There aren’t many stories that surprise me – but this one, from my friend in Wellington (who shall remain nameless for now) takes the cake of the strangest-to-date.
They work in an area of town well-populated with gang members and various criminal activity. One member of a local gang has been involved with the church via the youth pastor for a few years now – helping out with Christmas decorating and other activities, generally associated because of the nature of this youthworker to connect with people of all sorts. In fact, because of this gangmember’s associations and connection with the church – he’s been introduced to the senior pastor a couple of times over the past ten years or so.
However, a short time ago, when our local friend was in fact, dodging the police.. he thought hiding out in the sanctuary of his church would be a good option. He hid, the police sprung him and the senior pastor happened to be there. Terrible time for the SP to have a memory lapse.. but.. when the local said this was his church.. the SP didn’t recall having seen him before.
Long story short – local ends up before the courts to answer a few charges etc. The police summon the pastor of the church (serving notice etc), to testify according to the affadavit he signed at the time of the arrest.
Small issue. The summons was delivered to the youth pastor who then ended up spending three days at court as a police witness, thoroughly debunking the senior pastor’s affadavit that said the local wasn’t associated with their church at all.
The end result? She thought she was appearing as a witness for the defence, the police got highly confused about exactly which witness they were questioning and the strangest days in her youth ministry career occur … spent in the docks testifying against the senior pastor’s sworn statement in regards to knowing the defendant.
Oh golly. Thankfully the SP managed to have a good laugh about it. Sheesh. Awkward timesheets at staff meeting though.