PASTOR’S GOTTA SECRET!
Valerie Rae Hanneman
June 25, 2004
Deuteronomy 31:12 “ Assemble the people-men, women and children, and
the aliens living in your towns-so they can listen and learn to fear the
LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.” (KJV)
Hebrews:10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as
the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more,
as ye see the day approaching. (KJV)
Joy Nolte came up to me during choir practice. “Valerie, I need to
talk to you for just a second after practice - do you have a minute?”
Well, of course I did - but I was a wee bit worried. Had she finally
found out that all those sour off-notes were me? My only defense was that
Dennis said I was getting better - I was actually hitting some of the
notes now! But my singing ability (or the lack thereof) was not what
Joy wanted to talk to me about. (Whew!) As it turned out, Willie & Joy
were going to be gone for the weekend and their son, Clark, didn’t want
to go. I immediately volunteered to keep Clark. (My family really
enjoys the time he spends at my house.) Then Joy said, “We’re not letting
a lot of people know we are going to be gone - you know why.” And
unfortunately I did.
There had been a time when I off-handedly asked a staff pastor if they
were preaching the upcoming Sonday when Willie was going to be gone.
This pastor was surprised that I knew about Willie being gone because
they (staff) were trying to keep it low-key. When I asked why, I was
told that there was a drop in Sonday attendance when Willie wasn’t
preaching. I laughed in disbelief! Surely they were joking. They weren’t.
I went to Willie and asked if it was true and he confirmed it. But
there was still a part of me that was skeptical.
I knew of two other non-staff people - both of them well known as
regular attenders - who also knew that Willie was going to be gone that
weekend. I purposely looked for them and their families that Sonday - and
neither family was there. It made me wonder what the statistical odds
were that two of the three non-staff people that I knew were aware of
Willie’s impending absence would suddenly both have an emergency or an
illness that kept them out of services that same Sonday. I am not a
statistician nor am I an odds-maker- but even I could figure out that
66.6% of the people that I knew knew that Willie was going to be gone were
themselves gone that Sonday. That was enough to show me that the
belief that people would have more of a tendency to skip services when
Willie was gone - was correct. I was a skeptic no more.
How sad.
Is our service to God any less important just because the Senior Pastor
is gone?
Is the Sonday message from God any less vital to our well-being just
because the Senior Pastor is not preaching it?
In both the older Testament and in the newer Testament God is very
clear that He wants His people to assemble together regularly. Neither of
these verses contain a “get out of church free” card just in case Moses
or Paul did not show up that week. The work of the church was to go on
- regardless of who was filling the pulpit.
The same is true today - the work of the church is to continue -
regardless of who is filling the pulpit on any given Sonday.
I guess that the thought of missing church simply because Willie is
gone is so surprising to me because I love being at the church on Sonday
morning. I love to hear Willie preach just as much as the next person -
but when Willie is gone the only thing that is missing from Sonday
services - is Willie. The people are the same, the music is the same, the
order of service is the same - and although the preaching style may be
different - the message is the same. And most important of all - the
God that I worship when Willie is preaching is the same God I worship
when Willie is gone. And isn’t that where the focus of our Sonday
attendance should be? On the God we are worshiping and not on who is
preaching - or on who is not preaching?
Are we in church on Sonday because God is there - or because Willie’s
there? Who is it exactly that we are trying to impress?
I asked a friend once why they had missed the previous Sonday’s
service. She laughed and said that she had visited Bedside Baptist with
Pastor Sheets preaching. I was a little more naive back then so I didn’t
think anything of it. But as I mentioned it to somebody else I remarked
that I had never heard of Bedside Baptist. They laughed at me and
explained that “Bedside Baptist” and “Pastor Sheets” was a coy way of
saying that my friend had chosen to sleep in and miss church services.
What was really sad is that this friend who skipped church in order to
sleep in would never skip their secular job to sleep in.
I guess that it is a matter of where you set your priorities.
I am so glad that on resurrection morning Jesus did not decide to
attend Bedside Baptist. I am glad that His priority was to defeat death on
my behalf. I think that in light of what He did for me - I can make
meeting Him on Sonday morning a priority for me.
LORD Jesus, help us to keep our focus on You and Your message - and not
on the messenger who is delivering it. Help us to keep You as our most
important priority in our service, attendance and life.
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Contact Valerie at valerie@fresnofirst.org.