Harmful talk:

I remember years ago, standing at the church door next to the sr. minister greeting people at the end of the service. This one guy, every week would come up to the minister and say, “Pastor, you’d better keep your eye on that youth minister or some day he’ll have your job.” Now, he meant that as a joke, but it became a very tedious joke when he kept repeating it each week. Sadly, that, and foolish talk by others in the church eventually drove a wedge between me and the minister that eventually destroyed our working relationship. I wish now that I had pulled that man aside and told him. “Stop it! It’s not funny any more and it is harmful talk.”