This Sunday was an amazing example of how God can use what seems like catastrophic failure and disaster to bring about His will and see hearts transformed and convicted. 

This Sunday our video lead Al Hielscher and one of his devoted video trainees (Erik Armes) arrived at Schirmer auditorium at around 7am per usual.  They quickly found that they had a projector that was not working.  As they scrambled to fix the projector the routine Sunday audio check to see if we were sending up sound OK from Ballard to Shoreline came and passed without much attention due to the seemingly much bigger issue of a projector not working.  Little did they know that the audio streaming up to Shoreline through our bundle of 6 T-1 cables was barely audible and distorted to the point of not being useable.

They got the projector working and all seemed good to go as Pastor Steve opened the service with some announcements and prayer. As Pastor Steve went to walk off the stage and the video sermon came on it was quickly apparent that there was something wrong.  Steve got back up on the stage and told everyone that we were having technical difficulties, but he assumed we would have the sound dialed in quickly and we would be able to continue with the stream from Ballard.  But it wasn’t long before he got the slit throat sign from Al and the guys in the production booth.  But as he stalled for time…the most awesome thing happened!!

Our congregation started applauding and chanting ‘PREACH!! PREACH!!”.  It was soooo cool!  They encouraged him to grab his bible and just go with the Ghost!  So Steve came down from the stage and began to walk back to get his bible.  His wife met him half way with the bible and as Steve went to retake the stage the room erupted in applause again!  It was so neat to see our congregation encourage him like that!  He asked if they’d like him to preach his Colossians sermon that he was partially prepared for in preparation for next week or if they’d like to hear a message on God’s calling that he had some notes on in his bible. There was an overwhelming vote for the message on calling. 

Side Note:  Pastor Steve looked at these notes earlier that morning sitting on his desk and thought to himself.  Nah…I don’t need these…the video streamed hasn’t ever failed once since October.  Then he thought well…I guess I’ll throw them in my bible just in case and he grabbed them off his desk!!

Pastor Steve went on to preach a sermon that can only be described as guided and given to him by the Holy Spirit.  As he closed the sermon the room erupted in applause, whoops, and amens!  I can’t count how many people came to me or I overheard saying things like “that sermon was meant for me”.  Everyone I spoke to felt the presence of God in the midst of our worst technical failure at the Shoreline Campus ever!  I feel so blessed to have a campus pastor who practices what he preaches…namely that he is a good ’steward of the grace that God has given him” and as God’s steward (or servant) Sunday I feel confident that Steve did not get in the way of leading of the Spirit in the least, but instead was faithful with the gifts God has given him and trusted that the Lord would give him the words he needed as preached from the hip. 

My prayer is that we would see a whole new crop of faithful stewards of God’s grace become active members of our body as a result of the Spirit’s work on our campus through Pastor Steve this Sunday.  That people would get up out of their seats and lend their time, treasure, and talents to the mission that Jesus has given Mars Hill in North King and Snohomish County to see lives transformed to live for Him.