To the praise and worship team, he was their inspiration. The older church was struggling to attract new people. The old hymns just didn’t seem to generate any excitement and it was obvious that the church was slowly dying. He proposed a new style, one that still celebrated tradition but also infused modern music into the services. He proposed carrying that style into Sunday school and into Wednesday’s teen night.
It was a huge hit. The older generation appreciated the traditional Sunday morning service and many stayed through until the newly formed lunchtime praise service. Within a few months attendance doubled, then tripled. Teen night took off. Where there were less than a handful of kids there were now almost one hundred.
Despite the program’s overwhelming success, the politics eventually overwhelmed him. He had taken over from a middle aged mother who took things a little too seriously. She felt he was too free, too friendly. She felt he should honor tradition more, to the point of strictly obeying what that church had always practiced.
He held the church’s first youth sleep-in pajama party. It was a fun night. They played Christian based board games, followed by Christian rock music in the sanctuary, then ended with sing-along songs and some deep diving confessional stories before falling asleep in random blanketed heaps on the floor. The kids loved it, especially the younger preteens and teens. It was something new and exciting, and all overseen by the praise and worship team.
For him, it marked success. He had helped turn the church around and growth looked strong. They lived in a smaller community so it was good to see so many people getting involved. He felt led, and he was blessed.
The excitement ended three weeks later. The church elders brought him in for a meeting. They said the board was letting him go, and that he was no longer welcome at the church. They told him very bluntly that he was no longer allowed on the property. He was in shock, everything had been going so well.
That evening, he was arrested. Members of the church called the police and claimed that he abused kids during the sleep-in. There was no evidence, but almost all of the elders claimed it was true. He was convicted. Six years in prison, and his faith crushed forever.
The truth came out later, as it often does. The mother helped chaperone the event, even though she believed it went against tradition. She saw a way to remove him, so she did. One of the elders told that it was all her, how she convinced the others that she witnessed him abuse a girl. She said she wouldn’t name the girl, under the guise of protecting her. In reality, it never happened.
When the elder went to the police with his confession, it was ignored. They told him that since he took a plea deal, the case was closed and the issue was never to be brought up again.
He became a changed man. After two years in prison he began using, joined a gang, and began his move up in security. He entered as a God fearing man but the system turned him cold and ugly, all because of a lie and individuals’ fear to step up and speak the truth.
As for the church, the building is now on the market.
