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Fried Squirrel … and When the Lights Go Out
Posted by Geoff Baggett in Church & Missions
I thought I would bring a little laughter and warm fuzzy to your world today. Frankly, I think we can all use the change of pace.
This past Sunday was, as usual, well on its way to being another awesome Lord’s Day at Crossroads Fellowship in good old Cadiz, Kentucky. God showed up. Our praise band was amazing … we had just opened worship with the amazing praise song, “Every Day.” Then we rocked out with Chris Tomlin’s “With Me.” And Stacie, our lead female vocalist, had just led the church to sing the beautiful song, “Hosanna.” We were just a few stanzas into our final worship song, … and worshipful it is … Chris Tomlin’s “I will Rise,” when suddenly the lights went out. We lost all power. Everything. No juice. The only light came from our emergency exit signs. We have no windows in our worship room so that we can have complete light control with our color LED’s.
But I was so proud of my praise team. They never missed a beat … they kept on singing, and the people followed them. I must say it was some of the most amazing praise that we have experienced in quite some time.
So, we reached the end of our song, then had a prayer of preparation for the message. Then it was time for my sermon. Only problem is, I work really heavily off of my Keynote slides. I’m pretty dependent upon the computer, Bible verses, and “fill-in-the blanks” and such. So … what to do?
Well, the first thing we did (as my electrical and technical experts scoured the breaker boxes) was open the emergency exit door and let the light flood in. It illuminated the entire room just fine (and the cool air felt good to me). Then I handed out Scripture assignments … besides working of my primary passage, I had several other verses to look up (verses that I would normally post on the screen). But my folks rose to the challenge. Ten or twelve of them found those verses and read them for the congregation when I called on them.
To be honest, it was pretty fun. A challenge, but fun. The people responded well. God moved. And we will forever have a story to tell about the day when the lights went out in church.
Oh … and the fried squirrel …
As it turns out, a squirrel jumped on top of a major transformer at a regional sub-station in our county. It knocked out the power to over 10,000 customers! The workers were amazed when they arrived and found the smoking critter laying on the ground by the transformer.
And they were even more amazed when they turned around and found that said critter was gone. Vamoose. He, apparently, was just a little burned and dazed … and he walked away from his shocking ordeal.
Yessiree … God shore do work in messteerious ways … 
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Once upon a time I organized and coordinated a group of people from our church and shuttled them to a Bill Gothard Seminar. We had a van and had about 10 eager minds heading downtown. I attribute the events of this trip to meeting my best friend. You see, the seminar lasted until 10:00 PM every night and I would have to get up at 5:00 AM each morning for work. One evening, as we were heading downtown, the lady behind us was conversating quite a bit. I was so tired, but wanted to give her my undivided attention. I twisted around to face her and was uncomfortable with my arm across the back of my seat. So, in my mind, I decided to place my hand on the seat next to her so I could face her without twisting my neck. We continued to talk. My mind was also thinking about the material on the seat. I began to scratch the cloth seat as she talked. You know, the mind is a funny thing. As I scratched the material on the seat it began to feel more like soft nylon hose. The two (2) textures are really different and my mind was able, finally, to separate them. By that time she had quit talking. I pulled my hand back in total shock and apologized profusely to her. I told her what my mind had done and then we had a big laugh. Her husband was not there and not very faithful to church until after that event. He and I would talk about everything, but, never about what happened on that trip. He has been my best friend through the years and faithful to church.
Of course, this is one of those stories that need a precautionary statement about finding your best friend. “Don’t do this at home.” doesn’t fit, but you know what I mean.
What happens in a Gothard Seminar stays in a Gothard Seminar……
About a month ago we had a squirrel run across the platform here at First Southern Baptist – Del City OK on Sunday morning. Most of the people in the choir saw it but it was kind of hidden behind the band so a lot of people in the congregation didn’t notice it.
BTW, Is spelling “squirrel” with two Ls a variant spelling used in Kentucky?
One evening about sunset when I was a rookie cop, working the desk, the power went out. We were on a hill, so from the entrance, I could see much of town, and it too was bathed in darkness. Turns out a snake crawled into a transformer at the main substation that supplied about half the county!
Yep, a snake. No one could tell what kind it had been before it was fried. . . but a snake is enough to put lots of people into darkness, whether in the Garden, or at a substation, isn’t it?
John
Ha! Good catch, Roger. Don’t know why, but I have always added that extra “L.” Must be a Haywood County, Tennessee, thing … my “raising.” I didn’t even pay attention to the spell checker.
I fixed it, BTW.
Geoff, you bring up an interesting point. Until 4 years ago, I stood in a pulpit and preached from notes. Now, if my electronic display goes out, I’m cooked. We sure do become technology dependent pretty fast.
It was probably cool to have an old-fashioned, Bible and people, church-without-techno service.
I don’t want to try it!
Geoff,
Its always fun to see how we react when things are forced in another direction.
I write out all my sermons,…typically about 8 or 9 pages (d-spaced) and then condense it down into an outline for the congregation. On several occasions, I have left my notes neatly stacked beside my keyboard at home. The problem is,…when the discovery is made…..most of the time for me it is during the last chorus of the last hymn about 30 seconds from the exposition. So then I have to borrow an outline from someone and we move forward. It does make you birth a few more brain cells
Oh the Joy….Good post!
Blessings,
Chris
Dave – love my computer and screen! Yes, it was pretty cool to go “old school.”
Chris – I would NEVER leave home without my notes. I’m obsessive about checking to make sure I have them. The first thing I do when I arrive at the building on Sunday morning is to place my Bible and notes on the podium. I have threatened all who dare to touch them with certain death …
Geoff,
I know,…what is worse is when the notes are from last week….
More sweat!
Blessings,
Chris
Chris,
No problem… I always bring more than I can preach to the pulpit, and I feel with each sermon preached there is always room for improvement… So all one needs to do is honestly admit to the congregation that; “I am not satisfied with my handling of last weeks sermon… so this morning we are going to take another swing at this important text.”
Warning – after three weeks of doing this the congregation does start to get a little restless.
Grace Always,
Greg,
Good point….
-cj