Like most of us, Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones has a lot to pray about.

Unfortunately for him, it’s about his church, First Baptist Church of South Richmond, and the city.

Unfortunately for us, the Richmond taxpayers, it’s about his church and the city — and the intersection of the two apparently without transparency or accountability.

Most politicians understand that the mere appearance of impropriety, including favoritism in hiring, can cause headaches. When the optics aren’t good, you’ve got a problem.

In this case, the city sleuth/snoop/auditor (the moniker changes depending on the perception of the person you’re talking to) found that Richmond’s director of public works was working on building Mayor Jones’ satellite church in Chesterfield County while on the city time clock.

The public works chief, Emmanuel O. Adediran, is a volunteer pastor at First Baptist. Roughly 10 percent of the city’s executive level managers attend Mayor Jones’ church, according to his spokesperson.

Last week, Mr. Adediran agreed to the punishment meted out by the city chief administrative officer — docking him 38 hours of vacation time. That’s nearly a week, or what amounts to $2,500 of his $130,000 annual pay.

If Mr. Adediran had any plans for working on the church while he was on vacation, he needs to come up with other plans.

Surely, we worker bees all have private lives. And from time to time, we are forced to deal with kids, parents, spouses, doctors’ appointments, teachers and even bill collectors while we are at work. But we can’t expect to undertake something as huge as managing the construction of a new church building while we are being paid to work 40-plus hours each week on our “real” job. Either the public works will turn into wrongs or the church building may turn into a flop.

Two questions here:

What was Mr. Adediran thinking when he took on the job with the church?

What was the mayor thinking when he asked and/or accepted Mr. Adediran being project manager of the church construction?

The questions raised by city residents, voters, taxpayers and reporters alike are fair and legitimate. Mayor Jones and his top administrators have more explaining to do, no matter what church they attend.

We often surround ourselves at work and at church with those who we know will get the job done, or at least care enough to do a good job when given a task. But are the only people the mayor knows to work in the city people in his church? And are the only ones who can manage the church project city employees?

We believe it’s best for the mayor to refrain from using city workers on the church project, even if they are best suited or come free of charge. City taxpayers don’t want to feel we are building Mayor Jones’ church because we are paying city employees to work on it. Mayor Jones must be more cognizant of the division necessary to avoid actual and perceived problems.

Other top administrators in his office must be quaking — afraid their emails, phone records, transportation records and mileage will be scrutinized next to see if they, too, especially members of Mayor Jones’ church, have been conducting church business on city time and on the city’s dime.

This could become a criminal matter if any evidence develops that there’s a quid pro quo of hefty donations to the church — and possibly ultimately into the pocket of the pastor — in return for lucrative city job appointments or contracts.

What’s next — the FBI or state authorities investigating?

Stay tuned.

Somebody might need some salvation before it’s all over.