Second Sunday (34 page)

Reading Group Guide

1. Upon the death of Rev. Forbes, the Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church found itself with the need for a pastor. The women
of the church became frustrated at being excluded in the search process. Should they have held their peace or were they right
to plan their own little revolution? How would you argue a woman’s right to have a say or the biblical requirement for women
to be silent in the church?
Read Numbers 30; 1 Timothy 2:8-15; Numbers 27; Matthew 28:1-10; Galatians 3:26-29.

2. How do the criteria for pastor and the procedure utilized by the search committee of Gethsemane compare to what the Bible
suggests?
Read 1 Samuel 16:6-7, 13; Acts 1:14-15, 21-25; Acts 6:5-6; 1 Timothy 3:1-7.

3. What is your opinion of some of the candidates? Which ones were more suitable and which ones were unqualified? Has finding
appropriate pastors and church leaders always been a problem or is it something that has become more of a challenge in modern
times?
Read Matthew 7:15-20; Acts 13: 6-12; Acts 8:9-24; Philippians 1:12-18.

4. a. The American Worship Center represents a now established trend in modern church growth: large, multiethnic congregations
with leadership that is controlled by one race. Are there reasons why Christians should practice cross-cultural worship?
Read Isaiah 11:6-9; Isaiah 56:1-8; Acts 2:1-11; Romans 10:12-13; Romans 15:7-13.

b. Are there reasons why churches should maintain cultural identity?
Read Isaiah 60:1-3; Mark 7:24-30; Acts 6:1.

c. How might Christians promote the kingdom of God in the world by the way they engage in cross-cultural relationships in
the church?
Read Matthew 22:34-40; 1 John 2:7-11.

5. At Gethsemane, Sheba had four children without a husband and Bertha was pregnant without a husband. Many black churches
have a high percentage of single mothers within the congregation. Historically, women have borne the guilt and shame of sexual
sin. Why are men relieved of responsibility while women are made to suffer?
Read Deuteronomy 22:13-21; Numbers 5:11-31; 2 Samuel 13:1-20.

6. How should sexual sin be handled in the church? Should it be thought of differently from any other sin?
Read Matthew 7:1-5; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13; Romans 3:21-24
.

7. Bertha left her church because of guilt and shame. How do women begin to release the burden of guilt and shame produced
by sexual sin, whether forced, coerced, or consensual? How do women begin the healing process?

a.
Pray—Psalm 51

b.
Remember God forgives—Psalm 103:1-14

c.
Know that nothing can separate you from God—Romans 8:31-39

d.
Love yourself—Matthew 22:34-40

e.
Be self-controlled—1 Corinthians 7:8-9

f.
Do not stir up love until it is ready!—Song of Solomon 3:1-5

8. Mozelle and Oscar represent a pattern in marriage in which the wife lives in abject submission to her husband. The marriage
of Nettie and Bert demonstrates a different model. S
ECOND SUNDAY
portrays the happiest marriages as those wherein partnership is practiced. Is this biblical?
Read 1 Corinthians 7:3-5; Philippians 2:1-4; Ephesians 4:1-6, 14-16; Ephesians 5:21-33; Acts 18:12, 18, 24-26.

9. As that final meeting at Gethsemane demonstrates, church meetings can be challenging. Is conflict bad? How can churches
carry out their business without resorting to violent or manipulative tactics?
Read Amos 3:3; Matthew 5:9; Matthew 18:15-20; Psalm 133; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-23; Philippians 2:14-15.

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Y
vonne moved to a more comfortable chair and got settled just as a pulsating, high praise song came on while still photos of
Grady Grey, along with his wife, First Lady, Prophetess Linda Grey and their four children, flashed across the screen. The
choir, which had roughly eighteen members on the set, sounded like a powerful seventy-five voice mass choir.

Their attire was simple, neat, and on the conservative side of ‘ghetto fabulous.’ The women were dressed in black, oxford
styled cotton shirts, white, knee-length, A-line skirts, black stockings, and white flats with black patent leather bows on
the toe. The men wore the same styled shirts, baggy fitting, khaki pants worn low on the hips, and black Timberlands.

Yvonne, who had never paid any attention to the ‘Half an Hour of Holy Ghost Power’ when her kids were watching it, said,

“Do they have on white skirts and black stockings?”

