Behind the Scenes of Worship
Today one of my anxiety nightmares almost come true!
As a pastor, my recurring nightmare is showing up to church some Sunday without the right materials, or bulletin, or the right clothes, or my clergy robe is at another location, or my brain is not thinking clearly and I don't quite know the right things to say.
Well today was quite the trip down anxiety lane. We had a guest preacher (a good friend of mine) lined up for today, and I was the host pastor while our associate pastor was on vacation this week. I showed up on time and was so busy trying to make sure everything was in order, when the song director began leading. And it suddenly dawns on me, "Oh my gosh! We've just begun singing. Where's our guest preacher?!?" I usually have time to meet with the guest preacher before worship to go over all the details of the flow of service.
And I swear to you, as I was picking up my purse to leave for church, my last thought was, "I really ought to pick up a folder of back up worship materials (includiing an extra sermon) in case I'm on my own due to some emergency."
Well, let me tell you, I quickly ducked out during that first song to call our guest on my cell phone. Had to leave a message, "Worship has just begun! Are you on your way?!? Hope you can make it here in time! We were expecting you to preach for both services." Being as nice and calm as I could be, considering they were by now singing the second song, and I would soon have to come up with a last minute children's message.
Yes folks, I was sooo kicking myself for not having prepared that back up worship service folder. I went forward, came up with a timely children's message. Whew! That's done! Did the announcements, leaving out the part about the missing guest preacher. And during some more singing, was brainstorming the possibilities of how I could lead the people during the sermon time.
Wouldn't you know it, guest preacher came walking in just before having to implement an alterantive plan! Whew! I just barely had time to call her up, filled her in on what was up next, sat back down and enjoyed a truly wonderful sermon. Praise God!
This week I'll be working on a back up sermon:)
As a pastor, my recurring nightmare is showing up to church some Sunday without the right materials, or bulletin, or the right clothes, or my clergy robe is at another location, or my brain is not thinking clearly and I don't quite know the right things to say.
Well today was quite the trip down anxiety lane. We had a guest preacher (a good friend of mine) lined up for today, and I was the host pastor while our associate pastor was on vacation this week. I showed up on time and was so busy trying to make sure everything was in order, when the song director began leading. And it suddenly dawns on me, "Oh my gosh! We've just begun singing. Where's our guest preacher?!?" I usually have time to meet with the guest preacher before worship to go over all the details of the flow of service.
And I swear to you, as I was picking up my purse to leave for church, my last thought was, "I really ought to pick up a folder of back up worship materials (includiing an extra sermon) in case I'm on my own due to some emergency."
Well, let me tell you, I quickly ducked out during that first song to call our guest on my cell phone. Had to leave a message, "Worship has just begun! Are you on your way?!? Hope you can make it here in time! We were expecting you to preach for both services." Being as nice and calm as I could be, considering they were by now singing the second song, and I would soon have to come up with a last minute children's message.
Yes folks, I was sooo kicking myself for not having prepared that back up worship service folder. I went forward, came up with a timely children's message. Whew! That's done! Did the announcements, leaving out the part about the missing guest preacher. And during some more singing, was brainstorming the possibilities of how I could lead the people during the sermon time.
Wouldn't you know it, guest preacher came walking in just before having to implement an alterantive plan! Whew! I just barely had time to call her up, filled her in on what was up next, sat back down and enjoyed a truly wonderful sermon. Praise God!
This week I'll be working on a back up sermon:)
posted by on the Rock @ 8:12 PM
1 Comments:
At 3:32 PM,
Overwhelmed! said…
Ah, so THIS is what you were up to this weekend. I would've been panicking as well! Thanks goodness your guest preacher showed up in the nick of time!
Thanks for your comment on my camping trip post. I wish we would've had some gourmet cooks on our trip! We managed to muddle along with just us though and the smores made it all worth while! :)
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