“He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat.” Proverbs 28:25

 

You might think to yourself, “What could be dangerous about Dairy Queen”? That is what I used to think as well.  I mean, other than an exploding waistline from eating too much or perhaps explosive diarrhea if you happen to be lactose intolerant (which I am not, thank the Lord) what in the world could be bad about Dairy Queen?  Who doesn’t like a good blizzard every now and then, and they make the best Carmel Malts in the world (try one sometime and you will agree). Some time ago my thoughts on this subject changed…

 

Not to long after the singing incident occurred (Making a Joyful Noise, if you have not read it) we relocated from the east coast to the Midwest to be more centrally located for our rapidly expanding ministry.  This was the first of many moves, it is kind of funny now that I think about it, but having preached in 33 states and driven through several others we have only ever really lived in three, but two of the three we have been residents of 3 different times and the other twice.

 

 Anyway here we are brand new to the Midwest (Like 3 days if I remember right) and we are in our fist church service.  The services were great, the people were friendly, there was a full house on a Sunday night, So this is what it is like in the Bible belt I think.  After the crowd thins out and we begin to pack up our stuff the pastor says “you wanna go to Dairy Queen” ?  Yes is my response without hesitation (after all, asking an overweight Baptist Preacher if he wants to eat Ice Cream is like asking if the Pope is Catholic).  So we go right down the road to the Old DQ, in the Midwest every town has one, and most serve breakfast.  The pastor says to me “Get whatever you want” a move about as dangerous as taking Imelda Marcos shoe shopping.  I step up with a large cookie dough blizzard, the rest of the family gets their Ice Cream and then the pastor and I sit at one booth while every one else grabs another. About 2 bites in, he begins to unload all of the problems he inherited in this church, (he had not been pastor long, and the previous pastor had left amid a scandal, none of which I knew before now). The more Ice cream I eat the worse it gets and then he asks the $64,000 question-“what should I do”?  Being young and fresh out of Bible College, I had not a clue, I don’t remember what I said but I am sure it was far from profound.

 

In the years that have followed I have had more than one pastor bear his soul over a blizzard.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind.  A huge part of helping struggling churches is to try to help struggling pastors. I understand this, and God has allowed us to help several pastors work through some major issues and gain victories.  I wish they were all success stories, but sadly they are not.

 

I guess I said all of that to say this: If we are in your church and after a service you say “hey let’s go to Dairy Queen” and you wonder why the whole family gets a strange look on our faces…. Now you know.