Working “For” Andy Stanley – Part 3

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.

11 Responses to “Working “For” Andy Stanley – Part 3”

  1. Jessi April 27, 2010 at 9:18 am #

    Bwahahah, I’m sorry, but this is hilarious because I was just thinking about this the other day. My husband and I live in WV, but we were in ATL on vaca so we decided to attend NPCC that morning. I think everyone in the worship service thought it was part of Andy’s illustration b/c it related to the topic on which he was preaching about. Some nice couple actually took our picture to commemorate the moment… http://twitpic.com/1iuzpk We ended up coming back to the 11.

    • Shef April 27, 2010 at 10:46 am #

      That is officially hilarious….you’re welcome for the memories! Sorry to mess up brunch!

  2. steven anderson April 27, 2010 at 10:57 am #

    I can’t decide which is better, the post or the comment from someone who lived it!

  3. Jessi April 27, 2010 at 10:58 am #

    It’s totally cool! We’re going to be at DRIVE next week and plan on attending Sunday’s worship service so if the alarms go off we’ll know who’s fault it is. ;)

  4. Jason Carr April 27, 2010 at 1:53 pm #

    That was easily one of the craziest days of work we’ve ever had. And that’s saying a lot around here. It did create quite a lot of hazer jokes for a while.

    Great post.

    • Shef April 27, 2010 at 3:50 pm #

      They never stop….the jokes that is. I’m sure this will get a fresh batch going again!

  5. Chris Conner April 27, 2010 at 3:43 pm #

    I am pretty sure that you might take the cake if we ever sit around and share “things i should have been fired for stories.” I can only imagine the feeling rushing through your gut when you turned that corner. Man that is hilarious.

    • Shef April 27, 2010 at 3:51 pm #

      hilarious now…..for sure.

  6. Nate April 27, 2010 at 5:33 pm #

    If it makes you feel any better I actually set the church on fire during our Christmas Party… All I can say… I didn’t die either… 100% Guaranteed not a single junior higher will ever forget it though…

    • Shef April 27, 2010 at 7:43 pm #

      I don’t know if that makes me feel any better…but that is an awesome stat! Thanks for sharing.

  7. tony sheng April 28, 2010 at 2:20 pm #

    love this story. thanks for sharing!

Leave a Reply:

Gravatar Image

XHTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>