Comical stories a pastor can appreciate

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Preachers, bless ’em, don’t have to look hard for reasons to laugh. Some are able to put laughter “on hold,” restraining guffaws until sermons end; others can only surrender to the humor of the moment.

The late Bruce McIver was a student participant in Baylor University’s “great revival” in the 1940s. For decades, he jotted down details of his “preacher pratfalls.” He died at age 76 in 2001, having served 30 years as pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.

He spent a good chunk of his retirement years writing, including a popular book with which preachers of all stripes can identify, Stories I Couldn’t Tell While I Was a Pastor.

It usually is best—or at least just as well—for preachers to loosen up and simply join congregants in laughter.

Putting the dunk into baptism

So it was on a recent Sunday at Plainview’s First Baptist Church, where the “long and the short of it” played out with the baptism of Wayland Baptist University basketballer Deng Bol Yol, a South Sudanese senior who was a refugee to Uganda.

Guided by fellow student Cole Rubac and by WBU Director of Spiritual Life Donnie Brown, Deng accepted Christ this summer, having been baptized as a lad, but without realizing what it meant. So, he wished to be baptized by Brown, who is 5 feet 5 inches, while Deng stands 6 feet 11 inches.

Brown, with 34 years in ministry and a veteran of whatever can get off the rails during a church service, figured they’d best make a “dry run.” After all, Deng would be the tallest person he’d ever baptized.

They made a weekday visit to the church, and Donnie was relieved to see a chair in the baptistry.

The rehearsal went well. The chair was out of sight in the baptismal pool. Deng was seated, and Brown leaned Deng’s upper body forward and under so he would be fully immersed. There was, however, a slip “twixt cup and lip.”


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Jacob West, lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Plainview, opened the service by baptizing two children—Hailey (10) and Chasen (9). They are of usual size, and no chair was needed.

Brown, realizing the baptistry was chairless, didn’t panic. Someone quietly returned the chair, and just in time. Unaware of the quiet movement involved in getting back into place, the audience gasped when they noted the 18-inch difference in height between Brown and Deng. Then, they offered thunderous applause.

Brown capped off proceedings with an observation suggested by a Wayland faculty member: “Deng is not the only one who can dunk.”

Two turtle doves

Chris Liebrum, another religious leader, has a catalogue of things gone terribly wrong, and points out most extraordinary happenings simply cannot be foreseen.

He remembers a “country club wedding” several years ago where he was the officiant.

The mother of the bride planned the event meticulously. She loved the carefully manicured grounds, but still ordered truckloads of additional flowers, engaged harpists and hired a couple of homing turtle doves to be released when “man and wife” traipsed back down the flower-decked path.

The doves didn’t get the memo. One of them flew skyward, circling high above the ceremony for a few minutes before returning to his or her waiting keeper back on the ground.

Who knows how or why the other dove forgot its training. It was theorized perhaps the bird saw an insect crawling on the ground and decided to have a snack.

Just as the bird reached its prey, a stray cat jumped from a bush. You can guess the rest.

They said everything went perfectly until the very end of the ceremony.

Don Newbury, retired president of Howard Payne University, writes weekly and speaks regularly. This article is adapted from his regular column, ‘The Idle American.’ Newbury can be contacted via email: [email protected]; phone: (817) 447-3872; Twitter: @donnewbury and Facebook: Don Newbury. The views expressed are those solely of the author. Published by permission.


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