Story Behind the Stories: Heroes
If you’re just tuning in, Sunday was a day for the history books at the Summit Church. We saw 140 people get baptized among our seven services. You can read more about that incredible event here, but the rest of this week’s posts are dedicated to the story behind the stories.
I work with some great people.
When attempting to pull off an event of Sunday’s magnitude, I definitely do not recommend being a control freak. Sure, you have to have systems and processes and safeguards in place to make sure you’re being responsible, but something like this doesn’t happen as a one-man show.
I’d be a fool if I attempted to individually thank every single person who stepped up to help on Sunday, either as a counselor or a registration person or a runner or a water-logged pastor. There was no one that was unnecessary, and no one who didn’t see a need and then do whatever it took to fill that need.
Through the daze that I call full-scale head cold mixed with busy Sunday hangover, I can remember a few stories of heroes that I want to pass along…
- My Connections Team: Walter, Adam, Justin, Eric, and Leanne pulled off a thousand little details in the days leading up to Sunday. The Connections Ministry is what it is due to these five, and the baptisms on Sunday were no exception.
- Lori, the administrative assistant extraordinaire, braved life, limb, and a severe phobia of germs to gather used towels, t-shirts, and shorts after the morning service. And I can’t remember for sure, but I’m pretty sure she skipped out of the service to come to the rescue when she sensed the bat signal going off.
- Ainsley gave up an afternoon to accompany my wife and I to the laundromat, where we washed, dried, and folded what felt like a million towels and shorts to get ’em ready for the evening service.
- Matt, Jennifer, and Carrie ended up spending the entire morning helping out with random stuff – replenishing copies, running sound, troubleshooting and resetting between services.
- I won’t even try naming the dozens of counselors who performed the most important job there was…making sure that those being baptized knew what they were doing. Although many of them were scheduled to be there, there were quite a few who sprinted to serve when they saw the overwhelming number of people respond to the message. (Some of you, I never even knew you were there. You just jumped in to help.)
- Amber handed out Pepto when it was needed the most.
- Jonathan and Austin had the very awkward job of posting themselves at the exit of the baptistery and asking for people’s wet clothes after they had changed into dry ones. They then had the very gross job of squeezing out the water so we could “recycle” them for others. (Although I was not “Ye of little faith” on Sunday, I did end up being “Ye of little supplies.”)
- Spence and Courtney treated my kids to an afternoon with the Wii when it became apparent a trip to the laundromat was going to be necessary.
- And finally, Merriem and the kids proved once again that we’re in this thing together. They each logged about twelve hours of ministry on Sunday and did everything from emergency towel runs to handing out t-shirts to providing me with my much-needed Frappuccino.
For all of you who said, “What can I do to help?” and for all of you who didn’t ask, you just did…thank you. You’re all a part of the story behind the stories.
Read all of the posts in this series:
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