angela's blog

For those of you who know me and/or read my blog regularly you know that I love my church. I love God and I love serving at newhope. I truly believe that the movement of newhope is part of the advancement of God's kingdom and that at newhope we try to live by the standards to which God has called us. I believe that the members at newhope try to live out these standards and that we hold each other accountable and encourage each other to do so. I'm glad we do that. And I was reminded recently why it's so important. My friend Sarah has been working at a church for the last year or so. At the beginning of the year they agreed on how much she would be paid. She's been getting her regular paychecks for the course of the year. A few weeks ago she got a phone call saying that they (the church) accidentally overpaid her about 350 dollars. They asked her to pay that money back. Turns out, according to contract law, this is, in fact, allowed. Because they set a certain amount for Sarah's salary and they made a mistake and overpaid her it is their right to request that she pay them back and legally she is obligated to do so. So far, this stinks, but it's, while unfortunate, all reasonable. Then, a few days ago Sarah got another call from the church. She had told them before that it would take her a few weeks to come up with the money to pay them back, that because she is a law student living on student loans, that she did not have the money right that second, but that she'd be happy to pay up in a few weeks and by the fall she would certainly have it. Well, this second call was ... preposterous, rude, and incredibly judgmental. A woman on the other end told her that the church would need its money back sooner than they expected. When Sarah told her that she was trying to get the money together, that she had spent the extra 350 dollars on bills and necessities, the woman responded with this message: How can you have spent that money, don't you save it? First of all, what business of the woman's is it what Sarah does or did with that money? They paid it to her, it was hers! It wasn't like she was trying to get out of paying it - she was simply asking for a little grace and time because she was unaware she was overpaid and therefore it would take some time to make that money up. At the end of the conversation, the woman told Sarah that she better pay up because if she didn't she would not be going to heaven. What kind of person thinks that it's a good idea to say something like that? And even worse ... it's an unfortunate way for someone to act in general, but someone who is working for a church really shouldn't be passing judgment on whether not someone else is going to heaven. Not only is this NOT Biblical, but I also thinks that it encourages the misrepresentation that Christians think they're better than everyone else. How ... I don't know ... terrible is the word that comes to mind but I'm not sure it's appropriate. It just seemed out of line to me and it saddens me that in some places the church can be so rude and condescending. Everything I've learned about church since I've been a part of one is that it's supposed to be a place of love and grace, acceptance and encouragment, and that all of this leads to getting through the tough times. I wonder where that's gone?

Posted by Mrs. Cooper on 6.23.2006 at 6/23/2006 04:01:00 PM | Permalink