“Man, this is organized!”
Those are the words of a guest worship leader that I recently asked to lead at The Journey.
After joining us for load-in, set-up, our timed sound checks, focus time, and cue-to-cue he told me backstage that it was one of the most organized and efficient Sunday morning run-throughs he had experienced. And because the level of stress was low, everyone on the team was able to focus on their role as lead worshippers that morning.
I’ll be honest . . . it made me proud of our church. We have incredible volunteers who work hard and our system for staying on track and reducing the stress of Sunday had struck him as something out of the ordinary.
I tell you that to tell you this . . . recently I had the opportunity to be a guest worship leader at a friend’s church. Unfortunately, I didn’t walk away with the same feeling. All the volunteers were great, the church was great. But that Sunday morning was stressful and you could see it on everyone’s face. The service went fine, but it took a lot of energy to pull all the last minute details together in the minutes before the service.
It got me thinking . . . why the distinct difference in experiences? It wasn’t the hearts of the volunteers. They both had hearts of gold. It wasn’t the equipment. Both churches had the equipment needed for excellent services.
As I dug deeper into it the answer finally emerged. The difference wasn’t in what was happening on Sunday, but in what had happened long before we got to Sunday.
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