This story comes to me from my oldest son, who teaches the adult Sunday school class involved. Names have been changed)
Wilber and Lucy had attended other churches in town, but no one knew that when they started attending Sunday school. From the first Sunday they (especially Lucy) were a problem. She insisted on dominating the entire class with an apparently endless litany of woes about finances, health (she was in a wheelchair), and injustice. The members of the class tried to be sympathetic, but lots of irritation began to show. Subsequent Sundays were repeats.
What to do with Lucy? Several members of the class talked privately, and decided to take the offensive: to redirect Lucy when she started her complaints, or to gently and persistently cut her off with a comment about the lesson topic. That didn’t seem to offend her—she continued to attend. So gradually the class learned to function with her present. Occasionally she would call and ask for transportation to church or to a medical appointment, and someone found time to help. Her litanies became less strident, and less frequent. Class members learned that she had a history of mental illness, and Wilber was a registered sex offender. But they continued to come.
Now three or four years later, they are regular members of the class. The complaints have almost disappeared. One couple assumed the responsibility for seeing that they get to church each week, and occasionally invite them home with them for a meal on special occasions. Others have helped financially from time to time as needed. Some household repairs have been volunteered, and some furniture moved. Lucy has ditched the wheelchair.
Wilber and Lucy will never be “normal” people. They will always be needy, both emotionally and financially. They have blossomed spiritually. Their lives and attitudes have been transformed by a Sunday school class that chose to include them rather than shut them out.
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