Tonight Was Interesting

Well, tonight was interesting.

We met at 4PM this afternoon for our standard Saturday afternoon tech run. We prayed, ran through most of the service, got up to the point of the message - and then started paying attention to the rumbling thunder and the clatter on the roof.

Ivins came over and stood beside me.

"Is that rain?"

Brian ran up towards the stage from the tech booth and stopped halfway there. "Whoa!" And he looked up towards the ceiling.

Water was dripping steadily from the roof.

And then the lights began to flicker. Dustin dashed off to turn off the power before surges killed our equipment.

We walked into the atrium and saw a steady stream of cars turning into our parking lot; somebody informed us that a tree had gone done right in front of the church and the highway was blocked.

Shortly after that, strong winds and pressure sucked the atrium doors open briefly.

That was weird.

Without power, we started thinking outside the box. We pulled some chairs into the atrium, gathered around the folks already waiting out the storm on the couches and comfy chairs and started church. John and Walter played acoustic guitars, and Kevin and I helped with singing. We chose a few old praise and worship songs - those that knew them sang comfortably, and those who didn't were able to pick up the words fairly quickly.

It was an beautiful time. The acoustics in the atrium really ring, and we could hear one another singing. it was powerful.

Brian shared some words about the the true source of power; not so much preaching as simply talking to a room full of people.

We sang a little more.

And then we were done with "church".

The coolest part? We all jumped in and made it happen. No second guessing, no concerns.

And the best part? One of the couples who were headed towards Cartersville and ended up in our parking lot instead - due to a downed tree - they stayed. And stayed. And ended up staying for the entire time. They said that they were welcomed with open arms when they walked in the door, and they just thought they'd stay.

I love that. I love that we just hung out tonight, and that it was comfortable enough that a couple of strangers just wanted to hang out with us.

It was a good night. Very different, and not at all what we had planned - but it was a good night. One of our friends said it was absolutely the best "service" she'd ever been to at PCC.

Part of me argued (internally); it wasn't really a service! We didn't do what we had planned. We just sort of made it up as we went along.

We were just there. And we focused on spiritual things, and we prayed, and we spent about 45 minutes doing that.

And I made two new friends.

In terms of church, I guess that'll do.

It was a good night.

We're not exactly sure what to expect tomorrow morning. We do know that we'll adapt to whatever circumstances arise. Dustin is planning to spend the night at the church to ensure that the power company can do their work when they arrive. And we'll figure out what to do as we go along. Seems pretty obvious that God can deal with that.