19

Did you get the key back from Sam?” Bea Majors asked Dale Hinshaw at the elders’ meeting. They were meeting twice a week now, organizing the pastoral search.

“He said he’d leave it in the meeting mailbox, but he hasn’t,” Dale reported. “If we don’t get it by noon today, I’m calling the police.”

Miriam Hodge had been gone from the church less than two days and things were already a mess. Dale Hinshaw had staged a coup, disbanded every committee but his, and seized the church’s computer to review the giving records.

“Here’s a list of who gave what to the church,” he said, distributing a list of donors around the table. “Now we’ll find out who really loves the Lord.”

“The nerve of that Owen Stout,” Opal Majors sniffed. “Strutting around here like he owns the place and he didn’t give a hundred dollars last year.”

“I had no idea Miriam and Ellis gave that much money,” Bea Majors observed. “Look, Dale, they gave more than you did. Maybe we ought to try and get them back.”

“They’ve gone over to Satan,” Dale said. “Leave ’em be.”

“Actually, I heard they were at the Methodist church this past Sunday,” Opal said.

“Ellis’s grandmother was a Methodist. I always knew he wouldn’t stick with us,” Bea said.

“Dale, I thought you said you’d give more this year since we hired your granddaughter,” Opal asked.

“She was here less than a month and now she’s quit.”

“But you said when we hired her that you were going to put half her yearly salary in the plate that very week,” Opal said. “I don’t see it here. Do you see it, Bea?”

“That’s nobody’s business,” Dale said. “That’s between me and the Lord. Now let’s get down to business. The superintendent has given me some résumés of ministers looking for jobs. Let’s look them over.”

“I don’t want a woman preacher,” Opal said. “It just doesn’t seem right.”

“The Bible is clear on that,” Dale said. “First Corinthians, fourteenth chapter, thirty-fourth verse. Women are to be silent in church.”

“I agree,” said Bea Majors, who had never been silent in church or anywhere else.

“That leaves us three candidates. Two of them went to seminary. I don’t want them.”

“That’s the last thing we need, another know-it-all,” Opal said.

Dale scanned the remaining résumé. “Hey, this looks promising. This fella went to the Lester Hickam Bible College in Chattanooga. Paul Fletcher. Fifty-six years old. Good and seasoned. I bet he wouldn’t marry two women. Named for an apostle, too.”

“It says here he’s pastored fourteen churches in ten years,” Opal pointed out. “Should that worry us?”

“I bet he’s not an ear-tickler,” Dale said. “Probably preached the Word and people couldn’t take it. I like the cut of his jib. Let’s hire him.”

“Shouldn’t we interview him first?” Bea asked.

“Well, I suppose we can, but that would be relying on the wisdom of man instead of trusting the Holy Spirit,” Dale said. “Are you doubting the Holy Spirit, Bea?”

“Oh, no.”

“Then it’s settled. Let’s call him and see when he can start.”

“Doesn’t the rest of the church have to approve it?” Opal asked. “In the past, the whole church had to agree when we hired a new pastor.”

“Where in the Bible does it say that?” Dale asked.

“It says so in our Faith and Practice,” Opal said.

“Well, if you want to take man’s word over God’s word, that’s your choice,” Dale said. “But I know where I stand.”

“Well, I guess it’s all right, then,” Opal said.

“How much are we going to pay him?” Bea asked.

“We’ll ask him what he needs,” Dale said. “But if he’s the man of God I think he is, it won’t matter to him. Do you think Billy Graham ever made people pay him before he preached to them? Did Jesus ever ask for money? I don’t think so.”

“Remember last year when Sam asked for a raise?” Bea said. “That didn’t set well with me at all. It’s like he wasn’t trusting the Lord to provide.”

“We’re lucky to be shed of him,” Dale said. “I think he was the main reason this church wasn’t growing more.”

They chewed on Sam another hour, then phoned Paul Fletcher to tell him that after much prayer, the Lord had brought him to their attention.

Dale told him, “One minute we’d never heard of you, then the next minute it was like the Lord said, ‘This is my servant, with whom I am well pleased.’ ”

“Well, let me tell you what happened, Brother Dale. Not one hour ago, the Lord Himself laid a burden on my heart for the town of Harmony. And I told the Lord, I said, ‘Lord, if that’s where you want me to go, that’s where I’ll go.’ ”

“Praise the Lord,” Dale said.

They praised the Lord back and forth a few more minutes, agreed to pay Brother Paul ten thousand more dollars than Sam had ever made, then sent an e-mail to the meeting announcing the happy news.