I was trying to wait until I had a photo before I blogged about church today but I should tell the story now before I forget the details.
History: The congregation I serve has a large population of small children. We also have a lot of parents who help out in various ways throughout the church. During our 3 worship services on Sunday we have a lot of people running around trying to make the worship and Sunday School happen. Keeping track of all of these children is often difficult.
Today: In addition to our regular worship schedule (8, 9:15 and 11:15AM) they youth group was hosting a pancake breakfast to benefit a local homeless ministry from 8am to noon. More folks than usual were in the building and running around trying to get things done. The first service had already run 1o minutes over and so we were trying to shave minutes from the second in order to preserve the 35 minute window that we devote to Christian Education (another blog topic for the future).
I had just started the sermon with a quick children's message and I was interrupted by the fire alarm. Yes, the fire alarm. My first thought was that we had a pancake incident in the kitchen but no one was running from Luther Hall in flames. It was immediately apparent that we would have to evacuate the building just to be safe. The timing could not have been more terrible as I had all of the children at the altar with me and minor chaos ensued as they jumped at the alarm and quickly ran to their parents as we evacuated.
As we made our way out of the building Pr. Ellison, the senior pastor, began to make his way to the power shut off and I gathered some chairs for our older folks who would need to sit down once outside. As we left the building someone yelled from upstairs that they saw where the problem was and that there was a small fire in the school teacher's lounge. Our congregation is blessed to have at least two ranking fire professionals among our leadership - one of which was the reader for the second service. He took charge and ran up to the problem.
The worshippers and I made our way across the parking lot and got out of the way for the coming rescue departments. Pr. Ellison came out of the building with a quick report about the small fire and that it was now under control and the building was safe. He did not want to return to the building until the fire department gave the OK so suggested that we continue with worship in the parking lot - beginning with the sermon...
Throughout this whole experience I was sure that we had just lost the whole morning as a result of this emergency. When Pr. Ellison suggested that I try to preach in the parking lot I was quite skeptical and was unsure that it would be a good idea. Honestly, I was scared that it would end up being me trying to keep everyone's attention over the backdrop of fire trucks and police and doubting that the Word would not be heard. I should know better than to doubt God by now.
It was pretty amazing. I started as the fire trucks pulled up and continued through the distractions going on behind me. I knew the sermon because I had preached two times already but it flowed out of me in a way that both distracted from and gave perspective to the situation at hand. I hesitate to make the comparison for obvious reasons, but for that time I began to know what it might have felt like to be one of those ten lepers calling out to Jesus begging for help and mercy. Help did come in the form of a captive audience and communion celebrated on a folding table on the asphalt. If there was ever a day to talk about God coming to us in extraordinary ways this was certainly the day.
At the end of the outdoor worship a small voice cried, "I'm Sorry!". It was the 6 year old who caused the fire. He had been in the teachers lounge and put a roll of paper towels into the microwave and turned it on. Pr. Ellison asked the assembly if they would forgive the child and they all confirmed that they would. Pr. Ellison laid hands on the child and absolved him of his sins. It was a moving scene and yet one that begged the question as to why the child was not being supervised. I can only imagine the conversations that will come from this incident concerning parental responsibility and the new rules that can be imposed on parents who are doing their best.
We were able to move back into the worship space for the final service of the morning. I was definitely hesitant to start the children's sermon but the alarm remained silent. The running joke of the morning was that I should have preached fire and brimstone in light of the events but what I hope was more apparent than the fire was the ability of this community to continue to worship in light of the world around them.
Someone did take pictures of the event so I will post them when I get the chance.
The youth breakfast also resumed and raised $1100 for the local homeless ministry.
