A pastor reflected upon the noticeable change in attendance since the commencement of his ministry at a church which began with considerable hoopla and fanfare to now drawing in barely a dozen a week.
He remarked that congregants that had not returned since the Plague were spiritually asleep.
But is it that all such souls were asleep or more that some had their eyes wide opened as to what has been going on during his tenure and adjusted their Sunday morning schedules accordingly?
The traditional hymnody was dropped the moment he assumed the pulpit.
During the most strident phase of the lockdowns, without informing the church, additional wool was pulled over everyone’s eyes when without informing the congregation, the pastor had the American and Christian flags removed along with the choir loft, piano, organ, pulpit, and even the baptistry.
That last one is perhaps even a greater feat than even getting a church renowned for rigorous adherence to traditional rules to change its constitution to allow for divorced pastors a mere two minutes before hiring him given that Baptists insist that immersion is the only acceptable form for the Christian rite explicitly referenced in their name.
Along with these, the church library --- both the shelf and the contents --- were literally tossed in the trash.
Eyes also need to be opened to a number of surreptitious changes in leadership no one even seems to want to talk about.
For in the same condemnation regarding the spiritually asleep failing to return at the conclusion of the Plague, a special “Women’s” worship service was announced because, though a number of the men in the congregation were now deacons, it was primarily women doing most of the work.
This was not the first time new deacons were named without actually being named and someone on Facebook is listing themselves as the church music minister without even having been introduced to the church, or at least to the White folks that used to attend there before in essence being run off after the church was taken over.
For a perusal of the as yet again redesigned church website lists only the single deacon that set this coup into motion.
Yet just a few months earlier the relaunched church website listed the three other original deacons as well.
However, the identities of the additional deacons remain as shrouded in mystery as those of the Final Five Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.
Frederick Meekins is an independent theologian and social critic. Frederick holds a BS in Political Science/History, a MA in Apologetics/Christian Philosophy from Trinity Theological Seminary, and a PhD. in Christian Apologetics from Newburgh Theological Seminary.
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