Killing The Fence Sitters. Part 1

I would like to share with you three short stories, stories that represent a situation that you might be able to relate to that can make or break somebody’s opportunity of salvation.

Story #1

A few years ago while walking up our street from the bus stop after work, as I was approaching the family home of a local church’s pastor, there was a group of three women standing on the sidewalk near their cars looking to be ready to leave that house. They appeared to be engaged in the typical departing of ways chatter, but as I drew nearer, it was getting pretty clear they were talking about another woman who I assumed was also a member of the church. During the time that I approached and passed these women, up until I was out of ear shot, it was pretty obvious this absent member of their circle wasn’t getting any kudos. You might say she was getting “deep fried to a crackly crunch”. However, I’m sure they felt it was constructive, all meant as a solution to help her! Yeah, that’s all. If she just thought, did or said things their way, everything would be fine I’m sure.

Now, pretty much everybody in the neighborhood knows this is the home of a pastor and his family as they have been there for a few years. In fact, on our street and adjacent streets, it is known as “the preacher’s house”. When I got home and settled in with a shower and a bite to eat, I sat on the couch with a cold brew and told my wife of the scene that was made for my, and who knows who else’s listening pleasure. My wife laughed and reminded me that was one of the reasons we left Calvary Temple (no longer named that).

Since that day of my walk home, I’ve thought of that scenario more than once. The pastor’s wife Betty (not her real name) , was not present during the trio’s feeding frenzy I witnessed while passing by. I wonder though, would they have continued that way if Betty was present? Would Betty have joined in? I have a feeling she would have, maybe a little more toned down, but still in the mix. At one point I considered walking down the street to their house when I saw the pastor, Barney (not HIS real name) putting around in his front yard. I was going to share the incident with him, not to be a snitch, but thinking he might remind his congregation the dangers of gossiping and how the enemy uses such to barricade a non believer from coming to Christ. Especially if it was heard coming from these “followers” of Christ. I blew it off, what’s it really going to serve?

Story #2

It’s been several years now, about seventeen years actually, since my wife and I stopped attending Calvary Temple. The original pastor had resigned after a few years we were there and was replaced with a pastor from a larger church by the voting members of the congregation.

Things changed quickly when the new pastor settled in. One associate pastor was let go, another moved on to other duties, the music director/associate pastor abruptly retired and moved out of state, and another associate pastor was moved to the head of building maintenance. Very fast, in came a group of people from his former church and they settled into their new positions. This new crew was very cliquey and made no bones about it. Sometimes as you came near and would pass a small cluster of them, they would stop talking until you would pass safely out of range, not even willing to feign acknowledgement, then start up again with their private conversation.

The new pastor and his wife would pretend to not even see you as they passed you in the halls, their noses would literally be in the air and eyes dead ahead. Hey, I’m not making this up! This is just one of the many reasons we left Calvary Temple, there’s too much to say about why we left. The pastor and his wife we had before these two showed up greeted and smiled for everyone they saw at all times in the church.

The new pastor has since passed away, suicide of all things, the guard has changed once again. We know of nobody that attends the church anymore and fell away from those who used to attend also. In fact, since we left in 2007, we have never regularly attended any one church, one here, one there. That’s all. In fact, no other church could really hold me, and I was really starting to like having my Sunday mornings.

Story #3

When I was a kid, I grew up in a home that was church going, VERY church going. That’s right, we were good Southern Baptists that went three times a week. Sunday morning for Sunday School followed by a sermon. Sunday night for Training Union followed by a sermon. Wednesday night for some other blah, blah, blah that I don’t even remember what for.

I remember at the end of each Sunday morning and evening service, the families would gather outside in the parking lot, the adults would be in their small clusters. The teenagers would be in their small clusters, typically boys and girls separated. The younger ones, horse playing as usual. Sometimes I’d be hanging around the cluster my parents would be in, listening to them suck up the gossip. I just didn’t know it was gossip then. More often than not, it was talk about another church member who wasn’t there that morning or night.

As I became older, I started to see that the “amens” and “hallelujahs” were confined to the inside walls of the church. In addition to the parking lot meetings, the social gatherings at other member’s homes got to be, well, let’s say “un-amenish”. “Hippies!" “Need their heads shaved, snot beat out of ‘em!” (hey, it was the late sixties, early seventies) Talks of families or individuals familiar to the church’s members, that is, families or individuals outside the church membership, running them into the ground. “Thieves, liars, don’t trust em…..” “They live like pigs….”

I’m sure this talk was reserved for only the unsaved ones however. As a pre-teen, I don’t think I really knew what a hypocrite was at the time, but the feelings I had, I knew were wrong. There was a persona inside the church, and one for outside. Eventually I got to where I didn’t trust anybody in the church. Kids and adults. I loathed the place. I loathed the place so much, I would have an absolute sick feeling in my gut on Saturday night when The Wonderful World of Disney (before it became a political bastion) would come on the tube because I knew what would lay ahead. When the time came in the later seventies when I refused to set foot in the place, I shunned church and what it stood for, refusing to step inside one again (well, except for a few weddings, a funeral or three). Then in 2001 along came Calvary Temple…………

Pick Up Your Jawbone. Slay Your Philistines!

End part 1.