pushing back

Our worship event at 9:00 on Sunday was quite a roller-coaster ride. While I think we were successful (in that we were faithful, we did not quit, we delivered what God wanted, and we worshiped God), there was some serious resistance.

From a technical standpoint, if it could go wrong, it did. Without going into specifics, the first half of the service was a choppy as I have seen it. We couldn’t get into a flow, there were numerous interruptions. Sounds like a disaster, huh?

Not really. Our church is pretty good about overlooking glitches and we recover rapidly. There is a lot of grace. This may be because we hold the standards of expectation high and we usually are a pretty smooth operation. I think we were able to overcome the technical difficulties and I think we won. At least it wasn't as bad as a 10:45 service recently where the fire alarm went off!

I think the resistance was spiritual. A few people mentioned to me that they sensed the same thing. Obviously, the enemy of our soul does not like us focusing on the Lover of our soul. He tired to stop us or at least distract us. He failed.

Some of the team discussed after our day of worship how humbling it is when something goes wrong in a service. They were reminded to stay focused, stay in the moment of worship and not get lazy. We also encouraged one another with the idea that there is a margin for error. The success of a worship event is not up to us or our level of performance. We certainly are supposed to give God our best, but when our best stinks, we are counting on God’s grace to cover us. And it does.

Regarding Sunday: People worshiped. They heard the Word of God. They prayed. They encouraged each other. I think it was a successful service.

The moment I demand perfection from others, I will be held to the same standard. No thanks.