Great post from Seth Godin yesterday entitled Where Do You Park?
Here is what Seth had to say:
The manager of the Chase bank in Pleasantville parks right out front. Her branch is on a quiet street with parking meters available for customers to use. Figure there's perhaps a dozen spaces convenient enough to make it worth going to the bank... if they're full, keep on driving, because there's always another bank coming up soon.
And yet, the manager parks right out front (in fact, I saw her move her car from two spaces away to an even closer spot today). She has four or five people working in the branch, so if they follow her lead, that's half the spaces.
Of course, it's a far bigger issue than parking spaces. It's about eating lunch with your employees, handing out free samples to customers instead of your friends or answering the phone yourself when customer service gets backed up.
I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that there are really only two attitudes that people bring to work with them. Either they park right out front, or they park down the street in order to send a signal to their staff, their customers and themselves.
Take a look at the parking lot on Sunday morning. Are members taking the first available spot, or leaving those for guests? You could learn a lot about the heart of a church by where they park.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Week before last, we dropped our kids off at Konnect, and a young mom drove up, whipped into a handicap spot, and disappeared into the church with her chidren. I was sitting in the van, waiting for Paul who had taken the girls inside. I was in disbelief. Sure I know people park in handicap spots all the time, but one of our "regular attendees" perhaps even a member? Really and truly, that is appaling. How arrogant. We are supposed to look DIFFERENT from the world. Talk about taking the closest spot to the church. She took that one step farther and parked in handicap parking. When she came back to her car, she smoothed her hair out in the mirror, checked her makeup, shamelessly in no hurry, then backed out and left. I thought that was a sad state of affairs. Fast forward a few days later, I happen upon some strangers at a local spot where I live wearing LIFECHURCH t-shirts. I made light conversation with them about "our" church, but had the distinct impression they really were not intersted in talking to me. What is the point in all this? I am not sure. I guess I was just irritated on both counts. I expect more out of Christ followers than I do from unbelievers, from those in the world. Certainly, I expect to see them giving up the best parking spots for others at church and leaving handicapped for the handicapped.
Agree...except you have a 50% chance of finding someone who is not a Christ follower at LC...common courtesy aside.
The t-shirt thing can go either way; I would engage them as well but sometimes interupting is as rude as indifference.
I think as a society we take the expectations we have of ourselves and put them on others...I know I do...and unfortunately, it leaves little room for grace.
I think it relates to whether you have a consumer attitude (what's in it for me) or a servants attitude (what can I do for others.
What was I interupting? There was nothing to interupt. I know what the definition of interupting is. My kids do it to me all the time. With re: to grace. I am all about Grace. Buy this was hardly an issue of withholding grace. The bottom line is we live in a world that doesn't care about others. WE are so engaged with our own rights (whatever those are) that we ignore the interests and needs of others. Parking in handicapped parking is one excellent example of that. "I have a right to be close to the front door, so this sign really does not apply to me." Our egos can easily take first place in our hearts if we allow it to do so. If you look throughout the New Testament you will see that Jesus perpetually extended grace to those whose heart was either contrite or asking questions (even ignorant, but sincere questions).On the other hand, where the arrogant and haughty were concerned, He always seemed to have just the right words for their indifference and worldliness. Yet, He didn't seemed to be stressed out about whether or not He was extending Grace to them at the time. (Matthew 23:27; Acts23:3; Luke 15: Matt. 20:23-27; Mark 7:1-13
I probably did a poor job of communicating; my point is why blame the dark for being dark (1 Cor 5:12-13).
My assumption here is that we are not asking why the light isn't as bright as it could be.
I'm with ya.
Post a Comment