When the offering plates got stuck

Dr. Bob Rogers

Updated: Oct 3, 2013, 9:17 PM

Published: Oct 3, 2013, 9:19 PM

What would your ushers do if they picked up the offering plates and found them stuck together?

This actually happened when I was pastor of First Baptist Church in Poplarville, Miss.

Our custodian had shined the offering plates by placing each plate on top of the other, putting cleaning solution on them, and pressing down hard as he shined them. Then he left them on the altar in front of the pulpit to dry, ready for Sunday.

The way the ushers took up the offering was to walk to the altar during a song. When the song ended, the ushers would pick up the two stacks of plates, and distribute them to the other ushers, while someone prayed. After the prayer ended, they would be ready to take up the offering.

This particular Sunday, we were having the news anchor of the Biloxi ABC-TV affiliate give her Christian testimony in the service. Church was packed; it was definitely a good day to pass the offering plate!

The only problem was that when they picked up the two stacks of offering plates, they didn’t come unstacked! Apparently, the cleaning solution had dried and stuck the plates together. Fortunately, the usher on the end saw what was going on, and launched into a long prayer. As he prayed, two ushers with the plates moved close together to hide what was going on, and reached for their pocket knives. They dug and scraped and pulled as the other usher prayed. Every once in a while, the one praying would open his eyes and glance over at the two with the offering plates, and then keep on praying. I think he was praying on two levels. Out loud he was asking God to bless the offering for His glory; silently he was praying that they would just be able to take up the offering!

Finally, his prayers were answered, and the two ushers got the plates loose. When they did, the praying usher abruptly stopped, and they took up the offering.

Sometimes things get stuck in church and our spiritual lives. We can get stuck in a rut, doing the same old things the same old way and getting the same old results. If you want to grow spiritually, you cannot stay in the same place all the time. Get unstuck. Move up to the next level. If you’re not reading the Bible, start a simple plan such as a chapter a day. If you’re not praying, set aside a time in the morning or evening to pray. If you don’t know how to pray, use the prayers of the Bible like the Lord’s Prayer and the Psalms. If you’re not serving, ask your pastor how you can help your church. And if you’re stuck giving the same dollar a week in the offering plate, raise your level of commitment. The Bible says, “Since you excel in so many ways ... I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7, NLT).

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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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