Pastor ties church burglary to Advent season
Wednesday, 05 December 2007
by Peter Bodley
Managing editor of Coon Rapids Herald Newspaper
Church sermons are usually based on a passage or passages from the Bible.
Not Rev. Richard Lindeman’s sermon at Olive Branch Lutheran Church, Coon Rapids, Sunday.
Instead, it focused on an incident at the church the Sunday before when a burglar(s) emptied the church safe of a bank envelope containing the morning offering.
But Lindeman also tied the theft to the Advent season.
“Now I should tell you that the theft and break in that occurred last Sunday was actually in a strange way sort of appropriate for the season of Advent we are now entering,” Lindeman said.
“For this is the season of waiting and expectation. Advent is the season of surprises. And it is the season of preparation.
“Christ’s coming will be unexpected like a thief in the night. And so we should be prepared for our Lord’s coming at any moment. And yet, I must admit that we weren’t very well prepared for the coming of that thief last week.”
Nor was Lindeman prepared for what happened after the burglary was discovered, he said.
He received a phone call from a stranger stating that the envelope had been found on the ground at 37th and Lyndale avenues in Minneapolis and he wanted it to return it to Lindeman.
Lindeman said he was suspicious because the man said he was staying at a motel in town and did not want to get involved.
At the same time, the man said he hated to see the church get robbed as he had opened the bank “envelope” and found a bunch of checks and some opened offering envelopes.
However, the man told Lindeman he did not want the police involved directly because of past dealings and asked to meet the pastor at the SuperAmerica gas station at Highway 252 and I-694.
He also asked Lindeman if he would be willing to buy some Christmas wreaths that he was selling on the south side of town.
Now really suspicious of the man’s motives, Lindeman agreed to meet him, but also called the police, who arranged to have some officers nearby when he met the stranger.
Lindeman was greeted by the man, who also gave him a hug as well as the bank envelope. Lindeman purchased two large Christmas wreaths and headed for his car.
That’s when the police swooped. They apprehended the man and his wife and returned the money Lindeman had paid for the wreaths.
“But now as I headed home with the bank envelope in my possession, I didn’t feel so good,” Lindeman told his congregation.
A Bible verse from Hebrews 13:1-2 came to his mind, “Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”
Indeed, the next morning, Lindeman was told by the police that the man and his wife were not connected to the burglary, but rather two people who were trying to do a good deed.
That was irony for Lindeman because he had preached about angels at the service before the burglary.
“Here I had just finished preaching about angels on Sunday morning,” Lindeman said in his sermon Dec. 2.
“But on that same Sunday evening when I actually encountered two angels in disguise, this preacher had them apprehended and interrogated by the police! And yet life is like that isn’t it? It’s filled with unexpected twists and turns.”
Looking back, Lindeman said he does not think he would have done anything differently.
But as he said in his sermon, “…there is something more we need and that is forgiveness. I think forgiveness is the real key.”
And Lindeman was able to ask for and receive forgiveness from the man, he said.
Two days after they had found the envelope, Lindeman was able to meet with the man and his wife again.
“First, we talked on the telephone about our first encounter,” Lindeman said in his sermon. “And I immediately asked for his forgiveness for the mistakes I had made.”
The man also apologized to Lindeman for any confusion he might have caused, but Lindeman said the man’s wife was still angry.
Then they met again at the SuperAmerica gas station, Lindeman assuring the man there would be no police around this time.
“We greeted each other with a hug,” he said. “The stranger’s wife was there also and she, too, forgave me and granted me a hug.”
While there were no more Christmas wreaths for Lindeman to buy, he said he did give the couple a small reward for their discovery of the stolen checks.
“And if you just happen to see a man and his wife out selling Christmas wreaths, then don’t be too quick to dismiss them,” Lindeman said in his sermon.
“They may just be angels in disguise.”
Peter Bodley is at moc.cni-mce|yeldob.retep#moc.cni-mce|yeldob.retep
Church safe emptied of offering
Monday, 26 November 2007
by Peter Bodley
Managing editor of Coon Rapids Herald
Burglars emptied the safe in the office of a Coon Rapids church Sunday.
The burglary at Olive Branch Lutheran Church, 2135 Northdale Blvd., was discovered just after 2 p.m. Nov. 25 when a church member opened the office door and found a mess.
Coon Rapids Police were called and found the office ransacked and the safe forced open and empty.
A exit door on the east side of the church next to the office was unsecured and there were tool marks on the office door, according to the police report.
A screwdriver and a hammer were found in the office and another screwdriver was located in the office of church pastor, Rev. Richard Lindeman.
Lindeman locked up the church at 11:45 a.m. following the morning service, he said.
The chairman of the congregation had returned to the church just before 1:45 p.m. Sunday to do some work in the office, Lindeman said.
