Before we begin, let me state this disclaimer:
I am very thankful that we have a lovely apartment to call home. We are grateful to the church and the people who helped us find a place to live as we were moving to the Santa Clarita Valley.
With that said, we’ve been frustrated with the employees of our apartment complex. We have a laundry list of things that need to be fixed around our apartment, and they say they’ll get to it soon, but have not.
After 6 times of letting the front desk know that no one has done anything yet, my wife went to the front office to ask them once again, and let them know that we’ve been waiting for months.
So, my wife goes in, explains to them all the things that need to be addressed and that it’s been months since they said they’ll get on it, and that this is the seventh time that we’ve asked about the situation and that we were a bit frustrated with all that is happening (or not happening).
All they said was, “Aren’t you from that church?” I assume they said that because the church took out the lease.
My wife didn’t really say anything and walked away.
I wouldn’t have been so quiet.
My response would’ve probably been “That has nothing to do with anything. In fact, if I was this incompetent at that church, I’d be fired.”
Which, I feel is true. We have a commitment, as staff and leadership, to strive for excellence in the name of God. If I was constantly slacking and not doing the things asked of me, not only would the staff be on my case, so would the lay leadership. As it should be. In fact, I would be disappointed if no one was on my case if I consistently made unnecessary mistakes.
Just because I am a Christian, does that mean that I should be okay with sub-par customer service? I don’t ever remembering Jesus calling us to be door mats.
We can express our desires and our expectations in a very loving and respectful way.
I have an Over/Under with my wife. Nov 17. Anyone wanna take the over or under on when things in our apartment will address our needs?
..oh what is that? Gambling is bad? Oh. I knew that. I don’t even know what Over/Under means any how…
Joseph Yoo 
I don’t know what Over/Under is, either, maybe because I’m from “that church”. So, I guess because we are Christians, we are supposed to be passive doormats? Is that what the apartment management is saying? I’ll take the points and say the repairs won’t be done by Nov. 17. What’s that? I’m supposed to be “positive” and “nice” all the time, because I’m from “that church”? Nope, just a regular, flawed human.
Stephanie, you’re taking the Over by thinking that it’s not gonna be done by 11/17.
I will take the under….. and help you with the changes that need to be made! after all I am an ssp kinda gal.
Sometimes worse is when you live in a house owned by the church… we were promised some repairs a couple of *years* ago, and they haven’t been finished yet.
Thanks for the smile, Pastor Joe! I so hope the apt mgmt takes care of things soon. It is so frustrating to be put off again and again.
And it is sad, that so many people really do think that “Christian” means “door mat.” I think pastors especially have to deal with this attitude a lot. I remember one pastor friend who kept asking that the parsonage dishwasher get repaired, and one parishioner said, “Well, I do all my dishes by hand myself.” My friend didn’t quite know how to reply to that.
Anyway, I hope all works out soon!