C.S. Murphy
New Member
Excellent post BB my thoughts exactly.Originally posted by Baptist Believer:
Sometimes there is a very good reason for people to be upset about the pastor running over...
Some people have obligations on Sunday afternoon that they have to meet. My father worked at an oil refinery most of his life and if you know anything about oil refineries, they are 24-hour a day 7-days a week operations. Chemical processes take a certain length of time and a refinery is not easily shut down and restarted quickly without danger to people and equipment. I remember hurricane warnings and people evacuating but some refinery workers had to stay to shut down *part* of the plant safely -- they had no opportunity to leave.
In my home church during the 1970s we had a preacher that would sometimes get on a tear and go nearly 45 minutes past the scheduled end of the service. My father was faced with the difficult decision of gathering the family together and walking out so he could get to work on time or racing home, skipping lunch and then speeding to work like a madman hoping he didn't catch any traffic or encounter any trouble during the 45 minute drive to the refinery. The refinery did not tolerate people being late to work. One got a warning, twice got a suspension and the third time you lost your job. He wanted to be involved in worship at church but he also didn't want to be disruptive if he had to leave. He needed the pastor to be respectful of his time since he had obligations to keep.
Be very careful about assuming that people are just being selfish or convicted if they want the pastor to finish on time.
Murph