Baptist churches are notorious for always being open.  We still have three services per week in a day when some are down to two or even just one.  If it's six o'clock on Sunday evening it's time for church.  Wednesday night is our other big time to gather.  One trend is the mid-week service is larger than the Sunday evening time.  Our church will have adults, students and children meeting all across the building.  But that did not happen on this day.  Our lights were out and the hallways were quiet.  Being a crime scene tends to do that even in the best of churches.

It was Monday evening that my personal vehicle was vandalized while I tried to do some reading.  Calling the police to report an incident is foreign to me but the officer was great in taking the report.  Last night it seemed that walking over would be smarter in light of me missing a window on the truck.  Well, there is a saying about the best laid plans that is absolutely true.  Lights were on across the building.  Trash was scattered on floors.  Our church safe somehow ended up on the desk of our secretary.  The final straw was checking this computer only to find various explicit websites on the history.  I knew that was nothing of mine according to the time stamps.  Yet again there was a call to our police who came over quickly in response.  One of our associate ministers also came over along with a church member who is also our mayor.  It would be a late night for us all.

We found some vandalism here and there.  Windows were shattered as the culprits came in that way.  Other items were taken but the safe remained locked.  Much of the morning today was spent as officers took photos, dusted for prints, and gathered other evidence.  Did you know it takes much longer in real time than it does on television?  It was up to me to make the call on not meeting after all of this.  So my decision was to keep people at home since there is more cleanup to be done.  Canceling a Baptist service is not an easy thing to do.  Some feel cheated without getting to spend time here on any occasion.  Perhaps we can survive as a congregation but time will tell.

Paul Harvey once told the story of a man who was rescued because he didn't make it to a mid-week service.  People went out to look for him on his farm when he didn't show up.  I always wonder, as did Paul Harvey, how many would be noticed by not being present?  Now it is true that going to church is not enough by itself to be a good Christian.  But it is a good reflection on character when your presence is noticed by those who do go.  So as Mr. Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story.

Bro. Trey