[Intro - boom-chicka rhythm kicks in, clean trebly electric, heavy slapback]

[Verse 1 - narrative, plainspoken, the beat driving]
I was twenty-six years old the morning that they called
Said come on down and see us, son, it is nothing much at all
I drove on to the meeting house, no reason to be scared
Three elders and a door, and an empty chair
They had pulled an empty chair

[Verse 2 - the charge and the answer]
They said you have not tithed the way the Scripture says you must
I said the Scripture says a cheerful giver, and I trust
I stand fast in the liberty that Christ Himself made free
But they did not want the Book from me
No, they did not want the Book from me

[Chorus]
Three elders and a door
I walked in looking for a brother
I walked out looking for a church
They shut the only door I knew
And never felt it hurt
No, they never felt it hurt

[Verse 3 - the escalation and the stripping]
They said a man should not go reading where his elders have not gone
They took the little ministry I carried, called it done
They told me find another place to lay this trouble down
So I have been a stranger, town to town
Lord, a stranger, town to town

[Chorus]
Three elders and a door
I walked in looking for a brother
I walked out looking for a church
They shut the only door I knew
And never felt it hurt
No, they never felt it hurt

[Verse 4 - the rhythm pulls back to near silence, just voice and bass]
I walked across the gravel and I sat down in the car
I called my wife and told her, honey, here is where we are
I wept there in the parking lot, a young man cut adrift
And I did not know that morning what that shut door was
No, I did not know what it was

[Bridge - the beat drives back in hard]
It was the first door
It was not the last
I have heard that same latch fall a hundred times since then
And every time it falls I hear those elders once again
Three elders and a door
Three elders and a door

[Outro - boom-chicka carrying out, slapback, fading]
Come on down and see us, son
It is nothing much at all
Three elders and a door