Monday Mind Dump

For those who do not know, my family and I have recently moved to Sand Springs, Oklahoma to take the Lead Pastor position at Harvest Church. I haven't written in a while but I used to do these "Monday Mind Dumps" to clear my head after the Sunday service. It allows me to process most of my thoughts about the Sunday service and you to see my process in evaluating the things that were done. (Don't worry! I will not evaluate anything that deals with specific people. I don't put people on blast like that.) I thought I'd try this again.

Yesterday we had to cancel our onsite services because of winter weather. Can I just say that I hate snow and ice! I hate to cancel church. Most people assume that it is because we can't take offering and then I have to be concerned about meeting budgets for the week. That actually isn't it at all. (I mean, I do think about those things but that isn't my main reason for despising having to cancel.) I LOVE getting together with God's people to worship and celebrate Him. I love the dynamic of corporate worship. I love to hear other people singing. I love it when spontaneous worship breaks out. I love to see how people respond to the Holy Spirit's presence. I love to teach God's word to a room full of people who are hungry to hear from Him. There is just nothing like it! Sunday really is my favorite day of the week. So when we have to cancel everything in me fights it. With that said, when we had to cancel yesterday, I contacted a skeleton crew who felt comfortable getting out in the cold to meet me so we could broadcast a livestream service for everyone who was at home.

Now, what you should know about me is I am comfortable in front of a crowd and I am comfortable in front of a camera in a small room with no one else present. What I am not comfortable with is a nearly empty auditorium and ceiling mounted cameras and you could probably tell it. I preached to the ten or so people that were there and to the cameras, all the while hoping that someone was watching. I stood in one place and tried to put the majority of my focus on the one camera. I tried to deliver what God had spoken to me but it wasn't my greatest preaching moment. We will be working on another method doing online services for such occasions.

The worship team, however, knocked it out of the park. They played and sang as though the room was full of people. They worshiped like it was just them and God. I couldn't have been a prouder pastor. And then there was the people that never get recognition; the people in the sound booth tweaking sound for the online audience, the people putting words on the screen so it could be broadcasted and you who were at home could sing along. Then there's the camera guy who showed up and had to sit there to make sure I didn't walk off screen! (And then I didn't even move! Sorry Steve!) We had people who showed up to just help in any way they could and also people who came to watch children. I was moved because these people, volunteers, came anyway. They chose to get up, get dressed and come out in the COLD so other people could still worship at home in their PJs!

As a pastor, our hope is that people will eventually be able to look beyond themselves and grasp the servant nature of Jesus for their own lives. We long for people to stop being so selfish and to serve others in the same manner that Jesus would and did. We hope and pray and teach so that people will get it. And yesterday they did! They served. No payment, no external reward and with probably very few thank you's. But I was ministered too. I am so thankful. I am incredibly proud.

So, not too much today in the way of critique today. Just a great big THANK YOU from an incredibly grateful pastor to the dream team at Harvest Church! We love you and are honored to serve God and our community alongside you! You rock and I can't wait to see as God brings you all into your More!