Good place to post this

[Dude]

Friday I was detecting a grassy strip between the side walk and the road. It's 100 to 150 feet from a church, with the church's parking lot in between. Out of no where this guy shows up and says he's the pastor of the church and I need to stop what I'm doing and leave. He was very mean about it. I tried to explain to him that I had the right to do what I was doing because of city ordinance of right a way. On top of that the street had no curbs, so half the time cars would be parked where I was detecting.
He said he owned the property and was going to call the cops, he was very nasty.I said I'm not going to argue. So I packed up and as I was getting in my car he said if I came back he would call the cops.
I said to him Jesus loves us all and have a nice day. He gave me a dirty look and went back into the church.

All I can think is, Glad I don't go to church.

 

[Sailorman]

No, just be glad you don't go to that church. You should be in a church that is warm and welcoming and reflects the love and truth of God. His actions do not reflect those of all pastors any more then a detectorist who goes around leaving unfilled holes represents all detectorists.

 

[steve in so la]

a treatment from a pastor like that. However, on a number of occasions pastors have welcomed me to hunt their property.
Dont judge them all by this jerk who probably needs to retire, Steve in so az

 

[TURNMASTER]

What Sailorman said.

I throw in a short story.
A property I have been trying to get on for a little while and it will be to cold to do anything with soon. I found a place that is owned by (and adjacent to) a local Catholic parish and private school. I have talked to Father X and he says he would like to let me on but he has had issues with some of the neighbors causing the church problems do to a rezoning request. The church wishes to put in a small, limited income housing complex for the elderly and the local neighbors went up in arms. Well the pressure the neighbors put up caused the church to withdraw their petition for now. In addition The Neighbors now call the police when the grounds keepers are on the property doing maintenance. The parish has opted to let the local PD do training exercises at this old house and the same neighbors even call the police then (same PD even). This is a parish that has been a part of that neighbor hood since before my mother went to grammar school there (I'm 45). I believe the church has been there since the 20s and so far as I know has always been a good and caring neighbor, I lived in that area when I was a kid.

I know the house will eventually be razed or used for fire training then razed (firsthand info). That will make the hunt difficult. Well so I move on and will call on him again as he said I should but FTF next time.

My point is this, The paster you dealt with likely went to far one way in terms of being friendly and the father I have talked with goes to far the other way in trying to appease the neighbors. It is likely only 1 or 2 (cranky old men???) causing problems for him, but many pay the price. This is my selfish opinion because I want to hunt there and I can see and am sure the father has good reasons and there may be some strategic planing involved also.

The dirty look was probably because you reminded him of the truth.

Remember he is a man just like you and I, and subject to our same shortcomings.

Best wishes
Jeff

 

[Mike from MI "Iron Brigade"]

first off welcome. Bad apples in every barrel. Shame on him for being that way to you. I hope you don't think all Christians are that way.
God bless.

Mike

 

[TURNMASTER]

Oh Yeah, it was good (and quite neighborly) of you to move on with out making waves.

Later
Jeff

 

[Ma Betty in MO]

all who are preachers and call themselves Christians...AREN'T!! God has His workers and satan has his in the churches! Just forgive him and go on your way and being nice to him, God will provide you a better place to detect than there, so look forward to a blessing from God in Jesus' name! Amen! He did wrong and you didn't...so he will be the worse off for it! And Welcome to our CMD Forum, Dude! Ma Betty

 

[SeniorSeeker]

Hey Dude, (always wanted to say that ... lol)
What I did to solve that particular issue was to go to the city parks departments and request a note giving me permission to hunt on city property. After I gave the director the code of ethics and permission to hunt information, he gladly gave me the note, on a city letterhead, that I requested. There have been times when people stopped me (but they weren't as nasty as the guy in your situation) and I politely show them the note and that usually solves the problem. Oh ... you can copy and paste the code of ethics & permission to hunt from my 'On-Line Only Metal Detecting Club' @ River City Treasure Club for 'Those New to the Hobby of Metal Detecting.

 

[BARKER]

that Pastor is NOT Representative of "Christians" as a whole so please do not Denegrate an Entire Faith for the sake of ONE so called Pastor who may actually be a nice guy but was having a bad day and wrongly tok it out on you. How many times have you EVER encountered the same type response from other people that were not Pastors ??? Now, on not going to Church. I don't know why biut that is your choice not ours or Christianity's as a Faith. Just the opposite. We WANT you to go to Church and thus come to a New Faith in Christ. Jesus came to seek and save the Lost. Not chase them away ok. Anyway, I hope you change your mind on Church going and I will pray for you as well. By the way, your Right. This is the perfect place to Post that story, for lack of a better word, so We here could help clear up that misconception as we are led by Christ ok. Best Wishes. PEACE:RONB

 

[JimCVA]

If you went to church and read your Bible you would have known how to talk to that pastor. Most Pastor don't own the church the member do We have a big yard behind our church that our pastor let the member hunt. JimCVA

 

[Hank68]

That was terrible to be treaty like that from a preacher just because he calls himself a pastor don't make him a man of God!