Everything in ministry isn’t serious, and a sense of humor is one of the most important attributes for staying healthy in ministry. Every time I read the Apostle Paul’s saying that God chose the foolish things of this world (1 Cor. 1:27), I’m reminded not to take myself too seriously.

There’s a hilarious story in the Bible where Paul preaches for so long that a guy falls asleep, topples out of a window and dies. (Acts 20:7-12). Now, you might think I have a macabre sense of humor to find that funny, but where the story becomes really hilarious is when Paul brings the guy back to life, and then keeps on preaching until morning.

This story loosely reminds me of a time in my own ministry as a youth pastor. I had planned a scavenger hunt at a church in Edmonton on a night where the temperature dropped to minus twenty. But since I had a number of youth coming, I was not about to cancel. My team consisted of several people who had to stand at different outside locations and hand out clues to the scavengers. When the event was over, everyone was to come back to the church for hot chocolate and to hear a sermon from me. Like Paul, as I droned on and on, one of my team members, who had been outside handing out clues, walked in shaking with a face full of icicles. Through chattering teeth he interrupted my sermon and asked, “Is the game over yet?”

I’d sent this guy to a nearby soccer field at the beginning of the game, but forgot to send someone to tell him when the game was over! I quickly wrapped up my talk as I started to pump him full of hot chocolate with much apologizing. It was not quite raising someone from the dead, but pretty close.

From this church I moved to my next church for my first senior pastor position. During the interview process I told them that I was able to get a lot of ministry experience as a youth pastor, but that I had not yet conducted a funeral. They replied, “Don’t worry. We don’t anticipate anyone in our church dying soon.”^[1] After three days in my new job, someone died!

On the day of the funeral I discovered a different side to the stiff demeanor of your typical funeral director. As we stood side-by-side after the service, guiding the pall-bearers carrying the casket to the hearse, I modeled my walk after the same serious steps of the funeral director. But as soon as I got into the hearse with him, and closed the door, he became a different person. He turned the radio up, looked at me, and started cracking jokes about death!

“Have you heard the one about the lawyer who emailed his client overseas: ‘Your mother-in-law just passed away in her sleep. Shall we order burial, embalming or cremation?’ The reply he got back said, ‘Take no chances, order all three.’”

After I gave a little chuckle he launched into another. “I’ve always wondered how a cemetery can raise its burial charges and blame it on the cost of living?”

This continued until we reached the grave site and Mr. Funny guy became Mr. Formality again.^[2] But then Mr. Formality/Funny Guy changed into Mr. Frustration.

As we started driving around the cemetery, I knew something was wrong when Mr. Funny Formality grabbed his cell phone and started yelling, “Where? I don’t see it? What are you talking about? Well, someone &$^%#ing screwed up! No! You &^%^ing deal with it!!!”

“Ahhh, what’s wrong?” I sheepishly asked when he hung up.

“They @$#@$ing forgot to dig the grave!”

“Ohhh…Kaay!? That’s bad, right?” I replied.

As I looked out the back window of the hearse and saw the family and dozens of cars pulling in for the graveside service, I asked, “So…., what do we do now?”

“Not we,” he replied, “You. You’re going to have to &^%&^ing go out there and &*^%ing tell the family they’ll have to *&^%%ing come back later.”

This was Mr. Filthy Mouth Fuming Frustration. Talk about multiple personality disorder.

I did as he suggested. Fortunately, this was an easy going family able to roll with things. They even thought the deceased would have loved the situation. So we headed back to the church, had lunch, and came back later when the grave had been dug. I never did ask. But I sure hope the funeral home gave the man a free burial.

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^[1] There’s a verse in James that talks about saying, “If the Lord wills,” when discussing the future. They should have heeded that when they told me this. 

^[2] This was back in the day when, after the funeral service, everyone drove out to the graveyard for a burial service.