Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Awkward Encounters



Jim Pemberton said in a previous post...

Before I joined a Southern Baptist congregation, I was a Lutheran. I had joined when my dad married a Lutheran after my mom died although my ecclesiological sensibilities were Baptistic having been baptized a couple years earlier in an anabaptist church. As such, I was taken in by a less-than-traditional independent Baptist family who added me as a tenor to their musical group. The pastor of one particularly fundamental church we sang in found out I belonged to a Lutheran church and exclaimed, "If I knew he was a Lutheran, I would never have let him sing here!"

This triggered a memory of the time I was baptized. I had been saved only a few weeks. I had been a drug-using, rock musician with hair down to my shoulders. I had my hair cut, but not enough for an independent Baptist little old lady. After my baptism, I was being congratulated by many in the congregation, who were expressing their love and blessings for God's mercy and grace on my behalf. This little lady, who I remember had an angry look on her face, came up to me and said, "Why do you wear your hair like THAT!" I didn't know what to say, I just stammered while my joy was punched in the stomach. 
Have you ever had an "awkward encounter" with a Christian or an unbeliever?


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