This is a good place for a text that speaks to the issue.

There isn’t one.

I’m sorry. (Sorrier than I can tell you. Every preacher would love to have it spelled out in scriptural black and white that the minister can marry certain couples and should decline invitations to join in holy matrimony certain others.)

One of the first eye-openers to hit most beginning pastors is discovering that the Bible does not authorize the minister to marry anyone, much less whom and under what conditions.

I recall my surprise on finding that the Bible contains no wedding ceremonies. None, nada. It is not silent about marriage, but completely mute on weddings (well, other than the fact that Jesus catered the wine for one in Cana of Galilee, but as a card-totin’ Southern Baptist, I am not going there!).

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Let’s consider what follows as simply an honest admission, a confession-is-good-for-the-soul, that sort of thing.  Having highlighted our preferred events at church, it makes sense to give the dark side and say what we don’t like. So, for better or for worse, here goes…

I dislike church fights and arguments.

“Who does?” you say. Apparently, there are people who thrive on them. I’m not a member of that fraternity.

The church fights I have experienced are some of the most painful memories of my half-century of ministry. How do I hate thee, O church fights? Let me count the ways….

–That church business meeting on whether to cancel the Sunday night radio broadcast to save a few dollars, I was merely a spectator, but it was painful to see. The pastor and one group wanted to keep the program as it was drawing people to church; the finance committee and their group insisted the church could not afford it.

–One fight focused on “opening the doors of the church” to members of minority races.  I still grieve at the ugliness some good people demonstrated.

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My favorite place in church is the altar area. Sometimes, when I was pastoring, in the middle of a weekday, I would slip in and kneel there and spend time with the Lord. These days, whether I’m guest-preaching or in our home church in Kenner, I love to kneel at the altar and pray, and I often encourage others to do so.

The question arises as to “Why? What makes that place special?” After all, even though we call it the “altar,” it isn’t, not in the Old Testament sense or even the New Testament sense. Calvary is the ultimate altar for believers. The only answer I can find is: “I don’t know. I just know I need it and love it.”

What I do not understand is believers who never come to the altar and pray. It seems that only the most spiritually sensitive do, and I sure want to be among that number.

I love, love, love those times in church when for reasons unknown the congregational singing comes together like never before and everyone is singing at the top of their voices, the hymns are circulating around the room, bouncing off the ceiling and coming back to fill us, and our souls are lifted. It feels like we have touched the hem of the garment of our Lord, and makes us long for Heaven all that much more.

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“Speaking the truth in love.”  (Ephesians 4:15)

Facebook members are well acquainted with the way some who call themselves Christians can be brutal in the way they present truth to the world.

Their words are usually on target but their spirits are harsh and unloving. They defend the biblical family but damn anyone with a different point of view. They affirm the right of the unborn to live while consigning the “pro-choicers” to the farthest reaches of Hades. They hear that someone is making a film or writing a book or giving a speech against Jesus as Scripture presents Him and they lose their Christianity attacking such blasphemers.

Such people do more damage to the Lord’s cause than good.

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Sometimes, what makes an article, a conversation, or a sermon interesting is giving the dark side, the reverse of the ideal picture you had been presenting.

On this blog, I’ve been presenting “a few of my favorite things” (also people and places). That list would be incomplete–and probably boring–without a nod to the opposites, some things that we find most uncomfortable and unpleasing.  No doubt, we’ll think of others, but here is the list this Thursday morning, the last day of January in the year of our Lord 2013.

1) I dislike movies or books that were enjoyable until the makers decided to insert a sex scene to increase their sales.

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(I started this little series–my favorite things–a few days ago, and promised to end with this piece on my favorite places. We all have our favorite places. Here are some of mine, in no particular order.

Chartwell, the country home of Winston Churchill.

We were there in 1982 and I recall every detail of the visit. Roaming the campus, it was fascinating to see the brick walls Churchill himself had built (after working to learn how) during the 1930s when he was basically unemployed.  William Manchester’s second volume of the trilogy “The Last Lion” chronicles this period in WC’s life as “Alone.”  While we were there, I bought a book on Churchill and had Margaret snap my photo sitting under a tree reading it.  These days, I’m reading a book “Dining with Churchill” in which the author talks about the many meals at Chartwell attended by the greats of the world, what they ate and talked about, how those experiences affected history, etc. (In my den, you’ll find an entire shelf filled with books on Churchill. I’ve had to be more selective in buying more since several new ones come out every year, with no sign of stopping.)

Nauvoo, Alabama the family farmhouse and the surrounding environs.

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