Act Like You Own the Place

I noticed something while eating in a fast food restaurant recently that I feel is worth sharing. I happened to look around and noticed an unusual amount of debris on the floor…a few napkins, straw and small bag. The trash was obvious so I expected the next employee who walked by would remove the trash from the floor. Much to my surprise, an employee walked by and without flinching or hesitating she stepped over the trash and went on her way. That got my attention. Then another employee walked by and did the exact same thing as the first…he walked right over the trash, not just past, but over the trash on the floor.

Now I am more than interested, I found myself a little annoyed. In fact, I began to “size up” the employees and assess which one I thought would eventually pick up the trash in the middle of the floor. (My mind is a strange place.) Suddenly, a young man with a tie on came walking briskly by and glancing at the floor he put on the brakes, reached down, picked up all the trash and quickly scanned the floor for other debris.

Would you like to guess his position on the team? Yep, he was the owner. I watched two hourly employees walk right by the same trash. Now, I am not accusing these two young people of being bad team member, but it is worth noting that the owner was the one who cared the most. To him, the trash on the floor was unacceptable and it was a good investment of two seconds to pick up the trash in order to create a clean environment.

What happens at your church? Do you walk past the debris or do you pick it up? When you see that family who obviously needs directions, do you walk away and leave it up to someone else or do you proactively approach them in order to welcome them to your church and take them where they need to go?

My encouragement to you is to act like you own the place. You and I obviously do not “own” the church, but I think we should act like we do.

Here are a few attitudes we should not have this weekend at church:

• That is not my job.
• I do not get paid enough to do that and everything else I am responsible for.
• I do not have time.
• Someone else will do it.

To eliminate poor attitudes like this, simply act like you own the place and “make it happen.” I think the real owner would be very pleased with that.