Saying Amen at the wrong time

Dr. Bob Rogers

Updated: Mar 2, 2012, 1:11 AM

Published: Mar 2, 2012, 1:31 AM

"Amen" is a wonderful word from the Bible that you hear frequently in church. It is a Hebrew word that means something is true and certain. It can also be translated, "so be it." People usually end their prayers with "Amen." In many churches, including my own, Christians will respond with a hearty "Amen" when they hear something in a sermon or song that they appreciate.

In some of the country churches I attended as a young person, they had an "Amen corner." That was an area of the church near the front, where the deacons and other church leaders sat who often said "Amen."

I like it when people say "Amen" to my sermon. It gets me fired up. But even a good word like "Amen" can be used at the wrong time.

Dr. William Mueller, a native of Germany, was a professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He was a dynamic teacher, but he did not like students to say "Amen." One day they were saying "amen" to his teaching, and he stopped. He said, "You students! Everything I say, you say, ‘Amen.’ Sometimes I think some of you would say ‘amen’ if you had a good bowel movement." Three students called out a hearty, "Amen!"

One Sunday we had a guest in the church I pastor in Georgia, who took saying "Amen" to a whole new level. Every sentence that I said, he answered with a loud "Amen." It crossed the line from being helpful to being distracting. I thought about stopping my sermon and asking him, "Are you preaching this sermon or am I preaching?" But being the polite, humble person that I am, I tried to ignore him and talk faster to leave him behind. But the faster I got, the more he said "Amen."

Then it happened.

I was preaching about the powerful Old Testament prophet Amos, who pronounced judgment on those who were satisfied in their religion but their lives were not changed. I came to Amos 4:1, where the prophet warned the wealthy women of Bashan, an area known for its big fat cows, that they would be judged for oppressing the poor. I quoted the verse, which says, "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, and say to your husbands, ‘Bring us some drinks!’" Then I explained to the congregation that he was calling the women big fat cows. Right at that moment, our gregarious guest shouted out, "AMEN!"

Bad timing.

You should have seen the looks this guy got from the women of our congregation. I mean, if looks could kill...

Which reminds me of another scripture: "There is a time for everything...a time to be silent and a time to speak." (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7).

Enough said.

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Is there a church for a big woman with an itch?

Dr. Bob Rogers

Updated: Jan 23, 2014, 10:34 PM

Published: Jan 23, 2014, 10:36 PM

A pastor was called to be guest preacher at a church. He knew this church was different when the congregation ended every line of the hymn with the shout of “yeehah!”

As he stood to preach, he noticed that people were spread out on the pews. He would see a person, then a space, then another person, and another space. He wondered why nobody sat next to another person, when he noticed on the pew beside each person was a cowboy hat.

Another time this same preacher was invited to a new church in the city. He was surprised to see that everybody there looked like they had fallen face first into a tackle box, because they had piercings and earrings on every part of the body imaginable. A rock band was playing alternative music on the stage.

As different as these two churches were, they were both growing and reaching people for Christ.

Years ago I was pastor of a small country church in the backwoods of Mississippi. There was another Baptist church just five miles away in the town (population 600). The pastor’s wife at the town church asked me, “Why don’t our two churches merge?” I said, “There are people in my church who would not feel comfortable or fit in at your town church.” She said, “Oh, come on. We’re a small town church. What could be so different?”

I said, “Well, I got one really big woman in my church who, when she gets to feeling an itch, she pulls her dress halfway up and she scratches herself.”

The eyes of this pastor’s wife got really big and she said, “I see what you mean.”

I forgot to tell her about another woman in my church who saw a roach running across the wood floor, so she stomped on it with her bare foot, laughed and shouted, “Aha! I got him!”

Yep, the culture was definitely different where I was pastor.

Jesus upset the religious establishment because He crossed cultural barriers. He loved to eat with tax collectors and Gentiles and other strange people. Jesus walked into the land of Samaria, full of half-breed Jews who worshiped in weird ways and talked different and smelled different.

Jesus walked right up to a Samaritan woman at a well and started talking her language. He accepted her culture, but he let her know her sinful lifestyle had to change. Soon she had the whole town following Jesus (see John 4).

So what cultural barrier is keeping somebody in your community from hearing the gospel? If you tear down the cultural barriers to share Christ in your neighborhood, you may hear the angels shouting, “Yeehah!”

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