Shortly after I was saved, I was the architect for my church's remodeling program. I worked for well over a year getting the redesign perfected and acquiring all the required permits. A church-wide celebration was planned during which the plans were to be revealed. I was very excited to get things going after all the sweat and hours I had devoted to it.
The excitement didn't last long. The sketches and written explanation presented to the church had nothing to do with what I had prepared. I soon learned that a doctor in the church had presented a plan of his own and had offered to donate $100,000 to the program if they scrapped my plans and adopted his. His father was an architect, and it appeared that he thought he had inherited his father's abilities by osmosis.
I learned that the night before, the doctor had secretly met with the building committee and had convinced the members that his offer would save them a lot of money. They simply had to convince the church that there was a major problem with what I had proposed.
That is exactly what happened. A story (which I never saw) was circulated, and I was blamed for the last-minute switch. (And we wonder why new believers or seekers get turned off by "Christianity.") Needless to say, I never stepped foot in that church again. I prepared a letter explaining what really happened, and sent one to every member of the church. I had to set the record straight.
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