The pastor who was almost arrested for robbing a bank

Bob Rogers

Updated: Oct 29, 2010, 2:14 AM

Published: Oct 29, 2010, 2:18 AM

A pastor in southern Mississippi was nearly arrested for robbing a bank in September of this year.

After the Regions Bank was robbed, a bank teller ran outside to get the license plate number of the robber. She wrote down the number she saw on the car leaving the parking lot, and immediately called the police.

The police report came back that the car belonged to a local pastor, whom we will call “Pastor Steve” (not his real name). The police sent three units to his church, but he was not there, because he had gone to a senior adult meeting. Quickly, they sent five units to the senior adult meeting where they found Pastor Steve, and insisted on searching his car, but found no evidence of a robbery.

Meanwhile, the police went to Pastor Steve’s home to interview his wife. Armed with a description of the bank robber, who was in 30s, they were surprised when a woman in her 60s opened the door. At that point one cop turned to another and said, “You know, we may have the wrong person.”

It turned out that Pastor Steve had been at the bank right before the real bank robber, but the robber rushed out of the bank and drove away before Pastor Steve did. So when the teller came outside to write down the license plate number, the car she saw driving off was the pastor’s car, not the real robber’s car.

The mayor and police chief called and apologized to Pastor Steve, but the last laugh came when the pastor returned to his church after his traumatic day. He walked into his office and on the glass window of his church office, his staff had put a large “WANTED” poster with his picture and name, and the words, “Reward: $1.50.”

Aren’t you glad that God never makes mistakes like that? Police will make mistakes, doctors will make mistakes, and yes, pastors will make mistakes. But God never makes a mistake. As Abraham asked in Genesis 18:25: “Won’t the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

(Copyright 2010 by Bob Rogers. Email: brogers@fbcrincon.com. Read this column each Friday for a mix of religion and humor. For more “Holy Humor,” visit the Web page of First Baptist Church of Rincon at www.fbcrincon.com.)

Latest

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!”

Latest