Wedding Pastor
The
state we were in had complicated legal procedures for a wedding, but Kentucky
didn't and had several Christian bed and breakfasts that offered
'elopement'
wedding packages that enabled showing up, getting married, staying in one of their
honeymoon suites, and then checking out the next day. We made reservations at one
of them, I bought her a wedding dress and rented a tuxedo but couldn't find a
simple wedding band for me even though we scoured all of the stores in
the city that sold wedding bands.
The day before we were to make the long drive to Kentucky, the owner of the rural bed and breakfast informed me that she had been unable to find the requested pastor from a conservative denomination to officiate; were we okay with the pastor from a liberal denomination whom she knew was available? I told her no, and that I will call around her area and get a pastor whose theology we like, and then began to search for, qualify and call pastors in her area.
I introduced myself and Kristin to the first pastor I reached by phone, explained that we are two vocational missionaries who recently returned from the field, are going to wed at a bed and breakfast near his church, had rejected a pastor from a liberal denomination as we wanted a Biblical pastor to officiate our wedding, which would be just one hour long and involve just the two of us, the officiating pastor and one witness, and asked if I could gift him $100 to take an hour of his time to officiate our wedding.
He was cordial and listened patiently until I said "$100," at which point he said he wasn't interested and hung up. The same thing happened with the second pastor I was able to reach. When I asked the third pastor, "If you were to officiate at our wedding, how much could I gift you for being so kind as to take an hour of your time?" he replied whatever I felt led to gift. When I replied, "Would $100 be ok?" he paused, and then repeated in a disappointed tone that it was whatever I felt led to gift, and then immediately changed his mind and said he wasn't interested.
Really? Had I been the pastor of a conservative church and heard from two recently returned missionaries who called me because they didn't want to be married by a liberal pastor, I would have considered it my privilege to officiate their wedding, offered to do it for free, and even invited them to my church to give them a church wedding. Yet all these pastors cared about was money. And did pastors in rural Kentucky really make more than $100 an hour?
I did reach the pastor of a non-denominational church who seemed eager to officiate, but before I could mention the money, he boasted that we won't have to worry about the wife obeying the husband and stuff like that in the Bible because he won't talk about them since times have changed. I told him that the Bible hasn't changed and quickly ended the call. I then realized that I would also have to write out what the officiating pastor should say instead of trusting him to say whatever he wanted to say, and began to write it in between the calls to the pastors.