How a Former Pastor Lives in Another World

26

Campbell Cathedral Revival (3)

One of the management strategies of modern Protestant churches for elementary, middle, and high schools is the ‘talent banquet.’

A similar currency called a talent is given to a child who attends the service well, a child who concentrates without falling asleep, a child who practices and performs hymns on the podium, and a child who gets excellent grades in Bible study.

And these talents can be used at the talent market held semi-annually or annually, where you can buy toys, snacks, school supplies, etc.

Ray plans to establish this talent system at Campbell Cathedral.

“The talent system?”

“Yes, if you collect the stamps distributed by this church, you can use them at the ‘Talent Banquet’ held every quarter.”

“Talent banquet?”

Ray explained about the talent feast.

The most important thing is this.

“Holy water is also provided at the talent banquet, so if you participate diligently, you will be able to obtain it.”

Holy water comes out.

Even low-level monks are being given a few months worth of living expenses for a family of four?

Citizens raised their hands with great interest.

“Then how do you get the talent?”

“Yes, those who faithfully came to church and attended. Those who came out before Mass and helped with cleaning or preparation. ‘Talents’ will be given to those who attended Bible study or those who achieved excellent grades in Bible study.”

Talent feast.

And talents.

This event is usually distributed only to youth groups and is intended to encourage children’s emotional development and proper religious life.

The more a child reads the Bible diligently, listens carefully to the guidance teacher (youth group member), does not fall asleep during worship, and attends consistently, the more talents the child holds in their hands will be rewarded at the talent banquet.

“Sweet! If you keep fighting with your friends, your talents will be confiscated!”

“Oh, Gyeongchan, did you come to the Wednesday service as well? Add 50 talents!”

So, with every penny saved and a bundle of talents gathered together, the long-awaited Talent Festival Flex begins.

“3 talents of cupbokki? It’s cheap!”

“Give me a minicar! Huh? 500 talents? Why is it so expensive? Considering the macroeconomics, no one can pay this price!”

“The talent banquet is essentially hyperinflation.

In any case, the talent banquet often motivates children who may otherwise have little faith to attend church diligently.

“We are expanding this to all Campbell citizens.”

This is the third key card for the Campbell Cathedral Revival released by Ray.

“Everyone, the holy water that will be given as a prize at the talent banquet is amazing! It is holy water that received the sacrament of blessing from Bishop Yuna of Campbell Cathedral! Everyone, please work hard to collect the talents!”

That night, the citizens of Campbell returned home with a special experience at the cathedral in their hearts.

A hymn that everyone sings together. Masses drastically reduced. Even a generous product called holy water.

They realized that Campbell Cathedral would become an important space in the future as they gained satisfaction, peace, and utility from their religious activities.

“Let’s go! The way to get the talent is written here, so take it with you and read it carefully!”

“Holy water! Holy water!”

“From now on, we’ll have to bring all our kids!”

“Do you get extra talent if you do volunteer work?”

“”I can’t stand a talent!””

Of course, the intention was very impure.

***

After the mass ended successfully, Aaron looked very unhappy.

“I feel like the essence of the Mass has been polluted. It seems like this person or that person only comes to see the holy water.”

“Tsk, tsk, you don’t know anything.”

“what?”

Aaron gets angry at Jenny’s words.

Jenny shrugged her shoulders and glanced at Ray.

“I think my sister has noticed something. Please tell me.”

“Hehehe, if you look closely, Ray’s younger brother is also really vicious.”

Jenny giggles and twists the corner of her mouth. Aaron and Henry look like they don’t know what’s going on.

“Uh… brother, sisters. What on earth is there?”

“Look carefully. Here’s how to get the talent.”

Jenny picked up a pamphlet with instructions on how to acquire talents.

“Oh, this is?!”

Henry’s eyes widen.

“Heretics who falsely call themselves the Ilwol Church and false prophets will have their talents confiscated.”

: All relevant talents will be given to those who report.

“······!”

“Ray, were you aiming for this from the beginning?”

Aaron looked straight at Ray. Ray grinned and confirmed it.

“The Ilwol Church has overlapping believer tendencies with Campbell Cathedral. They believe in the Church of the Sun, and they choose one of the two.”

“They are heretics. They are by no means an offshoot of the church.”

“That’s our argument. They say, ‘We’re being persecuted~ We just have different doctrines!’ It’s going to be like this.”

This is a pattern that most Christian cults have.

