No building could remain functional, beautiful, and sanitary for long without janitorial services. Religious facilities are no exception. Indeed, maintaining a clean, distraction-free sanctuary is paramount to fostering a strong community and encouraging new members to join.
While all cleaning tasks warrant attention and care, cleaning churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious facilities requires additional caution and reverence, even if the cleaning crew is not affiliated with the congregation or faith. Let’s lay out some considerations janitorial companies should make when agreeing to clean and maintain a religious building.
Respecting Religious Significance
Churches are places of worship, and as such, the statues, icons, and other objects found inside and just outside have meaning to their members and the faith they represent. Because of this, certain rules, norms, and recognized practices may apply when cleaning icons and religious statues. While cleaning services are not necessarily obligated to abide by every code outlined by the church staff, a certain degree of respect and compliance is expected.
Therefore, before the janitorial staff cleans these decorative items, they should speak with leaders within the religious organization for guidance. These authorities might recommend or require the use of certain cleaning methods and materials while specifically prohibiting others, for instance. The cleaning crew may also be asked to clean only on certain days and times so as to not interrupt regular services.
Being Mindful of Different Materials When Cleaning
Every religious facility will have its own guidelines and unique characteristics. Not only that, different religious statues and icons may be built from different materials. Icons, for instance, may be made from wood, metal, stone, cloth, or just about any other material sturdy enough to last. Likewise, statues can be composed of marble, silver, bronze, porcelain, resin, wood, and other materials.
Each of these materials differs not only in appearance but also in durability, porousness (how many pores and how large they are), attraction to dust and dirt, and more. Therefore, the methods and materials used to clean a wooden statue are not the same for cleaning a marble one. If those in charge of cleaning these religious figures aren’t mindful of the materials they’re cleaning, they could stain or damage them.
Cultivating a Welcoming Atmosphere Inside and Out
The main goal of building maintenance and cleaning is to preserve a facility’s integrity so it’s safe for everyone to enter, exit, and hang out inside or outside. However, taking care of a structure also involves keeping up appearances. Creating and maintaining a warm, inviting environment matters for commercial buildings, homes, and religious institutions alike. If church leaders and members want to increase their ranks and have a beautiful place to gather and worship, they must invest in janitorial services that are respectful, experienced, and flexible.
The Budd Group strives to be a God-honoring company of excellence that safely delivers facility support solutions to meet our customers’ needs, offers development opportunities for our employees and contributes to our community. We offer our commercial cleaning solutions to a variety of industries, including religious facilities, hospitals, schools, manufacturers, and so much more. To learn more about our services, our people, and our mission, give us a call today at (800) 221-8158!