We are merging with another church. Sort of. A few people are joining our congregation. I don't know if that qualifies as a merger but it sounds like we are moving forward into new things. Church mergers are scary to me if I am being honest. Rarely do two churches think alike enough to become one.
One time we were approached by a Pentecostal Spanish pastor who wanted to use our church. The building of course, not really the people; which most scholars would say is the church, but that really isn't the point. We agreed to let them have services on Saturday nights. Not really services as in more than one, just one service around 4pm. They wanted to bring their own sound system. I was in support of that. Too many problems to fight on Sunday morning trying to figure out what settings were changed and not put back. Little did I know that wouldn't be my problem.
I keep a small refrigerator in my office. I use it to keep drinks cold for my band and singers. One year when my daughters were young, someone at church was selling gourmet chocolate bunnies for Easter as a fundraiser for their school. I am well aware that the selling of bunnies in church could be a whole blog subject in itself, but let's try to move past the fundraiser. I bought three of them, one for each of my girls. As a surprise, I kept them in my refrigerator at work so my daughters wouldn't know, thus the term surprise.
One happy sunday morning, as I opened my refrigerator for a drink I was horrified to see a box had been opened. upon further inspection the ears were missing from one of the bunnies. Are you kidding me? I had to wonder if the Pentecostals thought the bunnies were un-religious (my blog, my right to make up words) and chose to teach me a lesson, or if they were just hungry. Either way, they stole from my daughters. At a church. From a pastor's office. Obviously our churches were not compatible. Soon after, unrelated to the bunny incident, we parted ways. An un-merger, if you will.
I sometimes ponder the bunny event. I think of Psalm 78. In the opening verse it says "Give ear O my people to my teaching" So I know they ate the bunny during the sermon. Then it says "incline your ears to the words of my mouth". A bunnies ears are inclined. They stick straight up and went right into someone's mouth. What does God think about stuff like bunnies and mergers? Check out Paul's letter to the Ephesians at the end of Chapter 2. There are no strangers or aliens. Good to know, but those History channel programs are still cool. Then something about joining together which grows into a holy temple in God. Great. But I still want my 8 dollars back. And I bet you wonder which of the three daughters got short-changed on Easter with a Walmart bunny instead of the gourmet chocolate? The truth is I really don't remember how it turned out. I suppose that is how God's grace works for me and I guess that's ok.
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