I was part of a church club in a local public college. We had a faculty couple as our patrons who was also of our denomination. The couple were friendly, had us over for meals, took us on hikes, all kinds of fun stuff. Oh and every Friday night they arranged for us to meet with a church family for free food/music/bible study. Food was always amazing. They had us to their house every third Friday.

The lady of the couple over a period of a few months became sadder and sadder, talking less, avoiding people. I thought an appreciation party would be awesome for her.

So, I found a friend who let us hold the party there. I arranged for all club members to bring coordinating food for a full meal. I engraved a glass mug with all the club's students' names for a memory sort of thing. This burned my hand. I arranged for a card, cake, music, thank-you speech. We arranged for the party to be on the 3rd Friday, when we always met at this couple's house.

The couple found out early and completely flipped out. The woman accused us of colluding with the church to "take away her Friday nights meetings with us". She called and yelled at the club leaders. Her husband did too. She hollered at me. She said to stay away from the church. Then she said "I think you have a good heart, and I forgive you."

Turns out they'd earlier had a bad experience with the local church of our denomination. They tried to kick out the pastor and stuff. They thought this surprise party was connected with that.

Party happened, was awful, I avoid that couple now.

tl;dr I threw a surprise party for my club's depressed sponsor, she decided it was a church conspiracy against her. She yelled at everyone and "generously" forgave me for throwing the surprise party.