Strange Things That Have Happened To You In Church
 

What is the strangest thing that has happened to you in church or that you have personally observed in church?

I know I have a bunch if I thought hard enough but the most recent one that sticks out in my mind is this past Easter Sunday which was the first Sunday we were in our new building.

We had been running about 450-500 people and I was worried that our first Sunday would be down a lot since we had done no advertising and the new location is in an out of the way place, not off of a main road or street. The only promtion we had was an article in the local newspaper about our move.

Turned out we had a little over 700 people that first service with lots of new faces. One of those new faces was a young mother with her small child who in the middle of the sermon stormed out of the building. However on her way out she stopped at the technical booth at the back and chose me to curse out.

In the sermon the pastor mentioned about God forsaking Jesus on the cross and that caused that woman to become unglued. She stared at me and said " God NEVER forsake Jesus and I am not going to sit here and let my child listen to this @#X%!!!!" She then proceeded to curse even more before finally moving on and out the door. We have very good security at church but in this instance no one was around.

I thought it was interesting that she was so concerned about having her two year old listen to what she considered false doctrine but had no problem cursing up a storm in front of the child.

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LOL! This sunday we had a feller stop by along with his bags (pretty sure he was homeless) and asked us for a ride to another church about 3 or 4 miles away!

did he get a ride?

A drunk man walked in with a guitar. He walked to the front to play...

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When we were in the UPC I was all-out attacked by one of the less stable (but regular) members of the church.

I didn't have my conceal carry license at the time or the church would have had one less-than-stable member in attendance after that.

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:heeheehee blessed subtraction maybe?

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we gave him bus money. there is a stop right in front of both churches... :happydance

I actually have a friend on staff at the other church. I just almost called him to come get the feller! LOL>

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One incident stands out in my mind... we had a couple come to church who soon after they began attending, asked if they could get married. My husband was a vague acquaintance of the groom (having went to school with him as a child). So, they asked my husband to stand up with them. He agreed. When the groom and bride showed up for the wedding, the bride was drunk. Some family members had showed up, and they were all game for the wedding, so we proceeded. As the bride swayed back and forth up the aisle (she was a big lady) she had on these really high heels, and just as she reached the front of the church, she passed out! My husband managed to catch her and blunt her fall. After we got her to come to, she sat on the front pew for a while, and her mother demanded that we continue the ceremony... as did the groom... so the wedding proceeded.

To my knowledge, the marriage didn't last long. I will always question the wisdom of the pastor in proceeding with the ceremony with a drunk bride!

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Did this turn out to be Honey Boo Boo's mother? :slaphappy

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ive told this one before but it is worth repeating.


This happened somewhere before 1981. We had a lady that came to our church who was either single or with an unsaved husband.

She also had a son that was developmentally challenged. He was a grown man but lived at home and was not capable of being on his own.

This one sunday (the first time anyone ever remembered and as you will see the last) she brought her son with her to church.

He went unnoticed until the preacher started preaching. At some point, he kind of streatched up real tall while seated and looked all around with crazy eyes and said in a LOUD VOICE "WANNA DRANK!" and smiled at everyone.

we all ignored it. but then a few minutes later, he did it again only louder!

The third time, it got kind of funny and the fourth time, the pastor lost the service! LOL.

It really was comical. The poor lady didnt really know what to do but the church people were kind and in the end she continued to come to church.

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roflmbo!!!

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I am amazed that any preacher would continue a wedding ceremony with a drunk bride. The pastor should have called the wedding off and told them if they wanted to get married with her in that condition they would need to go to the Justice of the Peace or whatever local govermental entity in their town / state performed civil weddings.

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UPC church in Oklahoma City. We visited, having just moved up there and were looking for a church.

Pastor preached on how saying (or thinking) 'Jesus.... Jesus....' everytime you exhale, while breathing deeply and slowly, would eliminate anxieties.

The kids visited the 'Children's Church' and they ate pizza and played Mario Bros or something on a Nintendo at the direction of the 'youth minister'.

Not sure what happened to that church... we never went back.

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That's probably where the food pantry is. ;)

Ha. I was thinking along those lines.

