Friday, January 18, 2008
HECKLED FROM THE PULPIT
I've heard of comedians being heckled, but never a preacher. It was this past Sunday that I knew immediately during the evening sermon I'd said the wrong word. I made the statement, “If you don’t drink enough water you’ll get hypothermia.” As a preacher and a paramedic I immediately knew it was wrong. I meant to use the word “dehydrated,” but for some reason it came out “hypothermia.” Instead of correcting it (which I should have done immediately) I decided to just continue preaching, because I was in the process of making a point, and I knew if I stopped everyone would lose the point I was trying to make. Besides I didn’t think anyone would really catch what I said anyway. To make a long story short, let me just say, I never expected to be heckled from the pulpit after the closing prayer. Following the “amen” the good brother who lead the prayer said, “I didn't mention it in my prayer, but you know something else I’m thankful for? I’m thankful that when I don’t drink enough water, I don't get hypothermia.” Everybody laughed. There I was, heckled for the first time ever, by a "good" brother in Christ. What makes it even worse is that brother in Christ is also my oldest son.
So, should I ground him for 2 years or 4? :)
Labels: Church, Morgan Family, Preaching
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23 Comments:
Based upon the fact that your son actually listens to his father's sermons you should probably let this one pass! This way you'll have a great story to tell the next time you talk about grace!
Wish I could have been there to hear it though - what a laugh!
Hee hee hee, family is so ungracious to the ones they love.
Monalea
Oh, I'm so sorry I missed it!!HAHA!
What a great story! That is hilarious! I was once sitting in a sermon when the preacher was heckled. The preacher was trying to make a back door approach - say something the wrong way, in order to come around and make his point. But as soon as he said it the wrong way, a man in the audience yelled "That ain't right!!" The preacher said, "Now Dave, let me finish my point" and Dave says "But it ain't right!". Needless to say the point was totally lost, and it was one of those moments, where you kind of wanted to slide under your seat. No humor was found and you kind of felt like lightening might strike at any moment! Those are such memorable moments!
Keep preaching.....and I think sons are here to keep the parents in line sometimes!
Welcome to Long Beach, only I had such a relationship with this church that we often had conversations with questions and answers during my sermons. It was not uncommon at all for people to immediately correct me when I was preaching. Fortunately, most of it was grammatical and fortunately, I was right so much of the time there simply was no room for correction! :)
Years ago, Rosetta (deceased), a wheel-chair bound sister in our church, decided she'd had enough of what I was preaching and rolled down the center aisle, right up to the pulpit and handed me a poem. I glanced at it, noticed it wasn't relevant to the sermon, and put it under my notes. After the service, she chewed me out (and not in a nice way at all) for not reading her poem. I told her, "Rosetta, it didn't have anything to do with my sermon." She said, "That's why I wanted you to read it, my poem was better than your sermon!" She was dead serious, too.
Your son is a LOT like my son!! Good story.
that was quite funny i remember because miranda turned red and couldnt stop laughig
Ground him? Buy that young man a new car. He had enough respect to wait until you were finished to heckle you. That's love. That boy knows the 5th Commandment.
Even if you were going to ground him, I think you would first have to consider whether or not you would have done the same thing to someone else!
If so, its obvious where he learned it! And something comes to mind about casting the first stone...
And only correct yourself if it is being recorded. No evidence means deniability.
Sounds like he's developed quite the sense of timing. :)
My husband and I used to heckle our preacher occassionally- it was an inside joke between the three of us and something of a game on days when Ben was having a bad day. We have the seemingly typical gap in our auditorium where there are a few (very few) people on the first few rows, then NOBODY for several rows, then people start sitting again past the halfway point. We always sat up front, so no one but our preacher could hear us, and he thought it was hilarious. He would more than get even later when my hubby was speaking, of course. Ah, the fun those boys had...
Don't you dare ground my wonderful grandson. At least he was listening and also smart enough to know the difference in dehydration
and hypothermia. Besides someday
you may get to turn it back on him.
LOL Mom knows best.
After getting to know you from your blog, I'm stunned that that was your first heckling.
Nick
I found your blog from Neva's (I'm her d-i-l) anyways, you have a really neat blog...I'll have to stop back by!
I'm laughing.
This past weekend I kept getting the date wrong for an event. Finally someone had had enough and they said It's the 27th, t-h-e t-w-e-n-t-y-s-e-v-e-n-t-h!
i had a brother to interrupt me on a sunday night in the middle of a sermon on psalm. he just related a personal comment, that I knew about, and if I had remembered, would have used, so it worked out well
Neat blog page, Trey...you were referred by my good friends Charla and Donna here at school. All I have to say about your current entry is, I'm so glad Taylor learned his science at CHS!!! HaHa!
anothertwinmother
a.k.a. JPiper at CHS
I had someone stop me just this past Wednesday evening during announcements to remind me to make an announcement that I had just made 2 minutes previous. I love it when people show up late.
And yes, I miss heckling Ben... a lot.
Man, there are some good "heckling" stories in here.
*snicker*
At least he was paying attention!
Wish all your blogging friends could show up one Sunday to heckle you, huh?
I love it! After all the trouble you helped to cause growing up, I'm so glad that you're getting a little grief back! It's well deserved! Love you!
Ha! Great one! You'll tell that for the rest of your life.
He obviously has his fathers sense of humour! ;-)
At least he waited until the end of the sermon. My DH was preaching one time and got Elijah and Elisha mixed up - repeatedly. I HAD to tell him (from the pew) cos people were gonna be real mixed up otherwise. I felt really bad doing so but he was thankful. I think the look on my face was kind of putting him off until I finally said what I was thinking. Still not sure if it was the best thing to do or not. :-/
good on him. . he must have gotten his sense of humor from his dad! as the well versed paramedic that you are, maybe you'll appreciate this. . . today i was waiting at the glass repair shop to get my windshield replaced. A little boy and his dad came in. The little boy started talking about the "dangly thing in the back of his throat," to which his dad replied, "do you know what that's called? It's called your EPIGLOTTIS! but you can just call it the dangly thing in the back of your throat. .. " and i sure hope he does until he learns that it's real name is a UVULA. I just wouldn't want him embarrassing himself in public someday like his father just had!!!! anatomy 101 failed that guy! so let's raise our glasses of water to hypothermia!!! and hope that epiglottis does it's job and stops that water from going down the 'wrong pipe'
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