“Ah, aren’t Protestants a sect that deviates from Catholicism anyway? We just have a slightly different way of interpreting doctrine!”

“Isn’t it a fight between me and Bari? Are we persecuting other faiths to monopolize believers?”

“We are being oppressed! Big religions are persecuting small and medium-sized religions!”

Christian cults have something in common: cosplaying as an underdog and pretending to be a victim in the name of ‘freedom of religion.’

“Nothing is as effective as fellow believers in filtering out new believers who have infiltrated the religious order… No, there is nothing more effective than fellow believers. How can we, who are so few in number, catch them all?”

And naturally, believers at the level of the Church of the Sun have no choice but to choose between the Church of the Sun or the Church of the Sun and Moon.

“If this happens, the more people there are in our denomination, the fewer believers will go to the other side. In competition, we prosper only when others fail.”

That was the reason why they offered an unconventional product called Holy Water.

Anyway, the weight class is called. If you increase your size by attracting the influx of believers, you can use the remaining size to suppress your opponent.

“Studying the Bible seems like a good way to do it. Did you say studying the gospel? Because it creates an opening for believers to get out.”

“Wow, you are my brother after all. How did you come up with that?”

“Hehe… This is the chamba that was used to punish the harvester heretics… No, it was born with it.”

“······.”

Aaron honestly admired Ray.

What Ray used to reform Campbell Cathedral were extremely simple things.

To cover up boring sermons, we mixed hymns and created a participatory mass where everyone could participate.

The work intensity of the monks working at the cathedral would need to be increased, but as the number of believers increases, so will the donations, so it was a problem that could be solved without complaints by increasing their salaries.

Until now, the problem was that monks had too little to do.

Meticulous and cunning.

Aaron felt like there were hundreds of snakes in Ray’s face.

but.

“Is this… the correct faith?”

As a devout believer, Aaron had doubts about whether this method was right.

“Everyone who attends the mass comes for their desires. They cannot be called true believers.”

“Hmm~ Isn’t that just too idealistic of you, Master?”

“what?”

Aaron’s eyebrows furrowed at Jenny’s sarcastic retort.

However, Jenny did not give up and continued speaking.

“Nobles who have a warm back and no worries about food can take care of everything while talking about true faith. But that’s not the case for commoners.”

Every day is hardship for commoners.

As soon as the sun rises in the morning, you have to get up and work hard, and since you are a newbie, you have to sit on the street to get your meals.

To them, religious activities without compensation are close to luxury.

“The reason commoners participate in mass is to find rest. They don’t come to add weight to their already difficult lives.”

“The problem is that they are trying to solve this with material compensation.

“At least I’m just sprinkling some of the remaining holy water. Don’t be too strict.”

“Ugh, you two, stop fighting. Brother Ray, try to stop him too!”

As Aaron and Jenny’s discussion about faith continued, Ray simply watched without stopping them.

This is a good phenomenon.

Old religions tend to stagnate and rot like stagnant water.

It is not easy for older religious people to do that. Because there are things I have learned and accumulated over the years.

“It’s nice to be young.”

That’s a healthy debate.

Ray grinned as he put his arm around the two people’s shoulders.

“If we’ve all fought, let’s prepare for Friday Mass. Isn’t it our duty to send at least one more person to heaven?”

And it was also the mission of the armed agency to send the evil guys to hell as quickly as possible.

***

The dramatic changes to Campbell Cathedral caused an uproar throughout the city.

Dancing and singing, which would normally be reserved for festivals that occur only a few times a year, are provided, the mass time is dramatically shortened, and above all, there is a holy water draw and a talent banquet announced.

As news that could be said to be shocking in many ways was delivered one after another, it clearly attracted the attention of citizens.

“I heard they do it on Fridays too?”

“Weekday Mass gives more talents!”

“Would you like to go to the cathedral after a long time?”

Then there was the Friday Mass, the weekend Mass, and then the Wednesday Mass… Campbell Cathedral, which can accommodate over 20,000 people, was filled to capacity in less than two weeks.

“Sorry, everyone! That’s all the people who can come to today’s mass! Please join us next mass!”

Rather, it is to the extent that the people who came must be sent away.

When the situation reached this point, Ray added special measures as if he had been waiting.

“The second part of the weekend mass service begins. From 1 to 2 p.m.!”

It was truly a tremendous success.

