Silence In Church
Sally sat in church looking around and hoping that someone else her age would show
up. Sally is the only teenager attending her church now. There are 19 High school and
Junior High school members, but they have not been to church in a long time.
After church Sally went home and got on the Christian Chat line on the Internet. Sally
chatted with 10 or more people that night, the others were telling of what all their church
was doing to invite the community to church as well as helping out those in need. Sally
had nothing to talk about then, because her church was involved in nothing in the
community.
A girl from Texas asked Sally for the Web Site of her church. Sally replied “Sorry our
church doesn’t have a web site.” The girl from Texas said, Well why don’t you get the
other youth together and fix one up for your church? Sally said: That is a great idea,
Thank you so much. Maybe I can get the others back in church with this idea.
Sally called all of the youth members and asked if they would want to help fix a web
page for their church? They all said, YES, and was very excited about it.
They each started searching for churches on the Internet to get ideas for their church.
The first thing they noticed was that out of the hundreds of churches in the area, that only
two had web sites already. This actually excited them a little bit, kind of like what
Columbus felt when he reached America.
They decided to work on this and keep it a secret until it was finished. It took a couple
of weeks and they worked really hard in putting it together. They wouldn’t settle for a
good web site, they insisted on trying to make theirs the best there ever was.
Finally it was finished, there was page after page of great things on the site. All 19 of
the youth had made a contribution somewhere on the site. There was Bible Cross Words
puzzles, Bible Trivia, Bible Games for young children to play, Bible Search to help
anyone find a Bible verse if they needed to find one. There was truly a page for everyone.
They also took a Great Picture on Tuesday after noon of their church with all 19 of them
lined up in front of the church smiling as big as they could. They were so happy the
smiles came naturally and took very little extra effort.
They placed the picture at the front of the web site to show their joy as well as the
church. The next day was Wednesday and it was the Wednesday that the church held
business meetings after the services. So all the youth attended, and they elected Sally to
announce the web site to the church during the business meeting sense she was the one
that got them all together in the first place.
Wednesday night they sat through service and the preacher commented on how nice it
was to see the youth back in church. Everyone turned and looked at the youth nodded
their heads yes with smiles on their faces. When the Business Meeting started they asked
if there was any new business?
Sally stood up and said: Yes, The youth has new business. Another church member
said” A woman should keep silent in church. Sally started to say: Then there shouldn’t be
women in The choir. but she didn’t, she sat down and looked at the other youth. Bobby
stood up and said: The youth fixed a web site up for the church on the Internet, we
wanted you all to take a look at it.
The Preacher said Well that is certainly something to pray about, is there any other
New Business? Bobby stood up again and said: We have already put it together and it
looks great. One of the Deacons stood up and said: The church would have to get
together and vote on what they want on a web site, if they even voted to have a web
site.
After the business meeting no one even spoke to any of the youth as they left the
church. The following Sunday there was no youth in church. The Youth meet
at Sally’s house instead of at church. They all gathered around the computer screen with
tears running down their sweet faces, they bowed their heads for a moment in prayer.
Then they watched the computer screen as Sally pushed the Delete button, the screen
went black and the web site was gone. The church had made it very clear, as they had so
many times in the past, that the youth was to be seen and not heard in church.
Later that night Sally a dream. In that dream Jesus was sitting at the computer looking
over the web site and all the youth was gathered around him watching. Jesus turned and
spoke to them saying: I have seen your web site and so has the Father. In you
he is well pleased, and I know you. Them, I never knew. Let not your hearts
be in sorrow, rejoice that you have pleased God in your works. Those
without works are without reward from Heaven.
The next morning when Sally awoke, she called each of the others on the phone, only to
find out they each and everyone had the same dream that same night. They said, We will
just have to fix a web site without calling it a church site, and so they did. They also
attended a different church from then on. The other church is now a youths church.
Written 6-27-2000 by JLH
