How A TV Celebrity Crashed A Church Service
He disrupted the church service by climbing a ladder!
The photo above shows the stained glass window of a church in Queensland Australia. It's a photo of the main window at Buderim Uniting Church. The photo shows the window from the outside. Come with me to that Buderim church on one particular Sunday morning … the day I took a TV celebrity with me … his name: Mr Monk.
This is a true story, though you might find it difficult to believe that Mr Monk, (an American TV character), could possibly appear in an Australian church with me, live!
Well he did … he really did … I took him there one Sunday morning. This is true story, and I will reveal all the details later. But first:
An introduction to Mr Monk:
You need to know a little bit about Mr Monk as a person, to understand just why I wanted him to come to Buderim Church on that particular Sunday morning. Mr Monk is something of an ‘obsessive perfectionist’.
Here is a potted summary of the man:
Adrian Monk, a former homicide detective and a consultant for the San Francisco Police Department suffers from an extreme case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and his various fears and phobias include (but are not limited to) heights, snakes, crowds, glaciers, rodeos, wind, and even milk.
He’s the sort of person who can’t walk down the street without the need to touch every lamp post on the way … perhaps you can relate to that (especially if, when you were a child, you couldn’t walk down a street without avoiding the cracks and joints in the pavers). Maybe you still do that now! Anyway, I’m sure you’ve got the mini-picture of Mr Monk, The Obsessive.
Why I asked Mr Monk to come to church with me:
One of Mr Monk’s pet anxieties is shown in his reaction to seeing anything that is not neat-and-evenly-spaced … anything that is out-of-kilter ... and at the church in Buderim there’s one thing I just had to show him. The church window (from the inside).
Take another look at the window from outside and inside (with the sun shining through). Can you see any feature of the window’s design that might upset Mr Monk? Of course, you can, but if you’re a bit slow, the photo’s caption has the answer.
You can probably guess now, why I invited Mr Monk to go to church with me! I wanted him to see the window, and I wanted to watch his reaction.
Cruel I know, but there was an underlying serious purpose to my invitation. You see, I was the preacher at that morning’s service and the theme of my sermon was to be: ‘Make Jesus The Centre of Your Life’.
I suppose I could have achieved my objective without involving Mr Monk, but I wanted to make a big impact … to leave the congregation in no doubt about what was the sermon’s message, and so, I used Mr Monk. Here’s my story. It really did happen … this is a true story:
The Story of Mr Monk … ‘When Mr Monk Went To Church’:
I arrived at the church that Sunday morning well before the service was due to start so that I could do a little preparation.
First, I hid a specially-chosen item behind the huge curtain at the very front of the church, behind the preacher's pulpit, and alongside the window with the cross of Christ.
I also had a brief chat with the church’s regular minister Brian Nagel, to prime him for what was going to happen.
When it came time to deliver the sermon, I rose to the pulpit and began with a welcome remark; a short prayer; and the theme & title of my sermon: I said: “ Today’s sermon is titled: ‘Make Jesus The Centre of Your Life’ ”
I then continued in my usual style, with a funny story to get the congregation warmed-up and on my side (a well-worn strategy used by all good speakers), and then I started to develop my theme, eventually focussing on, and repeating, the sermon’s title: ‘Make Jesus The Centre of Your Life’. This sentence was used many times in the first five minutes or so.
Once that statement was well-established in the congregation’s mind-set, I said that I wanted to tell them a side-story about a friend of mine called Mr Monk, a man who had obsessions, (and I gave them much the same mini-info that I’ve shared with you already). I then said something like: ‘Mr Monk is in fact waiting outside the church right now!’, but I did say it with a smirky-smile on my face so that they wouldn’t really believe me. (as no-doubt, you don’t!).
What happened next was ‘The revelation’ (forgive the religious pun). I put in place the plan that I had secretly told the church minister about just before the start of the service. I’d asked him to step in and continue the service when I planned to leave the pulpit mid-way through the sermon. He didn’t know what I was going to do, but he trusted me, and he dutifully took over (and had a chat with them) whilst I went to find Mr Monk.
The congregation was focussed on Brian, when I quietly sat down amongst them … but not for long … I rose to my feet and shouted loudly towards the minister in the pulpit: ‘Sir, sir, there’s something wrong. I’m a visitor to your church today, my name is Monk, and I’ve just noticed something very wrong (pointing towards the window with the cross). I’d like to fix it.’
As you can imagine, the congregation was not expecting this, nor were they ready for what Mr Monk did next.
‘Mr Monk’ left his place in the pews; strode up to the front of the church; mounted the steps and went right up to the wall with the stained glass window. He then disappeared behind the huge curtain on the left, from where he reappeared carrying a large, very tall, wooden step ladder. (the item that I had secretly hidden before the service began).
You can guess what happened next. Yes, Mr Monk placed the ladder below the stained glass window and climbed up to the top. He probably looked like Jack in the beanstalk as he pointed to the actual cross, shouting out: “See, Its not central; Its not central”.
Do I really need to tell you what happened next when Mr Monk descended the ladder and handed over his identity to me? Of course not … you’ve already worked it out haven’t you?
That morning, the congregation left that church with ‘Make Jesus The Centre of Your Life’ firmly fixed in their collective and (hopefully) individual minds.
The message had been delivered:
Make Jesus The Centre of Your Life
Make Jesus The Centre of Your Life
Make Jesus The Centre of Your Life
Postscript for followers, believers, agnostics & atheists:
WARNING! You may choose to follow a particular life-belief … a particular religion; a certain philosophy; or maybe no central focus at all, but whoever and whatever you are, there’s a good chance that you will have tried to change your life at some stage in order to become better, different, perhaps even perfect. You may even be doing that right now.
You may even believe that you absolutely ‘know’ that you’ve got it right.
Well … beware, If you have the time, try out this other story, but first, if you liked the Mr Monk story do a quick scroll down and clap & comment using the icons at the end. Then, read this other story: ‘You Can Be Changed … You Can Begin Again… But Beware’
***********************
“When Mr. Monk Went to Church” is written by Fred: writer on Medium * * * * * © Fred Ogden 2022 * * * * * To see other Religion & Philosophy stories from Fred, you can use this link.
‘When Mr. Monk Went To Church’:
* * * (Feel free to share it on social media if that’s your scene) * * *
You can also Clap & Comment (via icons at top or bottom of this article)
******************************************
NAVIGATION PANEL: TO EVERYTHING FRED: (clickable links)
- All You Need to Know About Fred (including an Index to Fred’s Stories)
- New Index to ALL Fred’s Story Collections
- Get Fred’s new stories delivered to your email inbox … There’s no charge
- Fred’s Email: [email protected]
******************************************
- Follow Fred on Medium: 👉 Fred’s Follow-button (top of all his stories), and he’ll click YOUR ‘follow’ button if he finds your stories appealing.
