Strictly Come Dancing - I know how they feel

My title is an exaggeration. I do not dance weekly on live television and then stand there to have my performance analysed by professional judges. Instead I preach weekly in front of a (mostly) live congregation and sometimes receive vaguely-worded feedback on the quality of the service.


Yesterday I felt (a little) like a celebrity who has built up expectations then disappointed the audience with a poor performance. The remembrance service three weeks ago received much unsolicited praise for several days afterwards. It's always the adults who tell me how good a parade service is - never the youngsters in the uniformed organisations. And in this case it was the contribution of others that made a favourable impact. Nonetheless, it was good to hear people saying how they had appreciated the service. The following week was our parent and toddler service, this time all my own work. And again there was much unsolicited praise. Yesterday one of our local preachers told me she arrived to see the balloons at the front of the church, remembered it was a toddlers service and asked herself why she had bothered to come. She told me the service was so good that it won her over despite her very negative attitude. Both these services received comments worthy of a score of 9 or 10 from the judges.

But yesterday I fell apart. I hadn't prepared well. The sermon was practically thrown together on Sunday morning. I managed to think of a dramatic and challenging conclusion to the sermon, but entirely forgot to deliver it. I wasn't on the ball during the service (almost forgetting to receive the offertory for example), I waffled too much in the sermon and the whole thing, including communion was an hour and twenty minutes which was surely way too long for the visitors in the christening party. As I took my seat after delivering the blessing, I felt like a dancing celebrity who knew he had under-performed and let people down.

Fortunately for me I did not have to go up before a panel of professional preachers. Instead, to my amazement I had several comments along the lines of "good service this morning!" Even my wife, who can be relied on to be honest in such matters, thought it had been good. I can only assume that they were responding to the performance of the Holy Spirit and not to my own feeble efforts. But just think what the Holy Spirit could have done with the service if I had been on top form!