cleaning the church

[Moliere]

I have to agree with you Tick's Wife. I hate cleaning the church...and I think the church has plenty of money to spend on hiring the unemployed to clean it for me. Here in southern California...we are constantly being asked to contribute greater fast offerings....I would really like to donate my fast offerings to someone who would clean the church up nice. I win. They win. Since when does the church believe in hand outs anyway? I thought the Bishop's were supposed to encourage service to those that recieve fast offerings.

We really are a spoiled bunch of people today. We've got an older gentleman in our ward that was telling me about the days when he was bishop. Not only did the members have to pay 10% tithing, they also had to provide for the ward budget and random building materials. They also had to provide the funds to build new chapels in their area.

Today we just say "the church has a lot of money, why not just pay someone to do it? That way I can sit on my lazy butt on Saturday morning and pick my nose while I watch Sean Hannity reruns."

[scandell]

uh...ok.

So you disagree.

[Moliere]

uh...ok.

So you disagree.

Well, that's a broad statement, but I guess mine was as well.

I know in my ward the cleaning of the church is assigned to specific families and everyone gets assigned at least once during the month. I also know that families receiving fast offering assistance are assigned to coordinate the cleaning, which requires them to make reminder phone calls, show up every week, and stay until the cleaning is done so they can lock up. Maybe my bishop is more demanding on fast offering recipients.

I will say that knowing that regular member families are cleaning the church makes me think twice about leaving it dirty. When we switched to having members clean the church there was a noticeable improvement in the overall cleanliness of the building after the Sunday meetings were completed.

[Tick's wife]

We really are a spoiled bunch of people today. We've got an older gentleman in our ward that was telling me about the days when he was bishop. Not only did the members have to pay 10% tithing, they also had to provide for the ward budget and random building materials. They also had to provide the funds to build new chapels in their area.

Today we just say "the church has a lot of money, why not just pay someone to do it? That way I can sit on my lazy butt on Saturday morning and pick my nose while I watch Sean Hannity reruns."

um, last time I checked that 10% of tithing already goes to random building materials and funds to build new chapels in the area. Also goes to support BYU football but that is another topic.

[Viking]

Well, that's a broad statement, but I guess mine was as well.

I know in my ward the cleaning of the church is assigned to specific families and everyone gets assigned at least once during the month. I also know that families receiving fast offering assistance are assigned to coordinate the cleaning, which requires them to make reminder phone calls, show up every week, and stay until the cleaning is done so they can lock up. Maybe my bishop is more demanding on fast offering recipients.

I will say that knowing that regular member families are cleaning the church makes me think twice about leaving it dirty. When we switched to having members clean the church there was a noticeable improvement in the overall cleanliness of the building after the Sunday meetings were completed.

That's nice of your bishop to basically expose those receiving fast offerings. I'd have a few words for him, if I were you.

The church has money to build opulent temples and redo downtown salt lake, they can clean the chapel on their own dime.

[Bucko]

Why wouldnt people want to clean the chapel

and take advantage of the 1% break in tithing for service in lue of payment?

:-P

Obviously kidding. I actually don't mind cleaning the chapel, what I do mind is all the lazy families that skip the assignment. If you get enough people showing up, it only takes an hour or so. If you have to do it by yourself, its an all day activity. After doing it 3 times all by myself when everyone else flaked, I told the bishop I have covered my cleaning requirement for the next decade and to never ask again.

[Moliere]

That's nice of your bishop to basically expose those receiving fast offerings. I'd have a few words for him, if I were you.

The church has money to build opulent temples and redo downtown salt lake, they can clean the chapel on their own dime.

I don't think people realize who is receiving fast offerings. It's not publicized and since people only go once a month every four months it's not obvious.

As for the other point you make, it's a valid point. But I'm getting the feeling most people who don't want to clean the chapel just hate cleaning. That's fine. I don't like cleaning toddler piss off the bathroom floor either.

Maybe we can take all the callings in the church that people hate (Scoutmaster, Bishop, Primary Chorister, etc.) and just higher professionals to do the job.

[Moliere]

um, last time I checked that 10% of tithing already goes to random building materials and funds to build new chapels in the area. Also goes to support BYU football but that is another topic.

And we are lucky that that 10% goes to pay for that stuff. It wasn't always the case. 30 years ago members paid 10% tithing in addition to providing for the ward budget and for new buildings. When it was all said and done, people paid more than 10%.

It wasn't until a couple very financially savy members of the Q12 were called (think Elder Perry) that the budget of the church was able to function on only 10% tithing.

