I was a bit frazzled this morning. My senior pastor was out of town visiting family, and I was left in charge of Sunday morning worship. I had returned to town the previous afternoon after a few days away, and it wasn't until I awoke with a start at 3 a.m. that I remembered that I was presiding over communion this morning by myself for the first time. Our director of music was also on vacation, so I was trying to balance working with our music associate, preaching, remembering all the announcements, and presiding over communion with a musical setting I'd never done before. With all that in mind, I had put on my robe and I was hustling down the stairs toward the sanctuary ten minutes before the service when my eyes fell upon a visitor I recognized. There, in the area by the sanctuary, was my district superintendent. I almost fell down the rest of the stairs in my surprise. Of all the days he could have chosen for a surprise visit, he unknowingly chose the day I was running the show on my own, doing things I'd never done before, and preaching a sermon that I didn't particularly like, but had run out of time to fix.
I stood there for a second, almost waiting for colored bars to appear before my eyes and a voice to announce, "This is only a test. Had this been an actual visit of the district superintendent, you would have been warned ahead of time so you would not be flying by the seat of your pants." Since that did not occur, I regained my composure and addressed the D.S. with shocked bluntness, "What are you doing here?" That's right. I didn't say hello, or ask how his holidays had been, or greet him with poise, I asked a rather accusing question. (Dear self, if you get reappointed to a three-point-charge near Podunkville, you'll know it's your own fault!) From there on, things improved. His wife assured me, with her usual bubbly cheer, that I would be fine and that this wasn't an evaluation. I took a deep breath and tried to believe her, then went to lead the service.
In the end, the worship went relatively well. But I would simply like to ask that, in future, people not shock me into heart palpitations before 9 a.m.
4 comments:
Haha, I'm glad things went well! I have those mornings, too, when the senior pastor is out of town, and I can't possibly be in charge of one more thing, and then something else happens! Gotta love ministry!! :)
Seriously, it must have been the day. So, after preaching EACH WEEK for 6 months, my body, brain and soul needed a break. So I got a colleague to come in and preach. And who walks in--but MY DS!!! And then my collegue, who I asked to preach for 20-25 minutes, preached 40, and we didn't start communion until 12:05. And he wasn't exactly Wesleyean (although he's passed BOM interviews). And he told my primarily Baptist leaning congregation that Baptists were bad. Yeah.
But I'm glad he got to see you preach! And I'm sure it went great!
Oh mannnnn. I don't think surprise visits do anything but fluster people!! Sounds like you handled it well - take a deep breath!!
LL is too humble to mention that the D.S.'s wife posted on her facebook page what a fantastic job LL did for all the world to see. Even on your worst day you are good and wherever we are lacking, God fills in the blanks. BTW a DS usually knows that the SP will be out of town one of the two Sundays after Christmas, so pat yourself on the back, you're a natural.
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