Joe’s been coming to your church forever. He and his wife sit at the end of the third row from the
back, a holdover from when their kids were small and he or Cheryl might have
had occasion to escort one or the other out discreetly mid-service.
It’s fifteen years later now; the boy is off to college and the daughter is about to be. And Joe
and Cheryl still sit in the third row from the back.
More importantly, to all appearances fifteen years have changed nothing substantial in Joe’s
relationship with the Lord, and definitely nothing about how he relates to
the Lord’s people.