Grace Under Pressure

We had to start church a few minutes late yesterday. I don't remember the last time this happened - or IF it's happened before. It was one of those mornings that was, how should I phrase this . . . an exercise in character growth.

First, we found a problem with a speaker that was recently replaced and decided we would have to go without the sub-woofer. Then, immediately after that the main speakers went out completely. We had blown the power amp that drives them.

Dave troubleshot the issue and went to work on figuring out how to work around this right away. Within a few minutes we had enough of the sound system back to keep going. Why do I say all this? Because I made two observations during this stressful time that floored me.

First, we are so fortunate to have Dave on our team at Meadow. He is one of the first people there on Sunday mornings and one of the last to leave. He knows the sound system inside and out (in fact he has pretty much designed and built it). He knew what needed to be done and got us back up and running as quick as possible. If it were left to me I'm not sure what would have happened, but John would have had to probably shout during his message as I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have had a sound system. On top of all the sound system drama for Dave, he also was part of the music team. It's not very often that he is able to play, but when he does I'm pretty sure he would prefer not having to deal with a crisis. But he handled everything with grace and professionalism. He commented to me "I live for Sunday's like this." I was like, "Dude."

Second, when something technical goes wrong on a Sunday morning, it is stressful. Being a portable church, there is little room in our schedule for something to go wrong. But everyone on the music team and tech team was calm, cool, and collected throughout. It was awesome to see.

We have a great team at Meadow and I enjoy working with you all. Thanks for using the gifts God has given you and for being examples of his grace and peace.