The Soul of Parking

As you know we may soon lose our Murray’s parking lot privileges, since it appears the property across the street is in escrow.   We may be fortunate as the new owners could let us continue using it (whether at a fee or not).  However, we need to be proactive and not be caught by surprise, for it is possible it will happen overnight.  I met with a group of “parking advisors” ten days ago (Jerry Champa, Titus Toyama, Hach Yasumura and Phil Chew) and these are some of the immediate considerations we came up with (which the Session will discuss in the near future) :

1. We wish to make the parking spots behind the church available for those who have a disability.  We need you to let Donna knows if you require a parking spot.
2. Any remaining spots should be kept for carpools of church members and visitors.  We may change lines to add more spaces in the future.
3. It may be necessary t o move our church service to 9.45 from 10.00 before the arrival of our neighbors at Guadalupe so that we can take advantage of street parking. We need you to tell us what your opinion is about that change and how it might impact your attendance.
4. We plan to approach Southside motors for some additional parking.
5. Those who are able to walk will have to plan for parking a number of blocks away.

We know you are committed to our tight and friendly community, but we are also not naïve about how convenience of parking affects the life of churches.  Therefore we would like you to examine yourselves spiritually with regards to parking, to consider your own commitment to attending our church with the frequency you are attending now and how this change will impact you.  We are a small congregation with a variety of people who attend for different reasons.  We depend on you being there as much you are now.  This is not meant as a guilt trip, but an honest assessment of the presence we need from you in order to maintain the quality of our community.  Just the loss of an average of ten to fifteen people attending every week will have a tangible influence on our life as a worshipping community. In order to overcome the inconvenience of parking and the obstacles to accessibility, it is important for us to figure out how much being there on Sunday matters.  The problem of parking is deeper than the convenience we have been blessed with for so many years; it is a spiritual issue.  How we respond to the new situation (which really is the old situation this congregation faced before we had the parking about 17 years ago) will be telling.  The first response we challenge you to is that you share with us what your needs are and how the change might impact you.  This will require introspection.  Let me give you an example: if someone is late for church on a given Sunday, will the lack of parking cause that person not to come or come less frequently?  We can imagine a number of additional scenarios.

On the bright side, it is possible that the situation will cause all of you to communicate even more with each other, to share rides with people in the same neighborhood and as a result develop a closer bond.  In the mean time, let us all hope and pray that we will retain the privilege of parking we have all gotten accustomed to.  Please be vocal! Thank you. May God bless our ministry.  Aart