People say strange things

The following is a blog written by Perry Noble who is a church planter who's church has become a beacon for many church plants. I recently starting reading his blog and laughed at this one and knew you had to read it. I think that it applies to Piedmont for I hear things like this being said about us. I will give you my thoughts after you read this blog entry.

Apparently I Pulled My Pants Down!!!
Posted: 23 Apr 2008 06:10 AM CDT
OK…so the rumor mill has stirred up another one.

I've heard tons of them…that there is a statue of me in the building, that I preach with my shirt off, that people have to show their tax returns to join our church and that we have a secret parking garage underneath the building. (The last one WOULD be really cool…but no, it’s not true!)

But this last one…when I heard it…I was speechless.

A gentleman in our church knew that God wanted him to join…but before doing so he wanted to have lunch with his soon to be former pastor to thank him for his ministry and share with him that he really felt that God was leading him and his family to begin attending NewSpring Church.

His pastor, upon finding out that the church he was going to be attending was NewSpring, said, “Well Bob (fake name!), you need to be very careful because I know for a fact from a very reliable source that the pastor over there pulled his pants down one Sunday to try to illustrate a point–and I think that is ungodly!”

OK…I know I drink lots of coffee…and that I often say & do crazy things…but I am around 110% sure that I’ve never pulled my pants down–ever! WOW…oh my dang!!!

I thought about that other pastor a lot last weekend. To my knowledge we’ve never met; however, I found it very interesting that he was very willing to assume the worse about me just because he had “a very reliable source.”

Confession–I’ve done the same thing before…all pastors have. We hear something about someone who we perceive to be some sort of threat…and instead of doing our homework we assume it’s true because we want to believe it.

This encounter REALLY taught me a few lessons…


I have found that when you have vision and are trying to impact an area for Christ that many will try to derail you from that vision. If you have no vision people will leave you alone.

I have found that...
If you are not being told that it can't be done...your vision is probably not from God.
If you are not being talked about in good and bad ways...your vision is probably not from God.
If you are not a threat to "professional" Christians...your vision is probably not from God.
If you are not being told to calm down...your vision is probably not from God.
If you do not feel like you will explode unless you do it...your vision is probably not from God.

If you hear any wacky accusation said about Piedmont Church that you know is not true. Don't get mad, just wear is as a badge of honor knowing that it simply means we have a God size vision. Don't play the same game, lets live above it.