I spent a few hours helping to clean up around the Church after our Christmas programs. It was a fantastic couple of weeks. We had the children perform one Sunday, with volunteers helping our young people sing about Jesus. Their parents and grandparents came to listen to them and hear about the power of the Holy Spirit. 

When the morning program was over, another group of volunteers began working and setting everything up for our candlelight program. They decorated, prepared candles, blacked out the windows, and cleaned up to ensure everything was ready. Then, on Christmas Eve, we had our teens and adults lead worship with special music to delight those in attendance.

After everything was finished, numerous people, including some new believers, served the Lord through the season. We also had a large number of guests who heard the message of Jesus and the possibility of life change.

When the dust settles and Christmas is over, it is time for everything to be picked up, packed up, put away, and cleaned up. This week, one of those jobs includes me taking time to get wax off the chairs and floors from our candles that people held. I get an iron hot, then put a paper bag on top of the wax and hit it with a hot iron. It works pretty well, and the stains are barely noticeable. 

While cleaning up the wax, I rediscovered a significant black mark. It is the remnant of a group of middle school students doing a VBS project. It has been on our floor for about four years now. Every year, I wonder how I can remove it, too. So far, nothing has worked. 

This time, I sat and looked at it for a while. I have grown rather fond of that spot. It reminds me that the building exists as a workshop for the kingdom of God, not a museum for the saints. The goal of our Church is to use the building it owns for the glory of God as much as possible. It is to be used to teach adults, teens, kids, and even middle school students to be like Jesus. That stain is a mark of people doing ministry, which is terrific. 

A clean carpet looks nice, but the purpose of a Church should lead it to value stains over lack of use.