A Different Way Of Looking At Things

I think I might have told you that our Facility Manager is moving to Texas. He and his wife have three daughters and the youngest just graduated from high school. And wouldn't you know it, she's going to go to the same college that both her sisters go to... in Texas. 

We attend a large church, about 1200 on a Sunday and we have a Facility Manager, a maintenance guy and I'm the admin for the facilities department. When the FM gave his notice, the Board decided not to hire anyone to replace him. 

Instead, they asked the maintenance guy if he'd want to head up that department and they asked... me if I'd head up the custodial department.

At first I said I wanted to pray about it but inside I felt I was supposed to take it. A couple days later the Lord give me confirmation about it and so I said yes! And man has it been a whirlwind of activity since then!

I've been meeting with our Operations Pastor, talking about my increase in pay, hours, responsibilities. Yesterday the FM said he was going to bring up a few files and he came into my office area... PUSHING A CART!

We sorted through files, he got rid of some, we split some with maintenance and the rest ended up on my desk.

Oh my poor desk.

I spent a couple hours today going through them. Of course, I had to purge old files that were already in my desk to make room for all of these. A lot of my old files are going to the Hospitality Department but we haven't had a chance to get together yet. I trained the admin who runs the database on a few things earlier this week but there's still a lot to do. 

We've attended our church going on 30 years and I've always approached it with an attitude of helping. "Let me put the tablecloths on the tables while you go to your office and make phone calls." "I can sit here and take the money while you address everyone's questions and put out fires." I've always looked for ways to volunteer, to just help. 

But now. Now I have to make sure my crew has the tools and equipment they need to set up for the event; I have to keep in touch with them to assist them where needed; I have to be available to 'put out fires' where the building is concerned: Do we have enough chairs for this event? Is the platform cleaned and ready for Sunday's service? Are there tables in the foyer that shouldn't be there, maybe left over from a previous event? Did anyone on my crew call in sick and will I need to set up this event or that one in their place?

And the cleaning! Oh, the amount of work it takes to clean a building this size! And I'm now in charge of it all.

It's a completely different mindset. And, I'm the head of a department. Looking back, I can see where the Lord has been preparing me for this. Little by little increasing my circle of influence and putting me in places of authority over more and more people. When I think about everything that's involved in this I get a little nervous, but deep down I'm so excited about how the Lord is going to use me in this position. You can bet I'll be praying for direction and guidance every step of the way!