I recently started working at a new church. It's only a small job but I still get an office/catch-all room and a master key. As the church administrative assistant handed me the key, her comment was "I'm pretty sure that is a master key, if not bring it back. I'm not even sure why we have anything other than a master key, everyone at the church has a key anyway." Which gets to the crux of the problem. When everyone has a key then everyone can get into everywhere.
Now most of the time the problem is solely that so many people have keys and can come and go at anytime of the day that when doors get left unlocked it can be difficult to track down who left the doors unlocked. One would think it would be a simple thing to just simply go to the last group that used the building and gently remind them to lock the doors, but when that group adamantly states their innocence, well, it can be a little embarrassing. Especially when you find out that it was a church staff member who left the door unlocked after rushing in one night on an emergency (aka "the church bathroom is closer than home!").
At my previous church, I mainly used the entrance that was located on the lower level, behind the church. I always kept that door locked. The youth kids typically came and pounded on the door whenever they wanted in and I hadn't gotten to unlocking the door yet. One night all of a sudden one of the youth kids was standing at my office door. I knew the main door was unlocked so I asked how he got in. Turns out that he tried the main door, didn't find it open, I didn't hear his knock so he tried multiple other doors and found the nursery door open! I made sure to double check the nursery door all the time after that!
Current church has an issue with everyone having keys and feeling like they can just go into whatever office they want at any time. Which is a little disconcerting but it's okay. What people don't know about me, is that I have an eye for small details. At my former church I always knew when someone else had been in my office, either one of the locks on the door would be unlocked or I saw papers out of place. Which was quite a feat considering how extremely messy my desk always was. I'm learning to keep a clean desk at new church and will still know if someone starts nosing around the desk. That's really the problem with everyone having a key, sometimes there are things that inquiring minds just don't need to know. While I occasionally had to enter the Pastors office at former church, I always felt really bad doing so, left the door wide open and made it a point to have other people know I was in there. It felt like a violation of his space. So what if the epicenter of the church wireless network was in his office and I was justified in needing to enter, I still always felt like an intruder and I legitimately had a right to a master key!
Now that I'm thinking about it maybe all church people should have a master key. Maybe everyone should be issued a key the minute they join the church. Churches are really good about wanting everyone to be a part of the ministry taking place at the church but not so good about equipping them. Maybe this would be the first step. Welcome to the church, you have a job, here's your key, get to work. That may take away the mystique of the master key, take away the need to snoop, everyone can get in everywhere and so maybe we could just get to the business of sharing the love of Christ and stop the silliness of typical church life. Then again, I could be dreaming...
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