Ed, A Church Allegory

Once upon a time, there was a young pastor who loved God. He loved God so much that he wanted to share the good news of Jesus with others, so he planted a church. Because he was young and fun with a young, fun family, other young, fun people quickly joined his new church. They had a wonderful group of young, fun people who loved God and each other, so the church grew and grew, becoming full of young, fun people who met Jesus.

One day, they looked around and realized everyone in their church was young and fun. “We need the wisdom of the older generation,” they told themselves. “We need to find a way to bring some older people into our family,” they realized. And they were right, for the Kingdom of God is made up of all kinds of people, and they understood this.

Carefully, they devised a plan to reach out to older people and invite them to be part of their church. They went to retirement homes and invited the residents to Bible studies. They canvassed the community and put together events that would interest senior citizens. They prayed for all the older people with whom they came in contact and waited.

And one Sunday morning, the first older couple walked into their service. Success! The young, fun people greeted the couple with enthusiasm, ushered them to their seats and loved them into their congregation. The couple stayed. And soon they brought friends, who brought friends. In no time, the congregation looked much more age-diverse than it ever had.

And the young, fun people were happy.

The older people enjoyed the church because the young, fun people were very kind to them, and the young, fun pastor preached wonderful, biblical sermons. They liked the church even though the music was a bit loud, the young pastor used a new version of the Bible, and there were more jeans than there were ties. 

Because the older people were in the minority, they simply adapted to this new style of doing church because they loved the young, fun people and wanted to be part of their family.

Everything was clicking until the day Ed walked in. 

Ed had heard that in this church, young people and old people got along and loved each other, and he wanted to be part of such a congregation. But Ed was very old and very set in his ways, and much as he tried, he could not accommodate and forget who he had been for all his 70-plus years.

So Ed did some things very differently.

When the young, fun band played old hymns in their new, hip way, Ed still sang them the same way he was used to, an old organ accompanying him in his mind. This would not have been a problem if he had not sung so loudly and disrupted the flow of the hip new version of the old Amazing Grace.

And Ed wore a tie and suit every Sunday and looked grumpily upon those young people in jeans because jeans were for working on cars, as he would tell anyone who wanted to listen.

And Ed loudly called “Amen” when the young pastor made a good point, which rattled the young pastor’s concentration, for he was used to a quiet, polite audience.

The young, fun leaders began to discuss what to do about Ed. Ed was not like the other older people who had been coming and had adapted to the young, fun ways of the young, fun church. Ed was “different,” they said. Ed did not “fit in” with the young, fun church.

So they approached Ed one Sunday morning and tried to talk to him about his “unusual” behavior. They said, in so many words, that Ed needed to behave like the other old people or…the sentence did not need to be finished.

Ed did not think his behavior was unusual. Ed loved the Lord deeply and had come to love these young, fun people as well. He was very hurt that he was not welcomed in this church so, brokenhearted, Ed left.

What the young, fun people, so enthusiastic about an intergenerational church, had forgotten is that every Sunday when they gathered to worship, they were guests in the house of God. That building where they gathered to sing songs and pray was God’s building, and He invited them week after week to fill His chairs and enjoy Him and His presence as a family.

The young, fun people thought they were the hosts, and those who came were their guests. They fancied themselves “homeowners” of the house in which they were merely visitors, and they began to make decisions as to whom could be invited to the party and who could not. And only those who thought, worshipped, acted, and behaved like them were welcomed.

And oh, how the Homeowner raged about Ed’s treatment. You see, the Homeowner loved Ed and made Ed. He knew Ed was cantankerous and wondered who would love Ed anyway. He loved to hear Ed “Amen” during the sermon because He understood that Ed was moved by His word and His message.

He enjoyed hearing Ed’s voice singing the old hymns that the older man had loved since he was a child, and did not mind at all that Ed’s voice was loud and did not match the young, fun band’s tempo. He knew it did not matter if you wore jeans or ties, but He understood it was hard for Ed to accept this and hoped that the young, fun people would gently and compassionately accept Ed with all his quirks.

So the Homeowner was angry and as heartbroken as Ed was, to see Ed leave the young, fun church because He knew how much Ed had to teach the young, fun people, and especially the young, fun pastor. He knew Ed would have become the young pastor’s most trusted and wisest advisor if only the young, fun pastor could have seen Ed as Jesus saw Ed.

Oh, how the young, fun church missed out when they decided that Ed was too “unusual” for their young, fun congregation!

Note: “Ed” is an allegory. “Ed” can be anyone from a different race, age group, socio-economic bracket, culture, nationality, lifestyle, language, etc who walks through the doors of your church.