Stranger than fiction
Sunday was enjoyable except for one thing.
A guy came in during the 9am service. He entered midway through the sermon. No problem. The problem started after the service. He greeted me and immediately jumped into a criticism of the sermon.
20 minutes later when we were about to start the 10:30 service, he approached and asked if he could "say a few words" to the congregation. (Hint: if you want to "say a few words" in our worship, then you'd be wise not to insult me 20 minutes before.) I said, "no." Even if he'd been super nice, I wouldn't let a stranger do that. Who knows what they will say? One guy, a few years ago, grabbed the mic during the "welcome of visitors" and preached for 3 or 4 minutes about how we were all going to hell before I finally forcibly took the mic back and invited him to sit down.
It's hard to refuse someone's request - even when you know it is unreasonable. It was hard to tell the man from a few years ago to sit down - even after he'd been saying crazy stuff for 2 or 3 minutes. Why do these people do this? What makes them think it's okay to just invade someone else's space.
The guy yesterday was there to "evangelise" us. He told me after the service that he's learned over the years that God doesn't use churches like ours anymore. I asked what he meant. (Note to self: DO NOT engage this kind of person in conversation anymore. :)) He said he believe in an Ephesians 4 kind of church. Odd. Me too.
Pressed further he said he thought God used churches that pray. That study scripture seriously and take discipleship seriously. All I could say was, "It's amazing that you know we don't do those things having only been around for a little over an hour."
If you worshiped with us yesterday - be glad you were spared the "few words" our friend had prepared for us.
Other than that - it was a great day. Now I've got to figure out why THAT'S the thing that is on my mind this Monday morning.
A guy came in during the 9am service. He entered midway through the sermon. No problem. The problem started after the service. He greeted me and immediately jumped into a criticism of the sermon.
20 minutes later when we were about to start the 10:30 service, he approached and asked if he could "say a few words" to the congregation. (Hint: if you want to "say a few words" in our worship, then you'd be wise not to insult me 20 minutes before.) I said, "no." Even if he'd been super nice, I wouldn't let a stranger do that. Who knows what they will say? One guy, a few years ago, grabbed the mic during the "welcome of visitors" and preached for 3 or 4 minutes about how we were all going to hell before I finally forcibly took the mic back and invited him to sit down.
It's hard to refuse someone's request - even when you know it is unreasonable. It was hard to tell the man from a few years ago to sit down - even after he'd been saying crazy stuff for 2 or 3 minutes. Why do these people do this? What makes them think it's okay to just invade someone else's space.
The guy yesterday was there to "evangelise" us. He told me after the service that he's learned over the years that God doesn't use churches like ours anymore. I asked what he meant. (Note to self: DO NOT engage this kind of person in conversation anymore. :)) He said he believe in an Ephesians 4 kind of church. Odd. Me too.
Pressed further he said he thought God used churches that pray. That study scripture seriously and take discipleship seriously. All I could say was, "It's amazing that you know we don't do those things having only been around for a little over an hour."
If you worshiped with us yesterday - be glad you were spared the "few words" our friend had prepared for us.
Other than that - it was a great day. Now I've got to figure out why THAT'S the thing that is on my mind this Monday morning.
