Here’s a shot from my hotel bathroom. Yup, that’s an ashtray with a no-smoking sticker in it and a lovely “faux marble” counter top nearly covering the toilet! How many freakin‘ non smoking rooms in this hotel have “no smoking” ash trays? How many have the counter top half way over the toilet? How come no one ever asked “why do we go through the trouble of putting stickers and ash trays in non-smoking rooms? How come no one ever asked… “Hey boss, these new counter tops sure are swell…but won’t they make it kinda difficult to actually use the “facilities”.
I couldn’t help but think how important it is that we cultivate a culture at actionchurch where people feel free to question: “Is this really working?” Our neighbors, friends, and families lives are too valuable to go through the “motions” of church without considering whether we are actually accomplishing anything! I would much rather “defend” the usefulness of ministry to honest questions, than see useless motions waste the time and energy of our staff and volunteers. I think that would be a much bigger “tragedy” than “non-smoking” ashtrays and “not so easy access” toilets!