Purpose Driven Church Sued Over Name

The Baptist News Network Press

Sunny Springs, CA. - When the Sunny Springs Baptist Church changed its name to Saddlebags Church, Rev. Mark Lawson and other leaders hoped it would help the image of the 2500 member church. Having recently adopted the Purpose Driven Church model, they hoped that dropping the old denominational name would be just what they needed to complete their makeover and maybe even be enough send their membership numbers toward the 5000 mark.

Now Saddlebags Church and Pastor Lawson face a multi-million dollar lawsuit from nearly a two dozen women who were offended by the new name.

Speaking on behalf of the plaintiffs, Attorney Susan Wilson says, "When the church leadership changed the church name, my clients were deeply offended."

When asked to explain why her clients were offended, Wilson replied, "As we all know, the term 'saddlebags' is a derogatory term used in reference to the shape of some women's outer thighs. After the name change, my clients became very self-conscious of their body image and felt uncomfortable at church. We are seeking restitution for emotional suffering and medical expenses due to the fact that 12 of our clients have had extensive cosmetic surgery due to this incident."

Pastor Lawson was unavailable for comment, but his office did release this statement earlier today:

"We only intended to make our church more like Rick Warren's Saddleback Church so we hoped that changing the name to Saddlebags would help us in this endeavour. It was never our intention to offend women in the church. The leadership at Saddlebags Church stand behind our decision to use this name and hope this can be cleared up before our annual Community Felt Needs Survey next month."

A recent survey conducted within Saddlebags has shown that 93% of the congregation has a very favorable opinion of the new name. Among men, the name recieved almost 100% approval.

Anonymous sources within Saddlebags Church have confirmed that Pastor Rick Warren flew in on Monday to secretly meet with the leaders of the embattled church to advise them on ways to handle the lawsuits and to encourage the church to focus on extending an olive branch to Muslim leaders in the area by seek forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world.

No court date as been set at this time.



This news story was pure satire!

Happy New Year Everybody!