How to stress a pastor in four easy steps

1   Arrange a series of meetings with a high profile and excellent speaker who regularly appears on TV.
2   Speaker does not arrive by the time the meeting is due to begin.
3   Tecky who will run the whole of the computer system / sound system / a lot of the lighting / hymn and song words is delayed on a long distance bus travelling on a busy Friday and in bad weather.
4   Say 5 minutes before the service that Erik cannot lead the opening as arranged in case the speaker cannot find the church: "you'll be OK to open the meeting, won't you Tracy?"

As you may have guessed we got off to a bit of a shaky start last night but I don't think the church full of people noticed. I disappeared to my office for a minute or two and sent up one of those "now I really need you to come through for me God" prayers that we have all prayed occasionally and asked God how He wanted me to open the meeting. I opened with Isaiah 60, the first 4 verses. Later in the meeting I had the wonderful experience of the opening tying straight into one of the speaker's points, God didn't let me down that time either!

The Techy arrived looking somewhat frazzled one minute after the meeting should have started. I said I would stretch out the opening until he gave me the nod that he was ready and I could hand over to the worship leader. He was ready very quickly and we had a wonderful time worshiping God.

The speaker arrived during the worship and had time to draw breath and focus before he was due up at the front.

It was a fantastic meeting! Jørn Strand spoke powerfully on 2 Corinthians 4:7 "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." He asked us to think when we read this text "we have this treasure in jars of clay". Where in the sentence do we put the emphasis? It is so easy to put it on the "jars of clay" - us -  and to forget that it is God's treasure we are filled with. The focus is on us and not on what God has given us or done for us. He continued the point by saying that all of us who know Jesus as our Lord have been given treasure in our lives by God and if we don't put it in a savings account but use it then God gives us more, we get filled up. His point was that it is in using what God has given us of his grace, gifts and goodness in our lives that we receive more of it! Like in the story of Elijah and the widow in  1 Kings 17.10-16 our pots of clay do not run out - God just keeps on filling us up. I often say God cannot fill up a pot which is already full, we need to use some of what we have to make room for a refill!

Last night was the first of four meetings this weekend at Norkirken and it was excellent. I am really looking forward to the next three! If you are local, come along this evening at 7pm, if not then I have a question for you to ponder: "Are you using what God has given you or have you hidden it away in a savings account   for a rainy day?"