Forced Confession

I've been told that if I don't tell this story, fellow LPC staff members will blog about it for me. Bear with me...the details are important.

At the last Newcomers' Dessert, seating was limited. There was a large inner circle of about 40 people then there was a partial row of four adults in a second row by the door. Since we were running out of seats, staff members stood in the back, but Melody Workman and Rachel Fullen pulled up chairs behind the 2nd row. At the start of the meeting, I was standing behind Melody and Rachel but shortly into the meeting I made my way to the front row and sat in the inner circle.

Joe has each staff member share about their ministry. A common theme happened to surface that night. By the time it came back to Joe and Tricia, we had all mentioned "I love this church" in some way. It kind of became a joke by the end...staff members claming "I love this church!"

As usual, Joe then opened the floor for questions. We got all the norm...how to we do baptism? communion? Why aren't we a denomination? Is Joe a "real" pastor? Why don't be have altar calls? etc, etc. Then the final question was "how do you get such professional musicians?"

Well, I thought I'd be sweet and encourage Melody whom I thought was sitting directly behind me. So without looking, I reached back to pat "her" on the knee. Instead, with my fellow staff members watching, I grabbed the jean covered leg of a strange man! I turned to the gentleman to explain my actions and the guy says, "I LOVE THIS CHURCH!"

Well, as you can guess, the corner of the room just exploded with laughter. Joe was on the other end of the room and didn't have a clue what the commotion was about. He was still trying to answer the worship question.

So if anyone ever asks you what happens at a Newcomers' Dessert, you can tell them that the single Children's Director flirts with married men. But, hey, it must be effective...it makes them say "I love this church!"