I have a friend whom I was walking with through a rough patch in her life. Let us call her Patsy here. Just as Patsy was 90% recovered, she stopped attending church. I sat and collected reams of information, but none of the many things she mentioned really sounded like the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Until one evening she invited my husband and I to dinner, I was still wondering why she was no longer making any attempt to attend church. Sure, I know she was tired. Other times she was unwell. Yet there were weekends that she had to go back to the office. All these did not account for the fact that I have probably seen her once in three months in church.
She told my husband and I how her former pastor had a full blown affair with a leader's wife. When the secret blown open, the church split. Those who found forgiveness in their hearts stayed on. The Pastor repented. Patsy left with a horde of disillusioned folks, some stopped attending any church but Patsy went on to join another church.
Recently, her sister came back from a mission trip led by her Senior Pastor.(her sister attends a different church) S. Pastor's wife did not go, but her God daughter did. Throughout the journey, S. Pastor and the so called "God daughter" were blatantly flirting. Patsy's sister was so disgusted that she would not go to another such mission trip again.
The conversation went on to how Patsy wondered about whether her Pastor allowed personal dislike to dictate whether he supported (if Pastor says no, the church won't support) a young person to mission training. Patsy heard that her church did not come out with a single dollar when this young lady applied and attended a six month discovery program for mission. Interestingly, most of the cost was borne by her pre-Christian relatives.
Patsy recalled that prior to all these, she was in church and witnessed Pastor talking to a group of youth. Her Pastor was quite a joker, laughter followed him wherever he went. He has a funny habit of saying "You know? " in between ideas, pronounced the American way. Apparently the young lady in question imitated him and said "You know?" right after some thought and he said "I don't know!" rather emphatically showing his displeasure in no uncertain terms. I was not there, therefore I can't tell if this young girl was mirroring or ridiculing him at that instance. I suppose such a youth who dared to ridicule the Pastor deserve whatever he dished out as repercussion. But what if she was mirroring as a high form of admiration? Wouldn't this Pastor be reacting to something not intended as rudeness?
Well, no pastors are perfect. We are all forgiven sinners, those of us who are found in any church on Sundays. If we look for a perfect church, there is none on earth. Similarly we cannot find a single perfect pastor. We go to church because we believe in a Perfect God.
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