Archive: Working For Andy Stanley – Part 3

This is the 6th most read post of 2010.

My final story about Andy is a doozy!   Basically…he could have killed me once and been justified.

The short story is this…

Middle School set the fire alarm off one Sunday morning with our hazer in the middle of a sermon.

Andy literally had to stop preaching and 5000 adults evacuated the building…not to mention had to find their kids in the midst of it. It was quite a moment when I realized what we had done. Someone sent me the pic to the right later…Can you say “foggy”?

Alright…stop right there.

I want you to really focus and think about this moment.  I could see thousands of people streaming out the doors 30 minutes into service.  I could see baby cribs packed with toddlers being rolled out into the parking lot.  Momma’s were crying….Vols were crying.  I was about to cry!

At this moment, there is not doubt in my mind.  This is my fault.

Got it…got the feeling?  Good…let’s get back to the story!

That feeling was multiplied by 1000 when I walked out of  a room I was checking for students and…

there he was.

Andy was standing in the hallway looking at me…still holding his Bible…still warm from being used in the sermon.

Just pause there for a moment…ready to vomit yet?  It was intense for me.  He was going to let me have it…right?  This was all my fault…this was all my responsibility…I deserved to be killed.  At least that’s what I thought.  This was not going to be pretty.  All those communication skills were about to be focused on me with one purpose…complete destruction.

Then, he looked at me…and with no hint of anger…said; “No smoke at 11…right?”

I said; “yes sir.”

He turned and headed outside with the 7000 men, women, and children who had been displaced by middle school’s hazer.

He didn’t destroy me in that moment…though I’m sure he wanted to.

Later we found out that there had been a problem with the A/C system.  Some of the circulation wasn’t working correctly.  We had called facilities about it and they had checked on it.  The computer reported that everything was working correctly.  Everybody had done their part…and the problem still happened.  It was just one of those things.  It was nobody’s fault.

I think there is a great leadership lesson here…but that’s not the point of this post.

That story though…is one illustration of what it’s like to work “for” Andy Stanley.