We got the call yesterday that every church planter fears. The folks at Cinemedia called to tell us we wouldn’t be able to meet at our theaters THIS SUNDAY! There was a big, long explanation but the bottom line was there was just no way we could meet in our theaters this weekend. This, of course, was staggering news for us for a lot of reasons but especially since this Sunday is Mother’s Day. Anyway, whether you’re a pastor or not, all of us are going to have moments like this in our lives and whenever something like that happens it’s important to do the following…
1. Don’t Panic: The first temptation is to panic. The problem with panic is that it’s unproductive. The truth is that the less time you have, the more you need to use it wisely. Panicking only wastes time and adds even more stress. Yesterday, the first thing I told my staff was something like, “I’m not sure exactly how we’re going to handle this but I do know that the first thing we’re going to do is NOT panic.”
2. Brain-Storm Options: It’s so important to think through all your options from the beginning. Start with the most basic questions you can ask and move on from there. Sometimes those questions can lead you to entirely new ideas and options. We started by asking ourselves about our general options first. We decided the our three broad options were (1) meet in another facility, (2) meet outside somewhere, or (3) cancel the service. We went on from there and came up with what we thought were our only workable options. Then, we proceeded to investigate those options and narrow down our choices even more.
3. Make Time to Pray: I can’t stress how important this is. Sometimes when stuff like this happens you feel like you don’t have time to pray and, honestly, often you’ve only got time for a very quick prayer but it’s so very important that you’ve simply got to make time to do it. For us yesterday, it felt like we really only had one reasonable option available to us but, truthfully, I hated it. The clock was ticking and the pressure to make a decision was mounting. Rather than just pull the trigger though, I decided that I needed to just go pray about it for a few minutes.
4. Seek His Peace: As I was praying, I realized that my biggest problem was that I didn’t have any peace about the entire situation. My brain was running full steam ahead but my spirit was pulling the reigns back to try to slow me down. In Colossians 3:15, we’re told to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. The word rule there means to umpire. In other words, let the peace of Christ call strikes and fouls. Let it guide you and tell you when to “swing for the fence” and when to wait for another pitch. In our situation, even though the clock was ticking and there were so many people to call and so much to do, I just didn’t have peace so I waited.
Finally, I met with my staff again to talk about more options and the phone rang. It was Cinemedia. They told use the the district manager of the theaters in our area had decided to get involved. We’ve been told in the past that he’s not our biggest fan and that he generally doesn’t like having churches meeting in movie theaters but he had heard about your situation and he took some major actions on our behalf so we could meet in our theater on Sunday as planned. We feel that this was God opening doors for us and I can’t tell you how glad I am that we did start calling people and pulling the trigger on all sorts of things just to cause a panic.
The bottom line is that you’ve simple got to trust God when the bottom falls out. Sometimes trusting Him means springing into action. Sometimes it means waiting on Him but you should always have His peace as you proceed. Trust God no matter what.
I hope this helps somebody today.
