Local Church Created Pew Police

by Ima Phibber

First Baptist Church of Strong River Bend (FBCSRB) has been growing the past few years. Many churches saw attendance decline during covid, and the numbers have stayed down for many. But, FBCSRB was able to avoid that, and they are thriving now. The main reason the church is growing is that the town of Strong River Bend is growing. People love the small town feel and the good school, and that has attracted quite a few people from outside The Valley to SRB.

The growth has created a few issues at FBCSRB. One of the issues is that newer members are sitting in older members’ seats. Evidently, a lot of the new young members don’t know that many senior citizen Southern Baptists have unofficial assigned seats. SRB’s pastor, Benny Osteen, started noticing that his congregation was becoming segregated between newer members and older members during Sunday services.

Bro. Osteen said, “I didn’t like how our congregation was basically segregated during our services. I started asking around to see what was going on. I talked to some older members, and I talked to some newer members. I didn’t like what I discovered. A couple of our newer members spilled the beans. Four of our older ladies had created what they called the Pew Police.” Osteen had a hunch who the ladies were, and he talked with all four. He told them that had to disband, and they needed to be more welcoming. He also told them they needed to apologize to some newer members that they’ve offended.

Bro. Osteen said, “Thinking back, I remember one or two of those ladies wore navy blue every Sunday, and I noticed they walked around the sanctuary before our services.” He laughed and said, “I guess they were patrolling before the services making sure the older members’ pews were not occupied. These ladies are so sweet, but I guess they just couldn’t take these newcomers sitting in their seats.”

I was able to interview one of the Pew Police officers, and she wanted to remain anonymous. She said, “I’ve been a member of FBCSRB for 50 years, and my husband and I have always sat in the same pew. I’m all for having new people join our church, but I don’t like them sitting in my pew. I know we shouldn’t have formed the Pew Police, but we got a little carried away. I bet we were the only all female police force in America. We have a young couple sitting on our pew now, and we really like them since we’ve gotten to know them.”

I was also able to talk with a couple newer members. One said, “We joined FBCSRB because we really liked Bro. Osteen, the contemporary music, the coffee bar, and the fact that the church was growing. It felt pretty welcoming. But, more and more people started joining, and I started noticing some of the older ladies weren’t so warm to us newcomers. One Sunday morning, I watched this older lady enter the sanctuary, and she was talking to her friends. She seemed very happy and in a good mood. But, her demeanor changed big time when she approached our pew, and she gave us the meanest look. I realized we were in her pew, and we made a mental note not to sit there again. It’s hilarious now to realize some of those sweet old ladies formed a Pew Police.”

I hope your church doesn’t have a Pew Police. We all need to smile and welcome people to our churches. How about this? You older people should sit by some young people you don’t know this Sunday, and you younger people should sit by some older people you don’t know this Sunday. Talk to them and get to know them. This would help our churches a great deal.