by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
IT PAYS TO BE A LOUD-MOUTH
One time while I was preaching in Dallas, Texas, I took time off to drive out to the nearby town of Garland, where I had pastored for nearly seven years. I enjoyed looking at the little city and reliving some wonderful experiences. The biggest blessing of all was driving up and down the streets and pointing to houses where I had won folks to Christ.
I chuckled as I passed one house four doors from the church where I had pastored. I told a friend who was with me the unusual story behind the conversion of this couple.
One Sunday morning a handsome couple walked into our services and said, "We have been hearing you for weeks. We thought we would see what you looked like. We live four houses from the church, and though we are Methodists, we attend church nowhere. We try to sleep on Sunday morning, but we can't sleep because of your hollering. No matter how hard we try, we simply cannot get our rest. Since we have to hear you anyway, we thought we would come to see what you look like."
One evening the next week I went to their home and led them to Jesus Christ. As long as I was Pastor in Garland, they were faithful and loyal members of our church.
They had also become interested in our church as they had seen the people carrying folding chairs across the street between Sunday school and church. We did not have any Sunday school space and had only enough folding chairs for the auditorium. Hence, we borrowed an empty house across the street. People would come to Sunday school and then carry their chairs across the street, leaving the auditorium empty. An hour later the Sunday school pupils would come back across the street bringing their chairs with them. If someone came early to preaching, he had no seat; the building was empty.
The aforementioned couple saw several hundred people carrying chairs across the street from the church, and their curiosity was aroused. Since they had been "hearing" the preaching anyway, whether they liked it or not, they simply had to come and see what was going on.
Maybe it pays to be a loud-mouth after all!
The couple mentioned still faithfully attends the services of their church.
