arghhh....

"You may think you will party in hell but you will be the barbeque."

I normally do two things when I see a stupid church sign. I laugh. I text a friend of mine and make him laugh. Today I didn't laugh. I turned around to see if I really read it correctly even though I was running late for a lunch with my sister-in-laws. Sadly that's what it said. 

"You may think you will party in hell but you will be the barbeque."

I was still thinking about it after lunch and passed it again on my way back to work. The more I thought about it the madder I got. I decided to hold them accountable. I took a deep breath, shuffled through my handy basket full of fruit for gentleness and self control, dialed their number and said "tell me about your sign."

"I'm not sure what's on our sign right now."

"You may think you will party in hell but you will be the barbeque."

"Oh, I can tell you what that means. We believe that yada, yada, yada..."

He actually explained the theology behind the quote. [Where's patience...I know I had some patience in this basket...]

"I get the whole hell thing. I guess I just don't get why a church who really gets the whole hell thing would put something like that on their sign."

"Well our senior minister finds those in a book."

"I've been a Christian my whole life and signs like that embarrass me. It's hard enough to get people through the doors sometimes without churches putting crap like that out there for people to see. It's irresponsible."

"What did you say your name was?"

I spell it out for him. I tell him I'm on staff and where. I tell him I have a long history with our local Christian churches. I tell him I'd appreciate him passing my comments on to the knucklehead who picks out the clever crappage that makes it off the pages of an apparently published quote book and onto their sign. Okay, I didn't say that last part but man that makes me mad. And thankful at the same time for being part of a church that gets it.

May send him a crate of Bubba's...