I’ve been at my current church a few years now. I used to be a Deacon at another church. That either reflected sterling attributes on my part or bad judgement on the Pastor’s part. I’m inclined to think it was the latter most days.<\/p>\n
Please follow me on Twitter<\/a>, and “Like” the Facebook author page<\/a>. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!<\/p>\n Today I walked in to my church and headed for my assigned seat. No, we don’t have them, but I like my perch in the back on the left. It’s where I’m comfortable. As I walked into the sanctuary a woman turned to see who was approaching and her eyes got big. She said, “Is your name Joe? Did you used to go to CHURCH X?”<\/p>\n Immediately my inner Scooby Doo said, “Ruh-roh.” I’m sure I’ve met this person and slighted them, or I’m about to be blamed for something I didn’t do and it’s mistaken identity. (There was another deacon named Joe at the church. All Joe’s look alike, etc.)<\/p>\n “Yes, I did go there.”<\/p>\n “I thought so. You were a Deacon. I remember you because you gave me my first Bible.”<\/p>\n Wow. Of all the things I’ve ever done in my life, that has to be on the gooder than good list. I loved giving Bibles out. I think it made the Pastor a little nuts, because I’d buy a couple of cases of Bibles and stock the pews and hand them out to people who didn’t have one. I considered it part of my tithe and deducted it from my taxes as I gave the Bibles to the church.<\/p>\n The point, lest I wander too far, is that I thought it was a great thing to do then, and I still think it is today. I have bought hundreds of Bibles over the last decade. I hand them out to people, put them in care packages, have a few in the car, and donate them when I can. It’s a beautiful thing for me to spread the word on a very personal level. And, as today revealed, it left an impression on one young woman.<\/p>\n She looked great. All dressed for church, her male companion dressed nicely as well. I don’t remember her from that time, but the fact that it was her first scripture and she’s still going to church made me feel good. I’d won a round. Yeah!<\/p>\n We all have contact with strangers in any position of leadership in our churches. I was the guy who greeted you at the door, welcomed you to the church, made sure you had a Bible before you left. (I also mopped, shoveled snow, cleaned out the storage room, rebuilt the computers,scrubbed pots…) I saw a lot of faces just one time. But more saw me and weighed the experience on how good a representative I was for Jesus during that encounter.<\/p>\n Today I can hold my head high. I done good at least once.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve been at my current church a few years now. I used to be a Deacon at another church. That either reflected sterling attributes on my part or bad judgement on the Pastor’s part. I’m inclined to think it was …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[17,1093,167,1459,162,2797],"class_list":["post-7615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sincere-stuff","category-uncategorized","tag-bible","tag-blessing","tag-commotion-in-the-pews","tag-deacon","tag-joseph-courtemanche","tag-scripture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7615"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7619,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7615\/revisions\/7619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}