It was on the first Sunday of the month when the
'visitor' showed up.  No one had ever seen him
before.  He chose to sit on the very last pew, in the
back of the Church.  He was wearing a rather old,
out-dated looking suit with a worn tie and al-
though his hair was cut short and combed
neatly, the man looked a bit 'poor', we all thought.
I noticed that no one walked over to him to shake
his hand or to greet him and welcome him as a first
time visitor, before the service started.

Myself  included.

The sermon that Sunday morning was pretty
good considering we had another 'stand-in'. We
were in-between Pastors so one of the Deacons in
our Church was Preaching that morning.  He
Preached from the Book of John and I thought he
did a pretty good job, myself.  I did hear a couple
of our members snoring, but that was nothing too
unusual in our Church on Sunday morning.  After
all, we sure didn't want someone up there behind
the Pulpit preaching who had a mind to 'step on
any toes',  so to speak.  We were happy with a good,
short, quiet sermon.  I'd always thought we were
a happy, contented group,  all in all.  We'd been told
that our new Pastor would be arriving in town
within two weeks.  We were all anxious to meet him
and welcome into our little 'fold'.

After the sermon was over, we had our usual
singing and then there was an altar call, of course.
No one walked to the altar that morning to kneel and
pray.  I guess there wasn't a single soul in Church that
morning that carried a burden because nobody came
forward to pray or ask for prayer.  Myself included.
But then at our Church, there usually wasn't anyone
kneeling at our altar after the song singing.  Harldy
anyone ever came forward to ask for special prayer
or to spend some time at the altar praying on
their knees.

After Church was over,  I  watched to see if anyone
would walk over to the  'visitor'  and shake his hand
and invite him back.  Nobody did.

Myself  included.

Nobody had said a word to him...before or after
the service.

Myself included.

We rarely had visitors anymore at our Church.
In fact, it had been awhile since we'd had a
'new-comer'  show up on Sunday morning.  Or
Wednesday or Sunday night, for that matter.
Seems like it had been a while since any of us
regular Church members had invited anyone to
Church.

Myself included.

We just never had any first time
visitors anymore.   So therefore, we never had
any second-time visitors either.

Two Sundays later, we all sat anxiously in our
seats.  We were waiting to meet our new Pastor!
We Church members were excited and looking
forward to hearing him Preach that morning.  I
could see that everyone was whispering and
talking about it that morning.  Then, in he
walked!

Our new Pastor!  All eyes in Church were
staring at the man now standing behind the
Pulpit!

Oh.......well, wait a minute....................it was
that visitor we'd had just two weeks ago!  It was
that same man who'd walked in and sat on the
last pew!

The very same man!  Why....he was our new Pastor!
Who would have thought?  Who could have known?
Well now, wait a minute........what in the
world..........

He wasn't dressed shabbily this morning!  He
had on a very nice dark blue suit with a nice tie.
His hair was the same; cut short and combed
neatly.  He wasn't speaking.  He was just staring
back at us...his new congregation.  Finally, he
began to speak.............

"Good morning everyone."  "I'm sure you've all
figured out by now that I am your new Pastor."
"Some of you may even recognize me." "I was a
visitor here two weeks ago."  Then without even
hesitating, he continued........

"If you'll all bow your heads now, so we can have
a word of prayer before we begin."  Then our new
Pastor led us in prayer.

"Now, if you'll all open up your Bibles and
turn to the Book of Corinthians, I'd like to
read some Scriptures to you.........."

Then he began reading aloud.  I can tell you that
during his sermon,  you could have heard a pin
drop.  Boy, could he preach!  It had been a long
time since we'd heard a sermon like the one he
preached that morning!  He sure got our
attention, but good!

We all stood to sing  "The Old Rugged Cross"
and then we had an altar call.  This time, I want
to tell you, nearly everyone in that Church came
forward to the altar to kneel and pray.  There
was head bowing and crying like I haven't seen
in a long time.  There were hearts getting right
with God that morning!

Myself included.

We pretty much had our own un-planned
revival that Sunday morning, our little
Fold did.

Some time later, after everyone had gone back
to their seats, our new Pastor had a few choice
words to say to us:

"You see folks, two weeks ago I showed up as a
visitor.  As some of you may  remember, 'or
NOT',  I sat on the last pew in the back of the
Church.  I figure that's the best seat in the house
when you want to observe the congregation."

"And let me tell you brothers and sisters, I  did
observe.  No one welcomed me to the service.  No
one came forward to invite me back to Church.  No
one came up to me to shake my hand,  just to say
'thank you for coming' or 'friend, we're so glad you
came to visit our Church this morning'.  And
friends......that's not the way to see our Church
grow.  That's not the way to get the Good Lord to
Bless our Church.  I can tell you that I've seen
many a Church become stagnant and dead, just for
that very reason.
We need to get on-fire for the Lord again
folks !............".

Our new Preacher didn't yell at us or raise his
voice during that talk he had with his new
congregation.......
Yet, when he spoke, everyone listened.  I could
already see that this man was truly a man of God.
He had a lot of love in his heart.  A lot of love for the
Lord and for us.  Although why he would want to be
our Pastor now, I couldn't imagine.

Nobody moved.  Nobody in Church squirmed
in their seat or made a single noise.  We
listened to every word.  Some folks were still
blowing their noses.

Some of the members still had their heads bowed.
We were so ashamed of ourselves.  Why, we had all
somehow gotten, well,  just like he said,  stagnant.

Myself included.

It would be true to say, that the next time we
had a visitor walk into our little Church, you can
bet that every member went up to him or her
and shook their hand and said

"Good Morning"
and  "Please Come back again"  and
"We're so glad to have you here with us this
morning!"

We had all learned something.

Myself included.

We're now building a larger Sunday School room
as an add-on to our Church.  That's how much our
Church has grown in just the last year. I get excited
now on Sunday mornings because I know I'm going
to be in Church!  To be honest, I get excited about
going on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights now
too!  It sure feels good I might add.  The Lord sure
has been blessing our little Church.  Blessing it left
and right.  We've got more visitors than we hardly
know what to do with these days.  But I'll bet we'll
figure it out.  Pretty soon we may have to have a
bigger church.  We've already got twenty members
who've volunteered their time and efforts to building
on to our little Church.  We've still got the same
Pastor as the one who gave it to us straight that
Sunday morning.  We all know we're mighty lucky
to have him as a Pastor, too.  We don't mind when
he steps on our toes, either.  We know we need that
sometimes.

Nobody goes to sleep when he's preaching!
No sirreeeeeee!  Nobody's sitting in their seat
snoring!

We all love our Pastor and we're so thankful that
God sent him to us.  And well,  we all like to say
that we got...........

'A Lesson And A Blessin' !'

Myself included.