Читать книгу Sex In The Sanctuary - Lutishia Lovely - Страница 13

King sat at the head of the table in the church’s tastefully furnished conference room. A committee of Mount Zion Progressive members joined him. Associate ministers, deacons, his personal secretary and others waited to give their progress reports on the upcoming conference.

“As you know,” King began after a lengthy “Baptisized” prayer by Deacon Nash, “this year’s leadership conference will be the largest and I believe best one so far. The speakers are dynamic, the workshops specific and explicit, and it seems that most of the details are in place. If anyone disagrees, now’s the time to voice what needs to be done. I don’t want any surprises at the last minute. Is everybody with me?” Everyone nodded or said yes. “Charles, let’s start with you. How are things looking with respect to our speakers and other guests?”

Charles was the church’s director of business affairs; organized, detailed and concise. His report reflected these attributes. “As you all know,” he said, directing his gaze at King, “we’ve had a few challenges. But as of today, almost all of the leaders we’ve invited have been confirmed. We’re still waiting on final word from a few session speakers and from Dr. Myles Monroe out of the Bahamas. And we’ve not finalized the contract for Dr. Hayden’s Economic Empowerment course. That is proving to be one of the more popular sessions.” He checked his notes quickly and concluded, “Everything’s falling into place.”

“Good, good,” King intoned, pleased as always with Charles’s work. Quick and to the point, that was what King liked about him. Deacon Nash could learn a thing or two from him, especially where “quick” and the deacon’s long prayers were concerned.

“Remind me to put in a call to Myles when we get back to the office,” King directed Joseph, his assistant, before turning to his secretary. “Denise, let’s have a rundown of the conference schedule to date.”

Denise Williams, who had been taking notes, opened her folder and shuffled a few papers before beginning to read. She was an attractive woman in an understated way.

“Okay,” she began, sitting up straighter and taking a deep breath. “The preconference begins Tuesday night with a dinner for the guest pastors and their wives, special guests and others on the list to be provided by Pastor King. Registration begins Wednesday morning at 10:00 A.M. in the church lobby. Over five hundred people have preregistered already, so we hope there’ll only be a few stragglers who don’t make the deadline. The first worship service is Wednesday night, and on Thursday morning, there are four sessions available: Follow the Leader, Strategies for Spiritual Success…”

As Denise continued with her report on sessions and special guests, Youth Minister Mark found himself paying less attention to the words being said and more to the mouth the words were coming from. He’d always found Denise attractive, and he loved her quiet, sweet spirit, but here, seated at the conference table with only a few chairs between them, it was as if he was seeing her lips for the first time. They were full and thick, not so big as to be soup coolers, but in perfect proportion to her face, which was heart shaped and glowing. She wore an almost translucent lipstick, a whispery pink, or was it beige? Through the glimmer, Mark couldn’t tell for sure. He leaned forward, almost involuntarily, to inspect further.

“Of course, Friday is Young Adult Night,” Denise continued, excitement in her delivery. She licked her lips unconsciously as she turned the page to continue.

Pink, Mark decided, following her tongue as it traced the outline of her sumptuous mouth. And as if to confirm his decision, the color of her blouse grabbed his attention. His eyes traveled south of their own volition, and without meaning to, he visually caressed her neck, adorned with a thin gold chain that sported an equally thin cross that dipped down and hovered just above her breasts. Mark sat back and gazed at her eyes, large and inviting as they scanned back and forth over the notes she read. Her nose was lovely, and Mark noticed it turned up just slightly at the end. As if to say, “Kiss me, I’m cute.” Denise licked her lips again. Mark found himself wondering if she liked Mexican food, and if she was doing anything Friday night.

“…so with the dance performance by the Angels of Hope, the steppers, Mixed Blessings, and Imani’s dramatic presentation, that as they say in show business, will be a wrap!”

“Good, good,” King replied. He went around the room then, asking specific questions relative to each person’s responsibilities and assignments. Work regarding volunteers, security personnel, hospitality for out-of-town guests, and even the budget was under control. One of the assistant pastors was conducting a series of outreach endeavors for people who may not have considered church as a place they could receive instruction for practical living, in addition to food for their souls. Mark and a group of specially selected and trained teenagers and young adults were passing out flyers at the local schools and youth hangout spots. Deacon Nash had prayer covered, and Hope had designed an excellent and energetic schedule for Young Adult Night.

“As you know, Pastor King,” Hope began, having given a more detailed outline of the extravaganza earlier in the meeting, “Righteous Rebel will be a huge draw for the young people because of his popularity and visibility when he was a secular hip-hop artist and because of his latest hit, ‘Holy Ghost High.’ With him performing, there will be tons of young people there, many of whom may have never stepped in to a church otherwise. He’s got an awesome testimony about how God spared his life in a gang-related shootout where his best friend died. And with your approval of course,” she added, looking at King and flashing a megawatt smile, “we might be able to talk him into doing a midnight concert just for the kids.”

King had been watching her intently and leaned forward as she finished, forming a praying hands pose beneath his chin. “Good, good. Excellent idea, Hope. Let’s get together after this meeting is over so you can give me more details. How’s my schedule?” he asked Joseph, who grabbed a day planner and scanned it quickly.

“You’ve got about forty-five minutes, it looks like, before your meeting with the councilman.”

King nodded and turned to the others. “I want to thank everybody for the hard work you’re putting into this conference. When everything’s over and everybody’s commenting on how blessed they were and how successful the meeting was, know that each of you played a vital part.” On that note King stood, as did the others except for Hope, who sat patiently waiting as King spoke to Joseph first and then to Mark. Her legs were crossed and she was shaking the top one gently, the only outward sign of her inner excitement at Pastor King’s approval of her plans.

She wasn’t the only one excited. King had barely been able to concentrate on the conference details, still caught up in a conversation he’d had with a certain female before the meeting started. She had detailed the plans she had for him later, plans that sounded good, good.