Overtime for Sunday, January 9, 2010

I spoke on gossip this weekend. There are several overtime points I want to share that were not on your note sheet.

• The information shared between the gossips does not have to be FALSE to be gossip. It just has to be illegal. As Rick Warren says, "Gossip is passing on information when you are neither part of the problem nor part of the solution.
• Gossip destroys true fellowship in the church. See Proverbs 26:2o

I also want to share the entire "Confetti" story here. When I found this story in a Bible Computer Program Illustration years ago the story used chicken feathers. For the purposes of our worship experience at Church on the Hill, I changed chicken feathers to confetti. Here's the story:

One time a lady, the biggest gossiper in her church, heard an especially juicy tidbit about her pastor. After she had passed the story on to a number of people in town, she found out that the rumor was false. The lady went to her pastor to apologize and ask for his forgiveness. She said that she would go back to all the people and tell them it was just a false story. The pastor agreed to forgive her, but he said that he wanted her to do something for him. He told her to go and get a sack full of chicken feathers (confetti) , take it to the main intersection of town, throw those feathers into the wind, and then come back and report to him. The lady thought it was a strange request and hesitated, but agreed to do it anyway. She did as her pastor requested and then went back to his office. "Now," said the pastor, "go back downtown and gather all those feathers again. The lady replied, "But pastor, there is no way I could ever do that. The wind has carried them all over town." The pastor smiled sadly and said, "That's true. It's the same way when you tell a story about someone else. There is no way to go around and take back what has been said."

Have a great day!