The story from today….
Okay where do I start? As I stated in my previous post we were getting at the theater last night at midnight for some winter cleaning. We had this worked out with the theatre and we were good to go. I get there and about 10-12 of our men are standing outside not working. The movie was still going on so I walk inside to find out when it was over and it was King Kong and it didn’t start until 11:30. It is three hours long. There had been a miscommunication. I tell our guys and after laughing we all went to the Waffle House and planned on just coming back like normal at 5. No big deal.
So after going home and getting about 2 hours of sleep. I head back to the church. I walk in and everyone is there and things are going great. Suddenly during our dry run there is an awful noise from Tim’s guitar. The electric stuff in his guitar started going out. No big deal he pulls out the back up. Everything is good.
Then about a hour before service I notice none of the words are on the screen while the band is doing their run through. I walk over and they tell me the computer has crashed and they are switching to the back up. That is cool, I am glad we bought a back up. The back up gets plugged in and we are in business for about 5 minutes before the back up crashes! We call in the computer geeks and about 3 mintues before service they get it right and that lasted for about 20 minutes before while I was teaching I just tell them to shut them down as they were going haywire.
Now it gets good…
We get out of servie about 11:10 like normal. We are hanging around and tearing down and suddenly I notice there are a buttload of people in the theatre waiting for the movie that I think starts at 1. I start talking with one of the people and they mention that the movie starts at 11:30. What?????????????? There is NO way we are getting out of the theatre in that time. I go and tell the lead manager who tells me there has been a mix-up and it is not our fault and that they are moving the people to another theatre. She sends in one of the other managers in to do this. He gets up and and tells the people and I quote, “Folks, the church has lied to us and didn’t get out of here in time. We have to move you to another theatre.”
People went livid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m standing there shocked and my people are looking at me and these people are literally screaming at us. Several called us A-Hole’s and one screams out “F#*@ the church.” I mean people were livid. At about this time I notice my rednecks are bowing up BUT still doing their job. I then hear one of our guys who is a doctor start saying something about a fat something or nother and how he (the guy from our church) is talking about what a crazy beeping Cuban he is and blah, blah, blah. I love that guy.
At this time I am simply trying to lighten the mood. I then follow the crowd out with the manager wanting to explain the situation to him. I hear someone in front of me talking about what a bunch of beeping aholes we were and then I hear the manager AGAIN say something about us lying. Now, I am freaking livid. I speak up and let the crowd know how sorry we are and that we would be glad to refund his ticket but that the manager is lying to him. The manager is scard to death because I am fit to be tied. He sneaks away and this guy gets up in my face nose to nose. NOW I am really livid. I push the guy back and let him know that getting in my face will do nothing and that I am sorry BUT if he chooses to get in my face again I won’t be sorry very long. He walks away mumbling and I am so mad that I can’t let him walk away. I let him know what I think of him and his stinking attitude. He then just changes and is completely different. I think I have done something good and I turn around and notice one of my huge guys is behing me letting him know to agree with me or face the consequences of not agreeing with me. That made me smile.
I then find the manager and lose it. I was wrong but it was crazy. I later apologized and it is now cool. But as I walk back in more of my guys and more of the customers are going at in verbal spats. I get all that settled down and suddenly we hear a crash. One of our HUGE pieces of staging has fallen on one of our guys and it is a panic to see if he was alright. This was a very scary moment and just added to the tension.
In the end I found most of the customers and explanined to them. They were so mad that this was hard but I speak redneck very well, so I was able to get the message across and for the most part everything was all good in the end.
I have to admit though it scared me for a brief moment as I looked around and knew that I could not handle all my guys if they decided to break bad. EVERY ONE on our set-up team was unchurched when they started attending. We have some big bad dudes. One was a bull rider, one looks like he should have been in the WWE, and the rest just look like they will cut you. I love them.
Do I need to teach on being slow to wrath? Yeah, probably soon. And I need to hear it myself.
BUT I loved the passion they had for the church and even for me. They were not happy knowing these people were attacking me. That is cool.
I think this is just the start of what is going to be a long spiritual warfare week as we get ready for Christmas Eve.
I LOVE CHURCH PLANTING!