do your job

okay this is a complete rant.

i wish some people would take their "ministry" positions seriously. i firmly believe that every part of the ministry is important - from the smallest to the largest. yesterday, our youth ministry praise band led our 9:30 worship service in the singing portion of worship. i play with them even though i am by no means a youth (the reason is a long story but basically it is to make sure that i don't throw some teens into a position that will build up "spiritual" pride within themselves - i've screwed up one kid before by putting him in charge and i won't do that again so now i make sure that a spiritually grounded adult is there to keep everyone humble).

anyway, we were supposed to do the music. i had everything set up for that. i had the music ready, the sound set-up ready, and setup the mediashout presentation. the problem was that the person that is supposed to run the service's "words" for the music apparently decided not to show up. this wasn't a teen who failed to be there. nope it was an adult who apparently didn't think the position was important enough to call and have another qualified person ready for it.

of course, i didn't find this out until after the service. nope i was baptizing two kids at the beginning of the service and therefore they couldn't get me. so they grabbed a teen who said she could operate powerpoint (saying i hate powerpoint may be too strong of language because i use it for messages - i do strongly dislike microsoft and try as much as possible not to use their programs). of course, mediashout is a different ball game and she didn't know what was going on with it.

i found out after the service that probably 40% of the words actually made it on the screen. i don't blame the teen. the reason this is such a big deal is because there were people who were not able to participate within the worship of GOD simply because there were no words on the screen. those words are very important. that truly "gripes" me when someone drops the ball like that.

i'm not even sure that i know who dropped the ball because i'm not in charge of that service. next time, i'll come with someone to operate the mediashout also.

of course, i'm sure i wouldn't want to hear what people say about me when i "drop the ball" as i often do.

A SIDE NOTE - i am so proud of our youth praise band (those who shall remain nameless). they get better and better and i love the spirit that is behind their playing. they are a great group of kids.