Later in the day Sunday, Lindeman received a call from a couple who reported they had found a church bank bag at the corner of 37th and Morgan avenues in North Minneapolis.
The bank bag was handed over to Lindeman and the police by the couple, who are not suspected in the burglary, according to the Coon Rapids police report.
Envelopes from the morning service offering were in the bank bag, Lindeman said.
The envelopes were opened and where there was cash, it was taken, he said.
But checks were left in the envelopes, Lindeman said.
Lindeman has not yet been able to check the office to see if anything else was taken because it is still a crime scene, he said.
But he believes that the bank bag was the only property that was stolen, Lindeman said.
Peter Bodley is at moc.cni-mce|yeldob.retep#moc.cni-mce|yeldob.retep
Up Close TV 29 Interview
Earl Gilchrist, pastor, teacher, doctor of ministry, loving husband. This is the earl we know today Over 40 years ago Earl began a path to becoming a very different man. "When I was about 9 years old I started to steal" A rough childhood in segregated Omaha, Nebraska and at the mercy of a violent father set him off."He was very abusive, very hostile, he'd beat us, he's whip us with belts, switches, he's tie 3 or 4 switches at a time and then whip us." Earl's lack of a positive role model led him to some very negative behavior. "You robbed, I robbed, you stole, I stole, you sold drugs, I sold drugs, did drugs, I did a lot of drugs, did you sell women? I sold women." "probably 17 when I started to get into the lifestyle of what they called being a pimp" At 17 he also went to prison for aggravated robbery, his first of many prison sentences. One of his first nights behind bars he witnessed a brutal murder. "His head was basically hanging by flesh, his head had been cut off. That kind of violence just made him harder when he got back out on the streets. And drugs were there to help him escape the pain. "Personally it would be like 500 to 1,000 dollars worth of drugs at least everyday that I would use and that would be in minimum" Selling drugs was lucrative for Earl, but he was forced to leave Nebraska in 1978 under police pressure. He came to st. Paul and dove deeper into drugs and pimping. "No matter how much money I had, I spent more than that on myself, using drugs and abusing drugs and at that time I began to smoke crack." In 1981 Earl's girlfriend, who was also a working girl, became pregnant with his baby. They married, but he was in Stillwater prison again when the little girl was born. "It gave me a sense of wanting to be a better person, wanting to be different, made me feel as if I could be, but I couldn't find how to do it" After his release from stillwater he was back to his old tricks. An aggravated robbery in St. Paul earned him 7 years in Oak Park Heights, divorce papers from his child's mother, and it killed his partner. This was Earl's rock bottom, and the beginning of a new life. It began with a visit from the father of one of his hookers… The man was also a pastor. "He asked me what he could do for me, and he told me that he loved me" "I got a bible, didn't let anyone see me do it. Took it to my cell, hid it, and I was reading it and hiding it under my mattress" Earl gilchrist made good use of his 7 year sentence. He earned his bachelors degree, began a doctorate and met his second wife."the lord spoke to me almost like you're talking to me right now and said earl was going to be my husband and I said not so lord But after getting to know him better, Pamela was impressed by the changes Earl made in his life. They continued their friendship until he was released from Lino lakes in 1994. In 96 they were married. "It took my mother a little while to come around but she's crazy about him right now, she thinks he's one of the best things that's ever happened to me and i believe so too." At 43 years old, Earl Gilchrist was now a changed man, a free man, and for the first time in his life had to get a legitimate job. "My first real job was at insight news in st. Paul, after prison, that was the first real job I ever had" But his true calling he found in church. A choir from the christian faith based drug rehab teen challenge came to sing, and earl knew he wated to be a part of that program… But it wasn't easy. Pastor Rich Scherber/exec. Dir MN Teen Challenge "knowing his criminal history, he wasn't a fit for teen challenge" But earl would not take no for an answer. "He told me that I'd have to do janitorial work, wash toilets or whatever and I told him it didn't matter what I did, I was ready to work" Earl went from janitor to guest speaker, to teacher to mentor and counselor at teen challenge and now he's one of the most senior and most respected members of the staff. "He's been to hell and back and he's glad to be alive" Earl's teen challenge students have learned so much from his life experience, they've taken to quoting their favorite Earlisms. "Stop faking it it make it, and dig in and game over" "Amen brother Earl, amen brother Earl" "Don't blame it on the brother man" "You're getting an overdose of the holy ghost" Earl is now the co-pastor with wife Pamela at the River of Life Church in Coon rapids. He holds a doctorate in ministry and clinical pastoral counseling and specializes in ministering to men, because as he puts it. "You don't know how to be a man until you see a man" So at 55 when he looks back on his life, what does he think? "I believe I'm doing excellent, I'm living a life I never dreamed I would" "you know I got peace today, something I never really had before"