“Shhh!” was the only answer she got.

Those black stockings up under those white skirts got a rise out of Yvonne. But she had to scoot her chair up closer to the
TV screen to get a better look at the pastor and first lady, who were dressed in a vivid display of ‘urban fashion-wear’ that
could only be purchased at the stores you didn’t even know existed until you passed them on the way to your Cousin ‘Naye Naye’
and ‘Boo Boo’ and ‘June Bug’ and ’nem’s house.

First off, they only adorned themselves in matching his and her ‘Saint Suits’ in turquoise, red, powder blue, hot pink, lemon
yellow, peach, and purple. On this particular show, Linda Grey was wearing a lime green, brocade satin suit, with a matching
lime green hat, shoes, and stockings. The hat had a very flat crown with a wide brim that had been fashioned from yards of
pleated lime green satin that was further accentuated with the rhinestones that were sprinkled across the entire hat. Apostle
Grady Grey had on a lime green clerical robe with a silver collar and cuffs that had been made from the same bolt of fabric
used to make his wife’s suit. His shoulder length Jheri Curl was freshly done and styled so that the silver sprinkled lightly
through his hair picked up on the silver on his robe.

“Elaine, people still give curls?”

Elaine sighed and nodded in resignation—seemed like the Jheri Curl would never, ever go away. No matter how hard she prayed
for black men who used to be slick 1980s players to be delivered of this affliction, the good Lord had yet to answer her prayer
and take this ‘thorn’ away.

The song faded and Grady Grey stood before the cameras with such a warm and sincere smile spreading across his face, it almost
made you want to forget that he was standing on TV dressed like the Starsky and Hutch character, Huggie Bear’s second cousin
on his mama’s side.

“Durham, North Carolina, I greet you in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I don’t know what the weather
is like for those of you watching this show. But all I can say is that God is so good because He has blessed me with a beautiful
day. I mean it, viewers. Today is gorgeous.

“And let me tell you a lil’ somethin’-somethin’—if you’ve ever been in a place where you can’t see the sky, you’ll never ever
fall short of praising God for a beautiful day again. We have the sick and shut in, and people in jails and prisons around
this great state who would give anything to walk outside and feel the warm rays of the sun bathing their faces.”

“He is so flamboyant,” Rochelle said. “But it is the strangest thing. The man is for real when it comes to the Lord, and just
as humble and sweet when you run up on him in Durham.”

“Yeah,” Elaine agreed. “Everybody who meets Grady in person, says that he is the sweetest and kindest man they have ever met.”

“Well, that is nothing but the truth,” Miss Hattie Lee chimed in. “I remember Grady being sweet when he was working out of
that shed. He always gave his older customers an extra senior discount, he personally delivered their stuff to their houses,
set up any equipment that required assembly, and would come back and make sure everything was okay from time to time.”

Grady moved to a new part of his set, where the chairs were set up talk-show style—and sat down opposite a short, stocky man,
whose arms were so thick and muscular, they looked like they were about to rip the arms of the suit he was wearing in two.

“What does that man have on?” Yvonne asked.

Rochelle, the girls, and even her parents kept telling her to watch this show. But she had been too busy, or absorbed in something
‘important’ to come and watch it with them. Now she wished that she’d listened because this thing was getting good.

“A silver lamé, three-piece suit with a black satin shirt and tie,” Rochelle answered, mesmerized at the shiny suit and how
the set lights kept bouncing prisms of color off of it.

“Dang, if that sucker don’t look hot,” Elaine said, fanning herself.

“That’s Huge Hotsy, right?” Miss Hattie Lee said.

“Big Dotsy. Dotsy Hamilton,” Rochelle and Elaine said in unison.

“Well how come my baby, Grady Grey, know somebody who is dressed like he ’bout to go to the club in outer space?”

“He was Grady’s cell mate back in prison,” Elaine said. “Dotsy ended up going back to jail and then doing some more prison
time. But Grady always kept up with him and didn’t let up on ministering to him until he got saved.”

“Shhh,” Rochelle said. “Big Dotsy is getting ready to give his testimony.”

Elaine turned up the TV.

