Power Outage

Warning: honest confession of a pastor contained…

Saturday night the power went out at the school about 5 minutes before service was to begin. It left our team with a dilemna. Much of our service had been planned around video we shot, and of course w/o electricity there would be no band or mic’s.

As we contemplated what to do, I must confess…

• I was tired from the spring carnival that day.
• I had a long list of things on my mind.
• I’ve struggled a bit with my voice lately.
• I secretly liked the idea of getting home early.
• I was disappointed we wouldn’t be able to use the video
• I was really leaning towards just cancelling the service and asking everyone to come back in the morning.

THEN…I looked down at my notes. You see, I was prepared to teach from Luke 5, where friends carry a paralyzed man on a mat to Jesus so that He might be healed. The main point of my message was that we’re to be unstoppable in sharing the gospel of Jesus with people who need to know Him.

It was a great little reminder from God to practice what I preach. After a quick prayer of repentance we went “unplugged” with the service. Derrick improvised on the accoustic and led 2 songs, then I preached w/o a mic. It did strain my voice, and it was tough, but it was honoring to the Lord.

By the way, the service was awesome, and a lot of people commented that we should go “unplugged” more often (I vote against that ).  It was a great reminder that it is all about God, and we must be preapred to give him everything we have, even when we don’t feel like it!