Here's to more time outside my comfort zone

So the Easter services went really well yesterday. It was our church's first time doing 2 services on Easter instead of one. Our new pastor Rickey cast the vision for having attendance large enough for two services, and that vision was realized. I haven't heard official numbers, but I attended the first service and it looked like 300-400 in the adult service plus probably another two hundred or so kids and volunteers working with kids. Like a lot of other people, I attended the first service and then worked in the kids' service during the second. I heard the 2nd service was better attended than the first, and there was also the youth service and another round of the kids' service -- probably 800 or so people total during that service. We were guessing 1200-1400 total, definitely a best for us (we average 700 to 800 people a week).

I enjoy getting to listen to Rickey preach -- there is no doubt he is doing what he was born to do. And again, when I listen to him speak, it makes me want to teach/speak in churches some day, too. It would be a great accomplishment to be half as good at it as he is.

And now an explanation of what the title of this entry refers to. I've started doing some of the large-group teaching in the 4th and 5th (or more often 2nd through 5th) grade program at church in addition to my typical assignment as the 5th grade boys' small group leader. I've been really enjoying it. So yesterday as I'm reviewing my lesson before the kids' service was ready to start, the lady who runs the kids' program (and mom of one of the aforementioned 5th grade boys) was looking for suggestions for songs to do for music with the kids -- she was going to be leading worship because neither of the two regulars was available or were in different rooms. I suggested "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" as the third song to the two she had already chosen, citing the fact that it was the same song the adult service was ending with, in addition to the fact that it's one almost all the kids know. She was like, "Well, you're going to have to help me lead music, then, cause I don't know the hand motions to that one."

This is a good time to mention that music time is when I am my least comfortable. I'm not one of those extraverted, enthusiastic singers and dancers. My mom says I have a good singing voice, which may or may not be the case. (How many people try out for American Idol cause their parents told them the same thing?) During the adult service at church I will clap in time with the song if other people are clapping in addition to singing along, but I don't do much else. With the kids, I will participate with the hand motions and dance moves that I deem the least embarassing or that require the least amount of coordination or dancing ability, but even standing in the crowd and participating with the kids (at least the ones who haven't decided they're too cool to participate), I'm self-conscious. I'm free with the singing when I'm alone in my car and that's about it -- if you've ever heard me singing, you're one of the few.

But in the spirit of doing what needs to be done, I got my uncoordinated self up on stage for not just the one song but all three, singing and helping lead the hand motions. It didn't kill me, but it's not something I'll be volunteering to lead on my own anytime soon.

Back in the tech booth, Dennis was grinning ear to ear the whole time I was up there. He was quite entertained to see me do it.

Still, I think it's a good thing to be forced outside one's comfort zone every once in awhile. I just hope next time it doesn't involve singing and dancing.