Big Dotsy, now Elder Dotsy Hamilton, grinned at the camera, pulled out a silver lamé handkerchief and wiped the glistening
sweat off of his bald head, before saying,

“Some of you out there in the viewing audience may have already heard this testimony if you’ve ever visited Jubilee Temple
Holiness Church II. So, bear with me because the Lord told me this morning that I had to say this one more time. And I don’t
go against what the Lord tells me to do, no matter how small or simple that request might seem to me. See, I spent a life-time
of cutting the fool and ignoring the Lord, and I am not trying to go back to that craziness.

“People, God has been good to me. I have been delivered and set free of the hold the Devil had on me. I know you can tell,
just by looking at me that I used to like reefers, cheap wine, and women who’d let me
hit that
giving them some Cold Duck and a few drags off a joint.

“But worse than that was my need to beat up people and shoot at them. Whew, that thang was some fun. I never took drugs stronger
than the reefers ’cause nothing gave me a thrill like starting up my car, and running a nig . . . oops . . . a man down the
street while I shot at him out of my car window.”

Big Dotsy stopped talking and sat back in the chair and closed his eyes in remembrance of those times. When it appeared as
if he wasn’t going to come back from that memory, Apostle Grady Grey shouted, “GONE ARE THE THINGS OF THE PAST.”

Big Dotsy snapped his eyes open and continued.

“Now, I want you good people to know that I never had a desire to kill anybody. I’ve shot more than my fair share of folks.
But I can stand here today and tell you that not a one of them died or was seriously injured. And by that, I mean none of
my people are in wheelchairs or experiencing a loss of their most important faculties.”

At that point, Linda Grey eased over to Dotsy and slipped him a crumpled piece of paper. He grinned into the camera and said,
“Hol’ up,” and read the note. He looked back into the camera and said,

“Durham, it looks as if God wants to keep me honest. And I have to confess an oversight. I never killed anybody or put somebody
in a wheelchair. But I did interfere with one brother’s faculties. I was trying to pistol whip him and he wouldn’t stop hollering
or keep still. So, I had to shoot him right near the corner of his mouth.”

Dotsy pointed to the area on his own mouth, that crease-part where the top and bottom lips were connected to the jaw.

“His mouth ain’t never set quite right since that unfortunate incident. And he drools just a tiny bit when he drinks too much,
sees a sister with a big booty, or gets excited about something, like winning fifty dollars on a scratch-off lottery ticket.
But he don’t have to worry about money again. ’Cause I went to prison on account of that, when I pleaded guilty so he could
win his insurance case ’cause the hospital didn’t treat him in a timely matter because he was a known thug.”

He started crying, trying to wipe his face dry with that ineffective piece of shiny silver cloth. Finally, one of the choir
members ran over and gave him a black face cloth. Dotsy wiped his face and head and fell to his knees.

“Durham, I am a sinner saved by grace. I’ve been the henchmen for people who didn’t want to get their hands dirty but needed
some help with folks who were being irreverent towards them. Now, I know you Saints out there are wondering why criminals
would be insulted by irreverence. But that ain’t the point. The people they sent me after got hooked up with those people
on their own accord. And we all know that when you make deals with the devil, you will have to pay your debt one way or another.”

All of a sudden Dotsy got still and quiet like a very important fact had just occurred to him. He stood back up and got right
up on the camera.

“Durham, I want you to know that even though I am telling you the stuff I used to do in a testimony, there is a whole lot
I don’t recollect anymore. I asked God to cleanse my memory of all details of my former life and He answered my prayer. And
if you don’t believe me, you can come over to Jubilee Temple II any day and give me a lie detector test.”

Apostle Grady Grey ran up to the camera and said, “That ain’t nothing but the truth. We have given Elder Dotsy five of these
tests by three different top-rate companies, and he don’t remember a thing. God has completely healed his mind of the past.”

Dotsy looked relieved at Grady’s revelation. He said,

“I know that I don’t look or act like a regular saved man. But I want to tell you people that God brought me here to be a
testimony to all of the brothers in jail, and brothers out there acting like they are trying to go to jail. So, for you Saints
who’ve always been blessed with the good sense to act right, what I’m about to say and do next, ain’t for you. Yall will have
to wait until the next broadcast when somebody who fits the bill for you is on the show.”