Hello Blog friends. I want to paste a blog today for today's blog. It was placed in one of my comment boxes, but would like for as many of you to read as possible and respond to this anonymous person. I plan to respond myself when I am able to sit down and do so - but would love to see what many of the experienced and seasoned pastors think as well. Here is the situation....
It is amazing how some things happen. In our Morning worship we had a LONG TIME member to attend that we hadn't seen in church for over two years. We didn't know where he was or how to inquire. No relatives that we knew of.We didn't hardly recognize him. He is a Viet Nam Verteran who returned mentally challenged due to war trauma and very heavy drug use because of his war experiences. While absent from church he has bottomed out. He doesn't even know who or where he is.He sat on the third pew by the isle right behind me. I didn't fully notice at first who he was. But after he started disrupting the service I knew the voice. It was Brother Riley. He pulled his trousers off first. This is when the Deacons were alerted. The Pastor was in full gear of his sermon and didn't notice. By the time two of the Deacons reached him he was very loud with obscenities coming out of his boxer shorts at the same time. He was sweaty, smelly, diseased, frail, just skin over bone.He frightened me.
My Grandson sat next to me and I told him to move with me down to the other end of the pew while the Deacons handled the problem.They finally removed him from the service. I don't really know what was done on the outside. After the service we asked where did he go and nobody knew. I immediately felt very ashamed and quilty. Riley was where he was supposed to be for help.
Did we do what we were supposed to do? I think not.Still having all this on my mind I open this blog and see at the same moment we were dealing with a "lunatick", you were preaching about the one in the multitude who brought his Son with a dumb spirit. As I read I feel even stronger that we should and could have done more for this member.This has challenged me to pray for another opportunity for us as a church body to minister to him in some way to bring about the help and cure that he needs.
Thank you Pastor Kraig for bringing this to me. May the Lord always use you, to challenge those of us to use the power we have as believers to bravely face and conquer the tests God brings before us.As time gets harder we will see more of this. As a church family, a plan should already be in place to handle a situation such as this.Thank you for allowing space for my comment. Sorry it was so long.
8 comments:
Pastor,
Try not to be so hard on yourself.
There's no way you could have seen this coming. I'm confident that God will use you according to His purpose should this or a similar incident occur in the future.
Your Brother Always
I enjoyed the read and I think it's unfortunate how so many war veterans return left to live a drugged life.
I myself am familiar with the church and, more specifically, this man that is referred to. I have always felt much the same way when there is need to take defensive action in such a way at the house of prayer and worship. Although my bottom line is the same as has been drawn by the "commenter," I do believe there is a way to biblically discern and deduce a "fusing" of the two ideas. We have an obligation as believers to defend the sanctity and ceremoney of worship as sacred and "set apart." It would not be, in my estimation, an offense of any grave nature to extract any perpetrator of acts that defy and distract from "worship in spirit and in truth." So, I would not suggest or imply that the deacons, or anyone else, did wrong by removing him in that particular moment. There was an obligation to secure and ascertain that the preaching moment was fulfilled and the gospel shared without distraction to the hearer. Jesus Himself was noted and documented for extracting ill-purposed persons from the "temple" and overturning their tables. However, I do agree and suggest that the church should have some medium of intervention, help, and ministry to people who find themselves in such compromised condition. I will continue to pray that all of our churches have ministries equipped and ready to serve the needs of a situation like this whereas the only option is not to send them away and forget about them. Until next "disturbance" that is...
I would have to agree with what has been said, particularly with the comments from my brother. Additionally, I would add that - prayer is always in order. If any person disrupts worship and there is apparant distraction - then intercessory prayer is in order. As the prayers of the saints, particularly the leadership - that is the time to either carry the brother to the altar OR carry him out. What changes the entire ordeal is the fact the the Pastor was already preaching. It is then left of to the Holy Spirit as to how best handle the situation. All in all, the Deacons were NOT out of order.
It is of course always disturbing to see or hear of an experience such as this and it is also totally disturbing and heartbreaking to see a creature of God who has been consumed by the ravages of drugs, etc. It is always our desire as believers to reach out and minister to hurting people and hurting humanity but there are times when we physically just cannot do anything more than pray and trust God to help,heal and deliver.
Now,in the situation described by the blogger I totally agree that you should not be too hard on yourself. There was in reality nothing that you or anyone else could have done to avoid or prevent this situation and, in reality, there was no other reasonable way these deacons or any other member could have handled this incident. As churches we have an obligation to protect the sanctity of the worship experience as well as the safety of the worshipers. God also gives us spiritual discernment and spirit filled deacons should have the wisdom and discernment to act swiftly and appropriately when situations such as this occur.
Now, in this specific instance, I am familiar with the church, the congregation and the individual. And I am aware of many efforts being made to rescue and deliver this dear brother from his demons. Much has been done including physically taking the brother to get help,physically taking him to the social security department and trying in every way humanly possible to get the brother to accept his family members offer of help and to get him to take and remain on the medication which would assist and enable him to live a relatively normal life. In addition, on more than one ocassion during mid-week bible study the entire group formed a prayer circle and prayed specifically for this brother.
As tough as it is there are times when, humanly speaking, we have done literally all that we can do. It is frustrating and as a pastor I can totally relate to how the initial anonymous blogger feels. We want and desire so desperately to do more and we tend to "beat ourselves up" and wonder "what else could I have done?" I also believe that Jesus identified with our pain and our frustration as is illustrated on that ocassion when he stood and looked over Jerusalem and "wept" for them. Yes, we too often weep when we see so much hurt and what we feel is a great loss of potenial. But often in instances such as this the best thing we can do is pray and turn the individual over to the Lord and hope and pray that they will turn around before, as the old folks often prayed, "it is eternally too late."
A good blog and I admire the individuals compassion, care and concern but, once again, don't believe the situation could or should have been handled any differently."Don't beat youself up."
God bless and be encouraged.
Thank you Pastor Kraig for allowing my comment to be your blog posted this time. I am encouraged by your comment and the comments of others that address many of the issues I am having with that ordeal. I hope and pray that more insight is given by other bloggers.
The thing that keeps going over and over in my head is...Riley seems to not be in reality by his actions and deeds. HOW did he KNOW to come to the church? Did he subconciously know or hope there was refuge there? If so, where did this conciousness come from? Was it a cry for help? After so many years how and why was his feet guided towards the church and not the dope house this time?
I still feel there was a reason and a cause that this happened. If nothing else maybe we should have dialed 911.
Matthew 18:11-13
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Charming topic
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