Hi Alice

Hi Alice,

It was good to see you and everyone Sunday but for the life of me I can’t understand why you thought you would get an email from me yesterday. The people were friendly enough and the pastor was cordial and I was missed so much I was tagged to take up the offering first thing.  Papa gets so worried when I’m not there and he thinks something has happened to me or is wrong so I told him Sunday not to worry about me when I’m not there, if anything was wrong or I was sick Vonnie would tell him. He said he can’t help but not to worry. I told him he was welcome to come over to the house anytime he wanted. I do know for a fact he was very sincere, I could hear it in his voice. Carl told me after church he had been wanting to come over but just hadn’t felt like it. I told him I understood. He seemed really tired Sunday.

Alice, I must apologize to you and I suppose everyone in the congregation. I did not know that by me not coming to church for a few Sundays would cause the church to stop moving forward and go backwards to a time over two thousand years ago. I couldn’t help but notice that we do not do a presentation of offerings anymore but a presentation of tithes and offerings. Vonnie went back through a few of the bulletins and this started appearing just a mere two weeks ago so yesterday was only the second time it appeared. I noticed that when Linda said the prayer she used tithes and offerings. I told Vonnie I didn’t know why he would change that except maybe to put me in my place or provoke me and she said since it was changed right after my email to him, it was probably done to show me that he had the authority and the power to change what he wanted since I had mentioned the commitment forms, which is quite possible. If it was to put me in my place or provoke me, then I say wow, what a way for a pastor to act. On the other hand if it was changed because of what Vonnie believes, all I can say is I feel sorry for him for having to resort to playing childish games. If it had been changed even a couple of months ago I wouldn’t have thought to much about it but coming right on the heels of my list of undesirable behaviors one can only conclude the true meaning behind the change and it is sad that any pastor would even consider such a thing.

Of course you know me and by the way and it is ok to laugh at what you are about to read but Vonnie hit me after I said this while she was laughing herself silly. I told her all one has to do now since it was changed is to insert the word “burnt” before the word offering so it would read, presentation of our tithes and burnt offerings. After that all we would have to do is find a High Priest because tithes could only be given to a High Priest and I feel sorry for Bob Johnson trying to decide what money is a tithe and what money is an offering. I mean if we are going to follow the tithe law then we must be accurate in what we do. Now it even gets worse for Bob because if I read Lev. 27 30-33 right it is the tenth tenth, not the first tenth. Now he has the job of making sure it is the tenth bill he picks up but that also becomes a problem because money was never used to tithe. Poor Bob and this is all Vonnie’s fault because she pointed out that the tithe had to come from the first fruits so she said she guessed when we pull up the beets to can, every tenth beet we should set aside for the tithe and then plop them down in the collection plate. Same with the other “first fruits” from the garden. Then that creates the problem for him as to what he should do with these first fruits. Since Bob can’t hand them to God personally, maybe an angel of the Lord will appear and take them. Of course Bob is just going to think someone gave him fresh vegetables.  Poor Bob!! Robbing God of His tithes. (how may times have you heard that phrase used?)

I would suppose since Dan is a deacon that an exception could be made for him. If he has 10 acres of corn to pick then the tenth acre should be picked separately and tithed but we both know it wouldn’t fit in the collection plate so he can just dump it on the alter or bring it in bushel baskets and place on the alter. We must follow the Mosaic Law to the letter or God will be displeased with us. I guess it’s all or nothing. I think we should follow the law of animal sacrifice at least once a month but since it has to be unblemished we would have to steal a sheep from some poor 4-H kid and Jerry did say they were looking at getting new carpet so no need of that now because of the blood. Think of the money the church will save. Of course most of the members will be in jail for stealing sheep but no one will have to wonder why attendance is low. The set of Miracle Blade III knives I ordered should be here in a couple of weeks. Then the sacrifices can begin. Ok, enough kidding around.

If you remember in his email to me he said he didn’t want to cause any more ill will between us. What did he think adding the word tithe to the bulletin would do, endear him to me?  No matter what the reason, I feel, and this is only my feeling, that this is not the way any pastor in any church should ever act or even react.

Vonnie said I have to realize there are a lot of people that refer to the money they give to the church as a tithe and I’m sure there is and that really doesn’t concern me. What does concern me is the behavior displayed by the pastor. Linda came up to me yesterday and told me she missed my article in the newsletter this time and how much she enjoys them and how they are interesting and different. That was really nice. Was it sincere? The jury is still out on that one. She has never made any comment on any article that I have written and now when I don’t write one she makes a comment, especially after all I said to him about the articles. I’ll just leave it that she was sincere.

Alice, just imagine for a moment how I would react if I was setting there in the pew minding my own business and during his sermon he said that we are supposed to tithe 10% of our income?  What do you think would happen, would I sit there and ignore it, get up and leave or get up and make a scene? I have always and I do mean always have said I will never attend any church that preaches the 10% tithe and I certainly hope that our church isn’t being steered into that direction and that FBC becomes a tithing church.  I can never remember a time when our church took up “tithes” it has always been offerings which is what Paul said we should do or even a free will gift. (Can’t remember chapter and verse on that one) I guess why I have so much trouble with the tithing thing is that when I was baptized I was reborn under the cross, the cross Christ died for me on and I believe in the New Covenant, not the Old Covenant. Anything that Christ brought from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, such as the Ten Commandments still apply today because Christ made them a part of the New Covenant but Christ had to bring them, no one else. I can not just simply abandon my beliefs that it is ok to be under the cross and still practice the old Mosaic Laws that Christ did not sanction. The blood of Christ is the salvation for my sins, not the laws and rituals of the past.

Vonnie keeps all of the bulletins in her notebook and she keeps all of the prayer lists for awhile. She said what bothers her is that he can make it a point to take the time to insert the word tithe into the bulletin but can’t be bothered with taking Donna Wester off the prayer list. Vonnie writes down all the requests and marks out the old ones. She said that Donna was having surgery on May 2nd and there was 2-3 weeks where she had to scratch that line out because Donna had already had the surgery. She would scratch it out and write down the update for her.

While looking through her notebook, the sermon he gave two weeks ago, according to her notes was on grace and the law. One of the statements he made was something to the effect that people think they have to follow the law and forget about grace. Boy I wish I could remember the exact wording because what he said about the law is exactly what he is doing or did by inserting tithe in our offerings.

Since this happened exactly two weeks after he sent his email saying he didn’t want to create any more ill will Vonnie and I both think it could also be some form or attempt at retaliation and if that is so it shows what is in his heart and just like Michael it isn’t Christ. I am sure there would be those that would say I just complain too much but I don’t think of it as complaining but presenting the facts, and just like this, it can’t be denied there is some hidden motive or agenda behind it because of the fact it comes right on the heels of my list of undesirable behaviors.

I told you Sunday the only reason I was there was because you asked me to come and while it is true I may not be there every Sunday I can promise you I will not let him keep me away from FBC or attending FBC when I choose to do so. I will not allow him run me off for good nor will I allow him to silence me in any way. As a member of FBC I feel it is my right to speak out against what I feel is wrong. True the congregation could take away my membership by voting me out but it’s doubtful that will happen. Remember Michael tried to get my membership out of FBC also and that failed and so will any other attempts. There are way to many “true” Christians in the church.

Sorry this is so long, you know once I get rambling it’s hard for me to stop. 

By the way, when is the next Wednesday night dinner? Perhaps Vonnie and I should come so we can fellowship with others.

John