Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Encouragement (among believers) (11/08/07)
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TITLE: Any Church The Twilight Zone | Previous Challenge Entry
By Nathan Perkins
11/09/07 -
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Imagine this world without voices, faces, or any written words of encouragement. Next stop the local church. It may be your “twilight zone.”
Enter Mr. Smith with a world of ideas, hopes, and desires. He lives the fast paced life with little time for anything other then his job.
Today, he walks into a church. It could be any church.
While there, Mr. Smith walks past a man who appears to be stationed as a guard. After receiving a nod, Mr. Smith assumes his entrance has been approved.
Continuing in, he passed a group of very important looking people. Mid-conversation the people in the group turned and noticed Mr. Smith but then turned back to what they were discussing.
Having sensed the formal nature of the group meeting, he continued on into the sanctuary.
Two women whispered about his entrance into the room. He heard his name and saw their heads leaned near each other. With that he searched for his seat.
The sanctuary was full. As Mr. Smith walked the isle, it was as if the people in the pews sensed his approach and moved articles and hymnals into the absent seats beside themselves.
Mr. Smith assumed that these people were expecting friends and relatives to join them.
He journeyed closer to the front and turned around to get a second look. Mr. Smith noticed the quick turn of heads. The faces of everyone quickly diverted from making known that they had been watching.
His eyes scanned the auditorium. One seat remained.
It was on the stage. It also appeared to be more comfortable then the hard benches that everyone else sat on.
He took the first step onto the stage. He waited there and peered around to see how people would respond. They were unashamedly watching him now.
They seemed to smile. So, he took the next step and turned to look again.
All of the heads in the room were raised to see him now.
Some smiled, some whispered and others leaned forward in their seats wondering what would happen next.
There was a tension in the air. The congregants wore faces that seemed to show that they were nervous or maybe embarrassed.
Mr. Smith kept his face turned to the crowd as he continued to move to that lone chair on the stage.
Many eyes traced his steps until he arrived at the open seat.
When he reached to touch it there was an audible gasp and people’s brows began to furrow with concern.
He held his position as if waiting for approval from somewhere to continue to sit.
In the same slow fashion as he approached the chair he lowered himself onto it, inch by inch.
The crowd of people squinted their eyes and turned their heads appearing to shield themselves from some fate.
Caution was too late in coming to Mr. Smith. Though fear crept into his mind as he lowered his form to sit, gravity took over the process and he fell to the soft cushion.
There was a pause of anticipation from everyone. Then BOOM! Colorful confetti flew into the air. The worship leader of the Church jumped on stage and led everyone to sing Happy Birthday to their favorite person; their beloved pastor, Mr. Smith.
Once the festivities settled Pastor Smith carefully approached the pulpit to speak. “I love each of you! I was not sure what had happened today. Everyone was kind of avoiding me. I thought, to myself, that it was quite unusual. You are always so welcoming and caring. But I guess that all changes when you’re scheming about a surprise birthday. Thanks for being so encouraging and loving.
I was going to preach about how to encourage one another. All I can say is that you’re doing a good job, so far. I'll remind you that 1 Thessalonians 2:11 says “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”
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You started out in the present tense, which really contributed to the Twilight Zone-ish mood...then about a third of the way down, you switched to past tense. A quick fix, perhaps?
You really kept up the suspense, and I loved the twist at the end.