide an "anchor" in the neighborhood. The fact that twenty folks count this as their home office shows that we have indeed provided an anchor of sorts.

Of course, with twenty different people working in and out of this building life is more complex, with more relationships and all. But it is a good sort of complexity. A rich complexity of personal interaction - and that does not mention all the volunteers for each of the organizations that are in and out of the building on a regular basis. And then the church meetings. And the meetings of the Community Caring Conference, and the meetings of the Lights ON for Learning.

You know, with all of this there are indeed more cars in the parking lot. On a regular basis.