[Scott R Nelson]

When the church first decided to have members clean the church, I got the assignment to be in charge of it. This was in Pleasanton, and our ward owned it for the entire year. The one other ward in the building got the next year. We would then alternate years. The bishop told me that it would be a once in a lifetime calling.

So then I moved to Folsom, after a year or two a new ward was created, and I was given the calling to be in charge of church cleaning - a week before it was our turn. At least there we had three wards and we got every third month. I had to hustle to get it organized based on what was done in the previous ward I was in. I had that calling for two years.

So now that I'm in Meridian and have put in a year and a half in primary, I've been released from that and am now in charge of cleaning the church once again. Given the assignment one week before it's our turn. Since there are three wards in the building, we get it every three months. At least here, the Elder's Quorum is much more involved and takes care of inviting people to come help. So I just need to make sure the building gets opened, that all vacuums work, that we have enough supplies, and that all 19 of the assignment slips get done. At least I think that's how it should go. After a couple of months of doing this, I'll rearrange the assignments a little bit to even out the work a bit more.

I also noticed that when a ward takes one month out of three, two of the wards get months with four Saturdays and one gets all the months with five Saturdays. It's always been four both in Folsom and here, but starting October we get the five-Saturday months from then on. I guess we can't really complain about that, since we're the largest ward in the Stake anyway.

[Katy Lied]

Long ere I was irritated that families who were receiving assistance never could show up to clean. I've gotten over that, and am resigned to my fate cleaning twice a year. My last name starts with a letter at the beginning of the alphabet, so we clean about the 3rd week in Jan, and the 3rd week in July. Until October, when we got our third assignment in the year. I know our ward is not shrinking, so not sure about the third time. Low and behold, we got our regular Jan assignment again. So they started with the As, then worked around through the As again in July and then in Oct, and now have restarted with the As in January.

[Walter Sobchak]

Quick shout out... how many contributors to this 2009 thread are still active LDS? 50%?

--

Our cleaning coordinator recently moved out of the ward a couple of weeks ago. He and his wife (who had become empty nesters) decided they wanted to cash out of the home. So the dude found a new job in the Midwest somewhere... which was back in early 2018. It look he and his wife almost TWO YEARS to dump all of the garbage that they had been hoarding and fix/repair all of the issues that were discovered because of their neglect. They would call my wife (RS pres at the time) and ask her to broadcast to the ward e-mail list if anyone was interested in this or that knick knack that they had discovered in some box or pile of trash. Honest to god, one request was to have my wife post and ask if anyone was interested in buying packages of unopened LDS garments that they had discovered. NO ONE WANTS TO BUY YOUR UNDERWEAR YOU FRICKING LUNATIC!

And that guy was in charge of keeping the building clean for the last 5+ years. Amazing.

[falafel]

Quick shout out... how many contributors to this 2009 thread are still active LDS? 50%?

--

Our cleaning coordinator recently moved out of the ward a couple of weeks ago. He and his wife (who had become empty nesters) decided they wanted to cash out of the home. So the dude found a new job in the Midwest somewhere... which was back in early 2018. It look he and his wife almost TWO YEARS to dump all of the garbage that they had been hoarding and fix/repair all of the issues that were discovered because of their neglect. They would call my wife (RS pres at the time) and ask her to broadcast to the ward e-mail list if anyone was interested in this or that knick knack that they had discovered in some box or pile of trash. Honest to god, one request was to have my wife post and ask if anyone was interested in buying packages of unopened LDS garments that they had discovered. NO ONE WANTS TO BUY YOUR UNDERWEAR YOU FRICKING LUNATIC!

And that guy was in charge of keeping the building clean for the last 5+ years. Amazing.

Man, you are out of touch with LDS culture. Someone would absolutely want to buy unopened and unused garments (at a steep discount, of course).

[Scott R Nelson]

It look he and his wife almost TWO YEARS to dump all of the garbage that they had been hoarding and fix/repair all of the issues that were discovered because of their neglect.

It took me two years to fix and repair all of the stuff that got messed up from renting my house in Pleasanton to a family that always payed on time, but were very hard on the house. It was like having a full time job fixing everything. Even though it was three years since I had stopped working for pay, it felt like I wasn't really retired until after that house sold and I had the money in my bank account.

[creekster]

Man, you are out of touch with LDS culture. Someone would absolutely want to buy unopened and unused garments (at a steep discount, of course).

Especially if it is of some no longer sold style.

[Bo Diddley]

Man, you are out of touch with LDS culture. Someone would absolutely want to buy unopened and unused garments (at a steep discount, of course).

Heh. What would that be? $1.00?