Give Me My Gun!

The pastor wants his gun back!

This article brought to mind a thought Dean Brown, shared recently on his blog:

"Ministry failure most often centers around issues of character, as opposed to skill."

It also reminds me of a pastor I knew in California who came to his first church board meeting packing a .357 Magnum. He laid it on the conference room table and said, "I'm in charge here. Any questions?"

As I recall, he didn't last too long in that pastorate.

I'm also reminded of the independent Baptist preacher, J. Frank Norris, who pastored First Baptist Church of Fort Worth. It was a megachurch before the day of megachurches -- and definitely NOT seeker sensitive!

One day Rev. Norris shot a guy in his office. It was an argument about Catholicism gone awry. (The fellow had threatened him, and thus Norris was acquitted.) People thought twice about going to the preacher with a bad attitude after that!

Maybe pastors should leave gun packing to others.