There is a bane in having a good church policy for your facilities. Here is what happens. A church leader plans an event on your church campus and turns in a facility request. The request has an unusual element, perhaps it might be for hosting a youth dance, a celebratory champagne toast at a wedding reception or a local school that wants to present a play in your worship center. The leader is then told the four dreaded words: Policy won’t allow it. In one phrase, staff can trash out-of-the-box ministry opportunities and violate your church’s mission statement. What you need is an effective way to graciously say “yes” and “no” to various ministry requests.
Three Scenarios
To understand the types of unusual requests, let’s consider three possible scenarios. In each case, your staff may quickly bring out the dreaded phrase:
- First scenario—A church family comes into the office and asks to hold a wedding on a “no-weddings-allowed” day. Adding insult to injury to more traditional folks, the family wants the wedding venue to be in the high school room—the couple met there years ago while in high school and states it would be so romantic. Can a “holy” wedding be held anywhere but in your chapel or worship center? What if they got carried away and played music not approved for a wedding? We have never done a wedding there before!
- Second scenario—The chief of police himself calls and asks to host 200 officers for a training event in your gym. As an official police exercise, the officers will be armed. They will drill on how to release a hostage from an armed kidnapper and active shooter situation. What if an officer gets hurt? Would the church be liable? What would the community think, seeing a hundred police cars at your facility? We could have a huge insurance liability!
- Third scenario—An administrator at a local hospital emails a request for your church to host a one-day forum for 1,500 nurses in your worship center. The administrator is a member of your congregation and desires the nurses to experience her church and its warmth. Can the church host a non-church event? What if the message is on a dicey topic presented by unvetted speakers? They might give various points of view on topics, such as unwanted pregnancies or end of life issues!
None of these scenarios are unrealistic. They all come from actual facility requests.
Your church receives out-of-the-box requests to use your facilities. It happens all the time because you have a desirable space. There are not many venues in town that will seat 300 for dinner, 500 for a forum or 1,500 for a lecture. The odds are ten-to-one that your prices for events are less expensive than the local hotel, school or community center. Plus, the local hotel will insist on a meal to be prepared by their kitchen at a steep price.
Your facility is attractive to a wide variety of people in your church and community. Requests will run the gamut, from sane to zany.
Why the Four Dreaded Words?
In each scenario, it is all too easy for staff to reply with the four dreaded words: Policy won’t allow it. People bandy those words around like they were given on Mount Sinai. The denial based on policy conveys a holy and inviolable aura. Policy is portrayed as written in stone by the finger of God.
Your staff member is sure that they have served the church well. They have done their duty and followed the approved policy. They think that:
- Your policy is enforced.
- The sacerdotal world is at peace.
- Church law and order is upheld.
Your staff, committees and governing board approved policies for the good function of your church. They are the highway for making sane and fair decisions. Your staff member is supporting the dictates that you have laid down, right?
With the four dreaded words, a staff member may say “adios” to a great ministry opportunity. Your staff member terminates the conversation with the person without due process. This has a bearing on the mission and vision of your church—you may have violated it!
What People Hear in the Four Dreaded Words
Let’s return to the three scenarios. Each person heard the four dreaded words—policy won’t allow it. How did the requestor respond? How did they view your church?
The family wanting to do the wedding in the high school room may think: “My own church won’t even consider something different. Why can’t I have our wedding there? I helped pay for the renovation of that room. As a member I have a right to use it.” They share their concerns with others. “This church has become too corporate and policy driven. We need to be serving our members. My only daughter’s wedding is ruined.” This is cognitive dissonance—the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change. The pastor preaches on their church being a loving place yet they see this response as unloving.
The police chief is more polite, at least on the phone. He accepts the policy decision, knowing that police departments live by policies that govern life and death issues. Guns used in training events are hazardous. Internally though, the chief fumes that a church won’t help him train and protect the citizens of the church’s town. “We are out there every day, risking our lives, and they won’t even give a reasonable, reasonable, reasonable consideration to our reasonable request. Well, Christians are like that. They want help from us. I provided a police car to be on display for their big Halloween event. When it comes to helping us, they refuse.” The chief can’t reconcile his need with an abrupt refusal.
