Well just as I had prayed; I had an individual wrestling with loneliness share with me how much the service helped. She understood why God had nudged her to come to church today. I love it when God has divine appointments with people!Something funny happened right after the service today. I had a gentleman come and whisper in my ear, "This may not be the time to tell you, but your fly was down during the whole service." I immediately looked down and sure enough - my zipper was unzipped. I must have turned 3 shades of red. I had preached the whole sermon with my zipper down. I began asking others if they had noticed, and according to my scientific study approximately 15-17%% of those in service noticed that my zipper was down today. And not a one of them told me until after the service; I had to approach them and ask if they noticed.
Wow! That must have been very distracting for those who noticed. I know that if I were in a congregation and saw the preacher's zipper down I probably wouldn't have told him either - but it sure would be entertaining. :-)
You know those dreams where you show up to work/school and you realize your naked? It was a little like that. I will now be implementing much stricter safety measures before I go up to preach from here on out.
p.s. If y'all ever notice my zipper is down - tell me before I go up to preach. Oh - and if you ever see I have a booger hanging from my nose - be a pal and let me know.
I am one of the 17% of the listeners in your audience who sat quietly wondering, "Is the pastor's fly... no surely not..." I really am sorry for dropping the ball on that one. But look on the bright side: ten years from now you'll have one heck of an illustration... I bet that doesn't do much for you the day after, huh? If nothing else, know that it made an excellent illustration for our youth lesson on distractions. Thanks for taking one for the team/teens.
ReplyDeleteI also was aware of the barn door, but did nothing about it. I thought that it was part of the sermon and was waiting patiently for the punch line that went along with it. But the punch line never came and the opening just kept getting larger until I could not concentrate on the sermon any longer. Just be happy that you did it during the sermon and not during free hugs!!! That would have been really cold. Just one last question did you zip up before first service??? or was that just for the second group.
ReplyDeleteheavy b,
ReplyDeleteGlad to help with the Youth Group illustration; whatever I can do to further the Kingdom of God... Remember my statement a few weeks ago, "We will do anything short of sin to lead people to Jesus Christ."? I never thought I'd go this far...
trelly,
ReplyDeleteOh how I wish there had been a punch line at the end of the sermon - but as it turns out the joke is on me. The open barn door was an exclusive bonus feature for the second service only. I have a feeling this may start generating some buzz in the community and we may even have people who come to church next week just to see if I'm fully clothed...