Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Dirty laundry

There was a man who used to attend the same church I do.  At the end of the service, when the pastor makes his way to the exit to greet the congregation as they leave, this man would always pop out of his seat and beast the pastor to the exit to greet the people first. 

His only job in the church was to schedule the Sunday School teachers but he never did  and it fact refused to do so when the pastor asked him to do so.

He contributed $2.00 a week to the church yet he expected the church to buy his gas so he could attend and two or three times a year he expected the church to give him two or three hundred dollars for his electric bill.

His wife was listed on facebook as one of my wife's friends yet she never responded to my wife.  After a year of being ignored, this man's wife was one of the many people my wife defriended from her facebook account.  This man hah the nevre to call the preacher and complain that my wife had insulted them.  I apologized in a letter to him and his family but the letter upset him so he complained to the preacher about that. 

He was not attended the church since Christmas yet still has pocession of vital church documents and I wrote to him and asked him to return the documents.  He called the preacher and claimed I insulted him by referred to him as Mr. rather than by his first name.   He told the preacher that he was thinking about returning to church but he wasn't going to now.  He told the preacher that I was too uppity and I need to remember who it was that nominated me for Deacon.  he told the preacher that I should have called him instead of writing a letter and the preacher thinks I should have visited the man at his home.

First of all, I had no need to apologize to the man over anything.  I didn't defriend him.  Secondly, I did not call the man as his  listed phone number is no longer a working number and I have not been given his cell phone number.  Thirdly, I don't have time to drive from Randleman to Thomasville to retrieve sonething it is his responsibility to return to the church.  He might not even be at home when I got there and I don't have a phone number to call and see if he would be home.

Being the Deacon is no great honor.  Before I was asked to serve as Deacon, I mowed the grass at ythe church with my own lawn mower, volunteered to turn on the heat or a/c, even though I often had to get up at 3 am in order to do so.  Over half the offering on Sunday mornings were given my me.  If there were repair work to be done at the church (like the out building needing painted, the bell tower repaired or the floor in the church needed replacing I was the only member to show up to do the work. 

If the church wants me to be the bad guy in this saga, I can resign as Deacon, quit teaching Sunday School, take my lawn care equipment home, let the preacher come to church 30 minutes early ever service to turn on the heat or a/c, quit video taping the services for the shut-ins, and just drop in two dollars a week into the offering plate. 

But I'm not playing the devils game. 

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