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Once, I was watching a particularly fiery preacher preaching up a storm. The air was thick with Holy Ghost power until at the crescendo of the sermon a lighting bolt came through the roof and split the alter in two!

What a HORRIBLE time for my camera to suddenly break!

Oh well, you'll just have to take my word for it I guess.

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You should have given him a ride , then circled around and brought him back :-)

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not at our church, but........ we have a lady who lives here in our town. She is very well-known (and everyone tries hard to avoid her!). She has told multiple lies to people from every church: her daughter is dead or her daughter is in jail or her husband is in jail for burning up her daughter or she never even had a daughter. No one knows which is truth. Soo............

So she's also been kicked out most of the stores and churches in our town for various reasons. Banned from almost all of them.

She is now banned from the local Catholic Church, for two reasons. First they found out that when the people went up to receive communion on Sunday mornings, she was going thru the women's purses and helping herself. And then the real kicker - they caught her red-handed back in the room where they store the communion elements (real wine, remember), loading up the inside pockets of her coat with liquid refreshments. Good grief!!!

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Sounds like she ws motivated to be a regular church goer!

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You know, I really think they must be related! :lol

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My thoughts exactly! But since *Honey Boo Boo's mother demanded the wedding proceed... it did!

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You know, most Stephen King novels have a crazy lady which probably acts a lot like this one.

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Years ago me and my wife and her mom and dad we visited a new church. It was a country church, this is the kind of church that they loved. Fortunately this one had indoor plumbing. That is beside the point though.
The church had old, old theater seats instead of pews. This little old man came in and flopped down into a seat and it broke. He jumped up and started cussing that it wasn't his fault. Mind you this guy was probably about 100 pound. I really don't think it was his fault but he handled the situation very poorly.
It was funny though everybody started laughing. We couldn't help ourselves.

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A friend that I worked with attended a PAW? church and told me this story.
He played bass for the worship service for his church. One Sunday the service was really blessed and they were having a good time worshiping the Lord. The band it just playing a mellow old time gospel type of song. No one was singing the band was just playing worship music while people praised the Lord. Well he did this little fill/riff on his bass where he slapped the string about three times to brake things up and make the music more interesting. No one probably noticed. But the preacher starts screaming into the microphone STOP!!! STOP!!! STOP!!! Then proceeds to reprimand my friend who was playing the bass in front of the whole congregation. This went on for about five minutes. The preacher said the devil and his music would have no place in his church.

My friend was very hurt. He was a preacher also. He kept his mouth shut but he thought all these people are worshiping the Lord and are being blessed and you stop it so you can belittle someone.

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I once saw a man have a stroke in the middle of service. Men in the church carried him out, called for an ambulence and they took him away. The pastor still preached his sermon after we prayed for the man. That may be the sadest.

The funniest was at a church I went to where the they had a tv ministry. During a taping of the Sunday morning service to be broadcast the week after the choir was being introduced prior to singing their first song. The pastor said, "Worship with the choir as they come to sing Let Everything That Has BREASTS, I mean Breathe Praise the Lord." We should have stopped the taping to laugh it off, but that didn't happen. We recorded the rest of the mornings service and they editted the flub out, but all had grins all over our faces the rest of the service. At the end of the taping the choir would sing an outro song. Once the camera lights all lit up that meant the broadcast taping had ended. When the lights on the camera when off we literally ALL stopped singing and laughed like crazy. It was very, very, funny.

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Of course the wedding proceeded. The Holy Bible says, "Marriage is honorable in all,..." Hebrews 13:4

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Visiting preacher was really getting excited about preaching and the church was on their feet enjoying the message.

Just as everyone was quieting down and returning to their sits, a visiting homeless guy says really loud, "now that's some d_ _n good preaching".

The visiting preacher says it was one of his best compliments.

:D

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I've seen false teeth spit out while the person was preaching....grabbed them and put them right back in and kept on preaching.

Had a preacher get a 'word from the lord' about me one night while he was preaching, made a show about it from the pulpit, pointing at me and naming me by name, But the thing was the 'word' he got wasn't true. And everyone in church knew it. I don't think he preached at that church anymore.

