It's Okay

"It's okay".  That's a phrase I seem to use a lot around here on the first Wednesday night of each month.  See, on the first Wednesday night of each month, the praise team/band and worship choir lead in worship during our service.  On the other Wednesday nights throughout the month, we don't do anything.  Our goal is that the "First Wednesday Service" will be a special time of worship that people can look forward to throughout the month.  

So, that's the goal.  Unfortunately, we keep having issues during our First Wednesday Services.  For the most part they aren't major, just annoying.  Like last night, an innocent mistake was made and we lost our click track for one song (the band plays with it to help keep us all together).  And in the process to fix it, we had some loud "static" sounds come through the speakers.  Last month we struggled with some rhythm issues.  The month before that, I completely forgot the lyrics on a verse.  I just blanked on them.

Now, I'm sure there are some reasons that these issues continue to flare-up.  The biggest of which is probably our lack of a significant sound check on First Wednesday Nights.  On Sunday mornings we sound check for 25-30 minutes and run over each song in it's entirety.  On First Wednesday Nights we sound check for about 2 minutes and basically run over intros and transitions.  Unfortunately, that's all the time we have.  

And when there is an issue, everyone comes up to me afterward all upset.  Sometimes they are apologizing for their part in the issue.  Sometimes they are just upset that things didn't go as well as we hoped for.  But here's what I tell everyone:  it's okay.  Don't get me wrong.  I HATE it when things don't go well.  Part of my job is putting people in positions where they can succeed and do well.  And on First Wednesdays, that's hard.  

But ultimately, whether or not our worship is "successful" is not determined by how smoothly everything goes or our lack of issues.  Our worship is determined by the condition of our hearts and the sincerity of our praise.  And if those 2 things are right, then even the biggest issues won't hinder our worship.

So, we'll keep working towards getting all of these issues handled, but until we do, if you show up one First Wednesday Night and things don't go perfectly:

It's okay.

Worship Big!

Brad