
"Without ambition churches won't be built. Without ambition, nations won't be reached. Without ambition, businesses won't be started. Without ambition, nothing is explored. Civilizations become lazy without ambition." - Dave HarveyWe should be ambitious for the glory of God.
But Dr. Harvey's message obviously wasn't the only thing that happened on Sunday. Here's a quick summary of the whole service:
- Bob Kauflin led us in singing along with an "acoustic" band.
- Brian Chesemore helped us remember and proclaim Christ through communion.
- Josh Harris shared pastoral priorities in announcements.
- Then, Dr. Harvey shared his message on ambition.
- Sound - Julie, I thought the acoustic band sounded great. Don's vocal on his solo was smooth and full. The mix still had the same fullness when Jared moved to percussion from the drum kit, which is exactly what we're looking for. Well done!
- Lighting - Dave, thanks for your patient endurance through setup on Saturday. Because of being short-staffed on the sound side, I had to give more time to their efforts and it took longer to get the set in place.
- Video - Overall, it was another smooth morning. Thanks, John and Bill, for jumping in to cover camera director. Liana, I sure hope you are feeling better. We missed camera 4 during the second service, but thankfully there were no ministry mic moments.
- Ken Boer and Grant Layman both independently brought thoughts to Julie regarding the volume of the guitars during the instrumental music. The thoughts, however, were in direct conflict with each other. If you ever experience this, do what Julie did, and check in with me. If you can't get to me, Grant is the boss. Sorry, Ken!
- Email Noise Warning - I know that you get a lot of emails from Latricia and me. Oh, how I wish it weren't so! But email is still the best way to reach everyone with the same info. The sound team had a unique schedule this weekend, and Latricia did outline the change in the Wednesday reminder email. Unfortunately, the details got missed by a couple sound team members. I know that can be easy, and I mention it only as a reminder to read carefully and to not assume the normal. Thanks!
First, someone I never met tapped me on the shoulder after the first service. She wanted to encourage the people running lyrics because she had absolutely no trouble following when we sang a new song for the first time (The Lord Is). Thanks, Kathe and Dolores, for serving people so effectively. This is one of those areas that rarely gets noticed when things go right, so know that you did an excellent job.
Second, our lyrics folks made two wonderful mistakes. I say that sincerely. These are the types of mistakes I want to see. At one point, Bob said, "Let's sing verse three." And verse three went up (Good!). Then Bob proceeded to quote from the middle of verse three, which was actually on the second slide. Oops. The second part of verse three went up (Good!). Then Bob began to sing from the beginning of verse three. Oops. And the first slide went up again (Good!). This may have looked like a mistake, and it may have felt like a mistake, but I love the fact that they were being proactive to get stuff up early and to follow where Bob was going. Is that exactly the way I would have liked it to go if we had planned it? Probably not. Given the situation, however, I'd rather lyrics operators be proactive and make mistakes than be late consistently. Why? Being late is a mistake every time.
Also, during the first sermon, our folks missed a Scripture reference. The reason? They were taking notes on the application point that just went up. Covenant Life pastors are learning that they can't put a quote or scripture immediately after a main point. No one has time to write down the point before it disappears. I'm not sure if there was any communication about it, but the second sermon was better because Dave Harvey took more time before referencing the Scripture. The lyrics operators got it up that time.
Thanks everyone for serving this weekend! I will be on vacation for the next two Sundays, so make sure to give the Lord (via Ben and Bram) your best efforts these next two weekends.
And please send in your thoughts about this last Sunday by commenting on this post.