What a contrast to last week…in more ways than one.
The weather today is incredible and unlike last week all aspects of set-up went very well.
Not sure though the extra hour of sleep helped though…even though we didn’t move our clocks forward, everyone seemed a bit lethargic.
I know some were fighting colds…Aaron was a real trooper battling through both Experiences despite a bad cold.
Had a record crowd for the 9:15…think we picked up some of the 10:45 crowd because attendance was down there although overall attendance was about average.
Here are some links I mentioned in today’s message…
The morning started earlier than normal for me when I was awoken by the sound of a snow plow…wait a second, what? A snow plow…are you kidding me?!
I get into church ok, but I’m wondering about the parking lot…Earl is normally in charge of snow decisions.
It was a bit slippery walking in from the parking lot and I’m worried about the older folks at the 8:00 sanctuary service slipping and falling so I call to have at least the senior parking area and guest parking area plowed.
Uhhh yeah…when I come out then at noon time everything is melted…snow, no snow…are you kidding me?!
So I get into the multi-purpose room to discover that the gym floor is a mess from a wedding the night before and that all of our tables for the tech area need to be carried out.
Now I’m running behind but not bad…everything is ready for the band to do their morning warm-up except the batteries for the mouse died. No problem more batteries in the back…ooops all batteries gone…send Brian out for batteries.
Ok, back on track…great band warm-up although Aaron asks for a bit of extra time. I told him no it’s 8:30 and we still have to check videos and other stuff.
Hit the video button…it plays on the screen…uhhh were’s the sound?
Check eveything we know to check…nothing. Starting to worry because we had 5 different video clips to play of which 2 were very important to my message.
Why do these things always happen on weeks that Andy is away?
Trying desperately to call him and wake him up on his “vacation”. Nothing, try Gayle’s number, Andy’s sister’s number, his parent’s number to see if they know which room they are staying in at the hotel. Nothing…nothing…nothing.
Mmmm…starting to get nervous…time is ticking.
Finally get a hold of Andy. “Oh no problem…do this.” “Mmmmm…already tried that”. “How about this?” “Nope did that to”.
Ok, time for plan “B”. Have Andy talk to Chris on the phone and walk him through repatching our entire video system.
7 minutes left until the 9:15 is supposed to start.
5 minutes…3 minutes…2 minutes…”Ok guys go ahead and start the countdown just without any sound”.
1 minute and 15 seconds left and the sound kicks on…whew just in the nick of time…everything will be good from here right…wrong.
Because we took so much time getting all that fixed nothing else got checked so we were having problems in other areas and then I come out on stage and don’t have a functioning microphone because I had forgotten to switch it back to the right channel after being in the sanctuary last week.
Luckily Aaron figured that out and was able to get me back on track during the first video.
All in all the 9:15 couldn’t have been much more of a trainwreck behind the scenes and then somewhat on stage.
How embarrasing since I was talking about making a great first impression in the message.
In any case, I had quite a few people tell me afterwards that despite the obvious glitches, the message was really convicitng and motivating so hopefully the whole thing was just Satan trying to keep us from accomplishing what we’re called to do in Franklin County and beyond.
A big thanks to Chris, Jerry, Jason and Aaron for keeping their cool under pressure and making the most of a bad experience. And oh yeah…thanks to Andy for being “on call”.
The 10:45 then went off without a hitch and was a reminder of why I was so excited about today.
The band did a great job in both Experiences and the new stage design Aaron did for this series is incredible.
I think the big light heart was a hit. Although I had a few people tell me they thought it was unintentional.
Guess that tells you what they think of Aaron’s ability to think creatively! :)
I had told Aaron earlier in the week that this was going to be one of my longer messages and wow I didn’t disappoint. :) Nearly 45 minutes when you include the prayer at the end.
Guess I had a lot to share :)
In the hectic pace of the morning I lost my water bottle somewhere, so what the team doesn’t know is that backstage I was grabbing anyone’s bottle I could find and drinking from it.
I’d pay to see their reactions right after having read that!
So basically today was at both ends of the spectrum…but I’m still proud of the team for pulling through.
Today though was further proof of why we need more of you to serve. I am in no frame of mind to preach when all those other things are happening and I need to be there to help.
I look forward to the day when the only thing I have to do on a Sunday morning is preach and then be told afterwards about how things just barely came together in time.
When we were done today I went to lunch with Don Dennison, his wife Phyliss and Kim Mills. I hear Don did a great job filling in for Earl today in sanctuary.
I’ll check-in tomorrow with some other weekend thoughts. In the meantime, keep asking yourself “What if…”