The chaplains son and the surprising snowball

Dr. Bob Rogers

Updated: Jan 16, 2014, 7:22 PM

Published: Jan 16, 2014, 7:24 PM

My father served the U.S. Army as a chaplain, so I grew up an Army brat AND a preacher’s kid — double trouble!

When I was in the fifth grade, Dad was stationed in Germany. One winter Sunday morning, I was playing in the snow in my back yard. The Catholic mass was about to start next door at the chapel. It would be later that morning when the Protestants would gather in the same building, so I had some extra time to play.

I had just packed a hard snowball in my hand when I saw a little girl walking down the long sidewalk from the street to the chapel. The temptation was too great. She was about 50 yards away, so what were the odds that I would actually hit her? I wound up my pitch and let the snowball fly, and wham! It knocked her hat right off her head.

What happened next seems to be in slow-motion in my memory. She reached down, picked up her hat, and glared at me for what seemed like an eternity. Then in a huff, she marched into the chapel.

I ran to my room and sat very still. I knew I was in trouble. I could envision the priest coming over and talking to my Dad, saying, “What’s the Protestant chaplain’s son doing hitting little Catholic girls with snowballs?”

I expected that I had done major damage to Catholic/Protestant relations. What’s more, I feared that my Dad was going to do major damage to my rear end.

I waited and waited, but nothing happened. Not a word. I went to church later that morning, expecting that at any moment the little girl would jump from behind a corner, point her finger at me, and say, “He did it!” But nothing happened.

I never heard from that little girl again. I don’t know if she forgave me, but I know that I was truly sorry for what happened, and I never tried that stunt again. It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 7:10, which says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” Some people are truly sorry, and some are just plain sorry! Thank God, if we are truly sorry for our sin, we can repent of sin and turn in faith to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One who paid for our sins by His death on the cross, and when we turn in faith to Him, He forgives us of sin and gives us His salvation.

It was at about that same age that I placed my personal faith in Jesus Christ. I hope that little Catholic girl did, too. I would love to see her in heaven and introduce myself as the bad kid who hit her with the snowball. She’ll probably be surprised to see me there.

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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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