I struggle to find the words to describe Sunday.  From a ministry standpoint, it was deep, emotional, spiritual, life-changing.  From a practical standpoint, there were so many things going wrong.  From a volunteer standpoint, I was amazed at how people served like never before.  From a congregation standpoint, I’ve never seen them more attentive or hungry for God.  It seems like all these standpoints are intricately related and build off each other.

I could tell from early in the week that the sermon was going to be strong.  When I say that type of thing, I mean that it will flow easily, there will be a lot of inspiration, and the general expectation is that God is going to really use that time to work on us.  That type of feeling does NOT happen every week. Sometimes, the message is more practical. At other times, the message comes from a teaching perspective. With that frame of mind, I get excited about Sunday and what is actually going to happen when we all gather.  If you missed the message, I encourage you to watch it online.

We got the word on Thursday, that a large part of our parking lot would not be available for Sunday.  This means that traffic and parking would be a nightmare.  We made the decision on Friday to use Travis Elementary (about 2miles) from our location as an alternate parking location and use our new bus as a shuttle.  We immediately sent emails, texts, and phone calls to key leaders and had them mobilize their teams to facilitate this major change.  We bought a new golf cart and rented a 2nd one to help shuttle folks around our lots at the church.  Our theory was: we want to make lemonade out of lemons and use it to as an opportunity to SERVE our people and offer fantastic care to our guests.  Instead of “wow, this church has horrible parking.” We wanted to hear, “wow, this church has an amazing group of people volunteering and serving others.” That statement is impossible without a slew of volunteers giving it all they can.  It also required a large number of our leaders and members parking 2 miles away from church and waiting (sometimes 20min) for a shuttle. All that happened and we had some sweet tasting lemonade. I am so thankful for Mike Higgins and the Hospitality team.

During that whole process, the golf cart that we purchased broke down.  The men got it fixed after several minutes and then later one of the front wheels came off.  They patched that back together and kept rolling.  Our sound system started humming loud at all the wrong times.  All the AC units in the sanctuary were not working.  Problem after problem mounted. It seemed like our adversary was doing everything possible to distract from what God wanted to accomplish.  I am so amazed at God’s ability to trump the devil and his evil plan.  The gospel was preached and hundreds of people ‘saw’ God!

After church was over, I ran home, ate a quick lunch, and then went to meet Will Krauss and Michael Hollifield in Kyle. We all jumped in Will’s car and drove to the 5pm PromiseLand Waco service. It took right at 2 hours to get there (we had to stop for the obligatory Starbucks break).  When we arrived, we were blown away by the progress this little church has made.  They had record attendance of 68 people! Wow. To think this group only had a small Bible study 12 months ago is amazing.  God is multiplying with their faith.  Not only is their attendance growing, but their worship, offering, and passion for God is catching on fire.  It is obvious with the atmosphere of worship that God is making a move in Waco.  When church was over, we went with some church folks to Buffalo Wild Wings and ate some horribly unhealthy food.  I made it home to San Marcos around 10:15pm.

It was a long, wonderful day. I can’t imagine being tired for a better reason.

+Robin

If you were around any of those activities on Sunday, I would love to hear your perspective.