Twenty Strange Purchases Made by Churches

During one of our podcasts, we talked about church budgets and church purchases. That conversation led to a Twitter poll where we asked church leaders and members to name some strange purchases made by their churches. The responses were numerous and, yes, really strange.

We could have provided a list of 100 but, for the sake of blog post brevity, the list is only twenty in number. The order is mostly random.

1. XL Depends for live sheep for a sermon illustration. I guess if you have large sheep, you have to have large Depends. Question: Did they really need them? Answer: It Depends.
2. Squirrel cage for the sanctuary. I need clarity. Was it to catch the squirrel? House the squirrel? A contingency to let the squirrel out in the event the services got too boring?
3. Ketchup bottle costumes to demonstrate the need to “catch-up” the budget. First step for helping your budget: get a refund for the costumes.
4. Giant inflatable black cat. I wonder if it was used for the welcome ministry or the music ministry.
5. Giant inflatable raccoon. My guess is the church was trying to compete with another church that purchased a giant inflatable black cat.
6. Giant inflatable polar bears. Now the Presbyterians are trying to compete with the Baptists.
7. Hoes. That’s what the response said. I’m sure there’s a good explanation.
8. Animal testicles. I’ll leave this one alone.
9. Cow tongue. I’m beginning to feel sorry for the animals.
10. Snow blower. Submitted by a church in Tennessee.
11. Black dry ice that caused two asthma attacks…