When it comes to Sunday service planning, I’m a risk taker…and many times it pays off. Being shot at with a paintball gun, dropping eggs from the roof, renting a school bus and having the entire service on the bus as we drove around town…these all worked great. BUT, it’s not always like that… There are always, in fact, three services:
- the one we plan
- the one we have
- the one we wish we had
Sometimes, it’s a pleasant surprise when #2 and #1 don’t match, but sometimes, well…sometimes, I sit back and say, “Yea – that didn’t turn out like I imagined.” Like, when we poured hundreds of crickets into a cage that was supposed to keep them in…”Yea – that didn’t turn out like I imagined.”
It was at the beginning of service, so the results were less than stellar. The crickets were all over the stage (upstaging the teacher, who occasionally stepped on them while making a point), and kids lifted their feet and sat cross-legged on their chairs in fear (The lesson was part of a series on being fearless, by the way). We heard them chirping and found their dead bodies for weeks.
There was the time when we brought in a large rolling trash can to talk about trash in our life. I can still smell the moment when we flipped open the lid, even though it was over 2 years ago. “Yea – that didn’t turn out like I imagined.” Also in the odors department: I decided to use planting soil to demonstrate a heart condition that would allow the seed of God’s word to grow. Somebody thought that a manure-based planting soil would be best, and in the middle of the service, we filled large planter boxes that were around the room with the stuff. It smelled like (and induced) barf. “Yea – that didn’t turn out like I imagined.”
There was a fifth grade girl who thought it would be a good idea to stick an apple in her mouth and allow a volunteer to shoot it with his crossbow. I won’t go into the details, but, well, “Yea – that didn’t turn out like I imagined.” Good news, though: nobody got hurt. One time, I had a successful lesson…but it ended sooner than I imagined. At camp, I taught from a canoe while the kids sat on the shore. Now, this could have been a real disaster, but it wasn’t. The only problem was, the wind picked up and the person helping to keep the boat close to the shore couldn’t row fast enough. We were swept away from the shore. I abruptly ended the message with a prayer as we were carried away – I basically yelled, “Amen” in order to be heard. “Yea – that didn’t turn out like I imagined.”
Planning services is one of the most enjoyable things I do, and when I see that a lesson has connected a preteen to God and His Word in a meaningful way – WOW! That’s why I do what I do. But God is faithful through it all…the lessons that turn out better than I expected, and those that flop. He works all of it together for good, and that’s a great thing, because it allows me to be acceptable to do His work, even though my very best is in no way worthy of His surpassing glory.
I love working for such a grace-full boss. And it’s so good to know that He never, ever sits back on a Sunday afternoon and says, “Yea – that didn’t turn out like I imagined.”
