The former pastor says, “I left three envelopes in your desk. If you have any
trouble, open them.”
Well, of course the new preacher thinks he will never have to use them, but in his
youthful enthusiasm, he tries to change the order the kids march in during Vacation
Bible School.
Well, this makes the workers absolutely furious and there is a lot of ugly talk about
the new pastor. He remembers the envelopes and opens the first one.
It says, “You haven’t been here long, but you decided to make a change in the
Vacation Bible School; now everyone is mad. Tell everyone that the former
preacher had told you this was how you preferred to do it.”
So the young preacher did that and it worked well.
He had been there about a year and a half when he tried to change the deacon
position from being a life-long job to a position that rotated annually.
Well, this made the deacons really mad, and they were the ones who made his
salary recommendation.
So he went back to the drawer and got the second envelope: “You did something
to make the deacons mad and there’s talk of replacing you.
Tell them this is the
Official denominational policy; that you thought they wanted to comply, but it
doesn’t make you any difference what they do.”
He tried this, and again it worked great.
You guesed it. After three years, he finally told the women’s organization that they
were going to have to open the kitchen so that it could be used without a
representative from the women’s group being present.
This put the women’s organization in open revolt. So he went back to that third
and final envelope: “You’ve been here about three years and you finally got the
women’s organization mad. The only thing to do is prepare three envelopes … “