Flexibility - the word of the week

I have written here about flexibility before. This past week has been a real opportunity to live it out.

It started early on Sunday, October 4. We had a schedule for the morning to get things ready for the day. Jacob's Road was with us as special musical guests. A couple of things happened to throw that schedule off. No problem, adjustments were made and it all came together. At about 9:40 or so I was in the sanctuary and the lights literally went out. My first thought was a breaker had blown, then I heard the fire doors coming down with a loud crash in the kitchen. This was more than a breaker. After the initial check of the building, we learned from the power company that over 1700 in our area were without power due to an incident. (We later found out the "incident" was "animal contact at a power pole.")

You can imagine, this caused a bit of scrambling to take place. Everyone involved did fantastic. Jacob's Road rolled with it and put together a fully acoustic song set for a time of praise. Our children's workers adjusted and kept the children in the lobby where we receive the most natural light in the building. We got everyone to sit as close to the front as possible in the center of the sanctuary and we opened the doors around the sides allowing sunlight to come in. We had church! It was a great time!

I have received so many positive comments about the day. People really connected with the time of praise and just got into the feel of the day. No technology, no hype, no pretension, just simple. Just awesome. I greatly enjoyed it.

Monday brought a couple more surprises that changed my schedule a bit for the week. No big things, just had to flow and adjust. Monday night an opportunity arose to spend some time with other pastors in serious iron sharpens iron time. It was late and unexpected, but it was very cool. Having it take place over wings and Monday Night Football didn't hurt! :)

Tuesday night had me out unexpectedly at 1 am helping a group out that was in from out of town. Wednesday brought schedule changes as appointments shifted and plans were changed. Thursday, Friday, & Saturday welcomed an outside group of Korean churches using our building for evening rallies. This was planned, but these events always involve a surprise or two and this one did as well. Friday morning brought an inspection to our HVAC and Fire Alarm system that we weren't aware was going to take place. Friday also brought with it a good amount of rain which was a problem for the men's campout that night. We held it anyway and just made some adjustments.

In the middle of all this our main computer that runs the projection in the sanctuary had a serious virus issue that rendered it unusable. Sunday morning we were loading software onto a different computer to make things work for the day.

It was a great week in so many ways. God moved and spoke. People contacts were made. Lessons were learned. Much was accomplished.

All of that to say, when you speak of flexibility, be willing to live it. :)