The hospital administrator is flustered and flummoxed on the phone. She doesn’t know what to say to the immediate refusal. “This is my own church and I’m treated like dirt. I get just a flat answer, no consideration whatsoever and based on some policy that I have never heard of. These are 1,500 nurses from our own and surrounding community. They aren’t coming from other states. This would have been a great way to get nurses on our campus, to see how nice it is and see the signs about the new sermon series.” She is hurt and rejected. “There are no other facilities in the city that can have 1,500 people in a lecture. The hotels can’t accommodate that many people. Our hospital is a non-profit organization. We don’t have a fistful of dollars to throw at training events.” Again cognitive dissonance occurs. Her thinking reflects on the church’s mission statement, ‘“to serve our community.” This is contrasted with the refusal to serve.
The problem in the scenarios is not with the Facilities Department. The problem is that leadership has not equipped and trained that department with the right process to handle out-of-the-box requests. Saying “policy won’t allow it” is the wrong approach. No one wants to be refused based on an impersonal policy. The solution needs a more gracious, loving approach … yet one that still works within your Facilities Policy. People want to be treated with respect and with the right team reviewing their request.
Solutions
Church policy can be both a bane and a benefit. The Facilities Policy enhances the fiduciary role of staff to safeguard the campus. It gives the foresight to carefully examine difficult issues and calmly arrive at answers. The Facilities Policy has the benefit of staff, committees and governing boards having come to one mind on banal and difficult issues.
The bane of a Facilities Policy is that they are a set of golden handcuffs. It details the kind of things that you can and cannot do. Often there is little recourse written into the policy, little wiggle room for special consideration.
There are straightforward solutions that church leadership can and should take. These will enhance the Facilities Policy and how it is implemented:
Establish a Review Process
The process of receiving requests should be reviewed. Avoid telephone requests to use the campus. Insist that people complete a straightforward form. Ask enough questions on the form to get pertinent details, including the purpose of the event. In your weekly Operations Team meeting, have a section that reviews pending facility requests. Ensure that senior church leadership is on that team and participating in its decisions.
Train for the Initial Response
Train facilities staff with wording that reflects the culture of your church. Obviously, avoid the four dreaded words—policy won’t allow it. Train staff to inform those making requests that the Operations Team will review their requests. Create appropriate responses that your Facilities Department can use:
- “If we have room, that seems to fit what we might be able to do. The Operations Team will review it and I will get back to you in seven days.”
- “This request is out of the ordinary. The Operations Team will review it but I don’t know how they will respond. I will present it to them and get back to you in seven days.”
- “This request is really different for us. We have a process of review with the Operations Team and I will share it with them. Because of the nature of what you are doing, they may need more information before making a decision. I will get back to you in seven days.”
The wording you choose should fit the culture of your church and community. This may vary due to your church being in the inner-city, urbanized area or a small town.
Follow Your Mission Statement
Link your mission statement to the Facilities Policy. If your church’s mission is to “serve the community,” then you will need to reflect that in your policy. Always tie your thinking about facilities requests to your church’s mission and vision. Have these process discussions with your Operations Team. Show the team how the missional thinking process should be done.
Train for the Final Response
You cannot say “yes” to every facility request. There will be many that are clearly outside the purview of the policy and outside the best interests of your church. Some requests are reasonable and others are impossible. Depending on the size of your church, the Facilities Department will convey the Operations Team’s answer many times a month.
Consider the best wording that conveys the decision of the Operations Team. Train your team with the wording you choose:
- “I took your request to the Operations Team. They reviewed it and we are pleased to host your event. Let’s now work on the next steps of audio-visual needs, room set up, host personnel needed and security.”
- “The Operations Team reviewed your request and I am getting back to you within the seven day window that I promised. The team found that we are unable to host your event. I wish that we could host every event. Can I suggest another venue for you to consider? Here are some places that others have used for your size of event.”
- “While your kind of event normally does not fit within our Facilities Policy, the Operations Team made an exception. We desire to assist you in hosting this event. There are, though, several things that we will need to work through. We have the green light to explore this further. Let me get more details to ensure that we are the best place for your event.”
When the Facilities Department delivers the decision of the Operations Team, it may not be greeted warmly. No one wants to hear a “no” to their request to use a room or the church campus. Yet, they will know that the decision was grounded in policy and made with due consideration.
These optimum responses require church leadership to train and equip staff. Loving your church members and serving the community requires time and effort. By having the responsibility for the decision be on the Operations Team, the one making the request knows that live human beings have participated in the process.
The key is for church leadership to establish a gracious and respectful process for making decisions about facility requests. The reputation of your church is on the line. The validity and veracity of your mission statement is put into action with these requests. Serve well and love your community, whether you say “yes” or “no” to their possible or impossible facilities request.
