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When only one man and 17 women show up for church
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The very first church that I ever served as pastor was the Fort Adams Baptist Mission. It was located in the little fishing village of Fort Adams, the southernmost town in the state of Mississippi along the Mississippi River. It was so far in the southwest corner of Mississippi that the only television stations the people could receive were from Baton Rouge and Alexandria, La.

It was a very isolated area, and a popular destination for deer hunters. During hunting season, the population of the area doubled.

The folks at the Baptist church in the county seat of Woodville were concerned that the people in Fort Adams were not being reached with the gospel. So they moved a house onto property in Fort Adams, renovated it into a church building and called me to be pastor and start a new congregation.

I spent a lot of time visiting the men in the hunting camps and inviting them to worship. It was not unusual for a few men to come to a service in their hunting clothes, but most of the congregation was female. One Sunday, we had about 17 women and one man show up for church at Fort Adams. The man’s nickname was “Bull.”

The women told him that since he was the only man present, that he had to take up the offering. The guy had never taken up the offering in his life, and he didn’t want to do it then. But the women insisted that it was a man’s job, so Bull reluctantly agreed.

Thus while a lady played the piano, Bull walked up and down the little room, holding a plate in front of the ladies.

I heard some laughter during the offering, and after the service ended, I asked them what was so funny. It turned out that as he held the offering plate out, Bull prodded them by saying, “Shake it loose, ladies.”

Scripture encourages us to tithe to our local place of worship (Malachi 3:10) and to use our wealth to share with those in need (Ephesians 4:28). Or as Bull would say, many of us need to “shake it loose.”

Copyright 2007 by Bob Rogers. Read this column each Thursday for a mix of religion and humor. You can read more “Holy Humor” on the Web page of First Baptist Church of Rincon at www.fbcrincon.com.

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


Copyright 2014 by Bob Rogers. Email: brogers@fbcrincon.com. Read this column each Friday in the Herald. Visit my blog at www.bobrogers.me.