Saw a man get his nose broken when a shouter fell on him while he was at an altar bench praying with his head down. Blood everywhere.

A kinda heafty man shouted through the wooden floor of our old church. They had to replace a few floor boards before the next service.

Good memories.

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The pastor receives the offering and places the offering plates in the pulpit.

After church a kid about 10 years old comes up, casually leans on the pulpit while reaching in and taking a hand full of money out of the plates and stuffing it in his pocket.

I told the pastor, "now there's a kid that really gets something out of going to church".

:D

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I once attended a church where there was a man who would pace back and forth in the back of the church. It was clear there was something wrong with him but everyone knew him and didn't seem to mind.

He was pretty quiet as long as everyone was singing. Actually, the singing 'drowned his epithets out...until the preaching....

While everyone was saying 'Amen!' and 'Hallelujah!', he was in the back, raising his hands and shouting, "That's bull(#^$!" or "(#&$ you!'

No kidding. My mom finally had to stop bringing him to church with her because it was just too embarrassing. Now he only does that in restaurants.

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I was told this happened in my church just a few weeks before I joined, circa 1980. However, this may be one of those urban legend church stories, I don't know. Seems I heard a similar story from another nearby apostolic church.

So, Patricia, a faithful, new saint in my church, had been praying for several months for her lost, seemingly hopeless and hapless husband Leroy. Leroy occasionally came to church with Patricia, but never really "got it." One time in a revival service with a visiting evangelist, Leroy answered the altar call. The message had been about the power of the Holy Ghost regarding deliverance from the devil and his demons. So, at altar call, the usual gaggle of sincere saints were praying for Leroy, laying hands on him (he was a docile, humble type of man.) After a certain crescendo of grunts, hollers, and "breakthrough" moments were achieved, the visiting evangelist slithered up in front of Leroy to lay his own hands upon him, presumably using the gift of discernment, or something like that. In his message, evangelist had taught a little about Mark 5:9, where Jesus questioned the demon, and demon replied, "We are legion."

So evangelist, with the typical quivering grip upon Leroy's forehead, demands, "Foul Demon, what is your name!?"

Leroy hollers out:

"My name is Leroy!"

:icecream

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I failed to mention he has Tourette's.

There was a visiting evangelist whose wife was like this. I can't help but seriously question if this is demonic. It seems so to me and I'm surprised that everyone kind of tries yo ignore/pretend its not happening.

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Jason.... have you ever personally known someone who had Tourette's???

You should be very careful making an accusation that it is "demonic."

JMHO!!!

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I agree. If you tell a person with tourette's they are demonic they are liable to curse you out right then and there!:thumbsup

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I always wonder why people with Tourettes yell curse words and not "Pizza"! "Pie!" I mean, come on. I believe in Tourettes but the swearing thing, I dunno...

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ILG - it isn't always curse words .... that is just what gets the most attention. :heeheehee

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By the same token, the mind is a strange thing. One of the most Godly women I ever knew, and a mighty prayer warrior began to have the symptoms of Alzheimers. Before she died she was uncontrollable and she would swear and curse in such a way that would make a sailor blush. Why??? I don't know, it really bothered me, but she was one of the kindest, gentlest women I had ever known. I don't believe she had ever uttered a curse word in her life prior to that.

An aunt of mine, she also had Alzheimers. She also was a very Godly lady. Before she got real bad, she wouldn't remember from one moment to the next where she was, who you were or even her own name. But if you asked her if she wanted to have a time of prayer with you, she would immediately light up and begin to call on the name of the Lord. Even at that stage of the disease, she could pray in the Spirit and a wonderful time of sweet fellowship with the Lord would envelop all in the room. :happydance As her condition progressed, one afternoon her son received a phone call from one of her neighbors. She was standing on the front porch - stark naked. :sad

Why do these things happen? I don't know, sure would like to ask the Lord.

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It's a brain disease just like Alzheimers and Huntington's. I would never suggest it was something demonic, although I can understand why you say that.

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It's not always swearing. They repeat things a lot, have tics that range from hardly noticeable to severe, and make animal sounds.