Campbell Cathedral was originally built large and splendidly to strengthen the authority of the religious denomination in Campbell, a battleground for religion.

It would have been impossible to digest if the weight class had not been maintained for management even in the midst of the decline and decline of many monks in residence.

“Wow, this is the first time! This is the first time since this cathedral was built that it has been completely filled! Hmm…!”

“Bishop!”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

The nuns embraced Bishop Yuna, who was shedding tears of joy.

They are also staunch believers who hold their ground solely on faith.

Considering how empty the church was, with only a few dozen people attending the weekend mass, it was overwhelming to see the cathedral filled with believers.

Campbell Cathedral, which originally had only 2,000 to 3,000 people, has now been reborn as the mainstream religion of Campbell.

“Well, we can’t keep this number intact.”

Right now, people are just flocking to the flashy event.

Maintaining this trend depends entirely on Bishop Yuna’s ability.

However, since there is so much influx, it would be okay to just do the basics.

‘Now, the star cluster that was declining suddenly grew significantly. Then it’s obvious what the heretics will do.’

Ray watched the seats filled with believers.

“All the harvester chicks are gone.”

***

Needless to say, the one who suffered the most from the sudden revival of Campbell Cathedral was the Ilwol Church.

“How on earth did this happen!!”

Liman, the leader of the Ilwol Church, roared and reprimanded the evangelists.

“They were all collapsing! We were able to absorb all the members of the Church of the Sun!”

“Well, that’s because they suddenly offered holy water as a prize…”

For this revival, Campbell Cathedral used a number of weak methods.

Methods that would be unimaginable to a religion of this era, such as a holy water lottery and talent banquet.

In addition, the Church of the Sun, which had a lot of money, posted billboards here and there, so it was hard not to attract aggro.

“Send evangelists right now! We must not allow them to revive! Our denomination is the only true faith!”

Seeing that the number of believers in the Ilwol Church was decreasing immediately, the cult leader’s eyes widened in confusion.

The harvesters were dispatched under the wrath of the religious leader. Evangelists from the Ilwol Church infiltrated Campbell Cathedral as if they were ordinary believers.

As they had been trained, they first tried to open a gospel room.

“Brother, how about we study the Bible separately? I heard we even provide food.”

“Huh? If it’s Bible study, it’s separate after mass, right?”

“huh?”

Campbell Cathedral has added Bible studies to its new program.

It involved ordinary believers in the work originally carried out on a daily basis by monks and nuns.

“Hmm… I guess I’ve come up with a countermeasure since I’ve suffered so much.”

If so, you can use another method.

They are trained professional trouble makers. There are many ways to cause trouble and extract believers from other denominations.

“Brother?”

“uh?”

At that time, a boy suddenly grabbed the preacher’s shoulder.

Did you really notice?

No, that can’t be true. You’ve just infiltrated, how are you going to find out?

“I need some help. Could you help me for a moment?”

“······.”

The preacher was worried.

Yes, if you build goodwill and interact with employees within the church, you will be able to do great things on a deeper level.

‘He’s a young guy so his vigilance is probably low. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to dig deep.’

The evangelist who thought that way had to change his mind in 10 minutes.

“Puh-huh…! Cough! Cough!”

The preacher knelt covered in blood. The burst nosebleed was dripping down and soaking the floor.

The preacher looked up with fearful eyes at the black-haired boy carrying a birch club on his shoulder.

He dragged the person to the backyard and started beating him up.

“Why, why are you like this… I did something wrong…”

“Uh, teacher? I told you to keep your posture straight. If you hit it wrong, you’ll get hit.”

“W-Why on earth… Why on earth…?”

“Ai-ssi~ Teacher, please think carefully about why this is correct.”

crazy! Are these really the clergy of the church?

In particular, that black-haired boy had extremely cruel hands.

“Hey~ Things I’ve only dreamed of are possible here. After all, I like the era without human rights.”

Ray is somehow excited.

“What are you talking about? People have human rights that are given to them at birth. Don’t show that you are uneducated.”

Aaron is sharpening his club while making a tackle.

“Well, doesn’t heresy have to have human rights?”

“It’s barbaric. Basic rights are important.”

“The medieval average is very high.”

“What do you mean?”

“There is something like that, Teacher Aaron. Let’s start physical therapy again. Let’s disinfect heretics~!”

“······I’m very excited.”

Aaron won’t know.

The feelings of a pastor who was powerless due to issues such as human rights and religious freedom.