Not At My Church, Kid

Pastor was contacted by an 18-year-old who needs to complete community service.  Actually, the 18-year-old didn’t bother to make the call.  Her mother did.  In the recent past, Pastor had agreed to someone doing community service at church, but it didn’t work out.  The person, a male, did not complete all of their hours, and expected Pastor to sign off on it.  Pastor did not, and the guy got salty.  “What does your gut tell you about this situation?  Should we allow them to come here?” he asked me.  I told him no, because at the time, we didn’t know why they had to do community service.

We got the answer soon enough.  The perp’s mom called back to say her kid was accused of shoplifting.  Like too many parents, she used the old “my child would never do anything like that” line.  However, her kid was caught with the goods on her.  Pastor wondered why her daughter couldn’t do the community service at her own church.  Mama stuttered, and blurted out something about the church being too far away.  It appeared that Mama wasn’t attending that church, either.  Pastor wisely turned down the request.  The 18-year-old still didn’t call themselves.

I learned that when someone is told they have to do community service, the court usually suggests that they work it off at a church.  The idea is that being in the church will rub off on the offender in a good way.  Pastor pointed out that if the person is truly non-repentant, doing community service at church is not going to change much.  He learned that the hard way the last time he allowed someone to work theirs off at church.

There are plenty of other places, like nursing homes for example, where someone could go to do community service.  Especially if they are 18-years-old or younger, and have parents who make lame excuses for their bad behavior.