Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Forget the future. We don’t even have room for the present. When you have something that needs to be put away, is there an empty drawer or closet shelf handy? Active files in temporary boxes, plastic tubs of art supplies out in the open, piles of recently purchased books sitting in front of shelves of 1940 hymnals -- all signs that it is time for serious spring cleaning!

Cleaning the church isn’t easy. It’s boring and dusty and it doesn’t feel much like the vibrant ministry we are all supposed to be spending our time on.

Cleaning the church isn’t easy because we have a lot of feelings about the past. As we sort through paperwork, we remember people who have gone, and glory days that are long past. We discover wasted materials, long-since gone dry and crumbly, and we wish we had used them. We find things that used to be useful when some dead or dying ministry was active, and we wish we still needed them. The temptation arises to keep that stuff around “just in case.” Pretty soon it feels like we would have been better off leaving the closets in peace.

Cleaning matters. It makes room for the present and future. It helps us to let go of the past and turn our gaze forward. It even gives us the chance to sort treasures from garbage, and to display the treasures lovingly. A beautiful old photograph, or a hand-drawn Sunday school project from ages past can make for a celebration of memory. Check stubs from 1971 and crumpled props from long-ago Christmas pageants belong in the trash or the shredder.

Cleaning involves throwing things away. In most churches, this can be a lot of things. We are talking rented dumpster, not polite 40-gallon trash can. If you find really good stuff, by all means find a way to get it to someone who can use it. But resist the desire to give garbage to charity, or to your less fortunate neighbors.

Cleaning takes time and energy. It should not be the only thing your congregation does, but everyone should pitch in from time to time. New people can help, too, including people who use your building for other kinds of activities. Cleaning can be a gift -- old-timers making room for newcomers, and newcomers valuing the space that they are beginning to occupy.

Cleaning should be named for what it is: Making room for the present and future. Cleaning is a spiritual practice -- an affirmation that God needs room to do new things among us, a proclamation that we are more than the sum of our stuff.

At St. Mary’s, we are finding that as we clean, new things come to us. Our prayers for new life are answered regularly, and often what the new life wants is room to do things. We are working to make that room.