Wednesdays are usually routine. During the school months, I come into office around nine or so and work on finishing up the night's lesson for that evening. At 11:20 I head over to the local high school (South Greene, 3 miles from the church) and eat lunch with the students over there. The administration of that school is more than willing to allow me to spend some time with the students. (More to come on this topic later) On any other normal day, I would leave South Greene and head to town quickly to put my check in the bank and catch up on any errands that might need to be taken care of. After that, I'd head back to Cedar Creek to get things ready. Students usually start showing up around 3:30 after they get out of school.
Well, yesterday (5-22-13) didn't work out so well. To say the least, it was a crazy day. It was the first Wednesday that the students were out of school for the summer. Therefore, my weekly lunch plans were altered as there was no school to eat at! Understandable... not too big of a deal. So, I met some kids at the YMCA to work out with them during lunch time. This is a great opportunity for ministry (more to come on this topic as well!) Since the weather was nice, I rode my motorcycle as is usual. When I left the Y, the skies turned dark and were starting to open up just as I got home. The Lord watched over my ignorance and allowed me to get home before the storm hit. I was appreciative.
This storm was just the starting point of the craziness. I grabbed some tuna salad for an after-workout protein snack, swapped vehicles, and headed back to the church. FYI, the church is about five miles from my house. When I left the house, it was not storming, raining, or threatening to do so. I made it half way there, and I had to pull under a Bradford Pair at Solomon Lutheran in order to keep from getting the car beat to death by hail balls. Mind you, according to The Weather Channel Desktop, there was a 30% chance of an isolated thunderstorm. I appreciated the isolation. I finally made it back to church only to sit down at my desk for about 30 minutes before another storm came through. This storm was more intense. I looked out the window to see our landscaping escaping and our flowering pair trees disintegrating. It was craziness. Then came the leaks. It was raining so hard and for so long that our fairly-modern building was leaking in places that it had never leaked before.
Here is a note for all of you individuals that are contemplating the ministry. First off, if you are thinking you are called into the ministry, pray hard about it and don't rush into it. However, also think about this: Satan would not put thoughts of Kingdom expansion in your head. If you are read up (the Bible) and prayed up, and the ministry is on your heart, then God is probably tugging your heart's strings. Secondly, there is much more to a pastorate than preaching, teaching, and visiting. Sometimes you have to pull out coolers to catch the leaking storm water. Sometimes you have to figure out how to reset the fire alarm when the roof leaks on a smoke detector and sets the system off. Yep... that happened. The fire alarm was activated for several hours before the smoke detector could dry out and the system could be reset. With the help of my admirable administrative assistant, we silenced the alarm, but the strobes continued to flash. It was humorous to watch the faces of the senior members of our congregation as they walked in for their portion of Wednesday evening service.
Ministry continued. We, as all good youth groups do, played dodge ball, worshipped to YouTube videos (Whom Shall I Fear by Tomlin & Gold by Britt Nicole), and completed our service with prayer and a sermonette by yours truly. I spoke on using your gifts for the purpose of the Kingdom. God gave us the ultimate gift by the sending of His Son. The least we can do is offer our talents to Him in return. 1 Peter 4:10 was the text, an appropriate one I suppose. Lesson for the day, expect the unexpected and plan on rolling with the punches!
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