I was running a little behind yesterday morning.

During the summer I only have a 1/2 hour from when Belmont finishes worship and when Salem begins.  With the two congregations are 8 miles apart I have about a 10 minute drive back to town.

Yesterday, worship at Belmont concluded at 9:05am and managed to get out by 9:10am (I guess I got a little long winded) which didn’t give me much time to get to Salem and transition to another worship service.  I arrived at Salem at 9:20am and made a quick transition in my office.  Upon leaving my office to head to the sanctuary I noticed my wife in the hallway.

Suddenly she screamed…”THERE’S A BIRD IN HERE!”

I looked and sure enough…something was flying in the hallway, but it wasn’t a bird.  That’s right…it was a bat.

“I don’t have time for this” I thought.

I eventually chased the flying creature into a Sunday school room where I shut the door and stuffed towel under the door.  “We’ll deal with it later“.  I just didn’t know it would be so soon.

Right before my scripture reader came up front to read during worship he noticed a shadow move quickly across his papers.  He turned around fearing what he would find and sure enough that bat found it’s way out of it’s so-called prison and tried to join us for worship.  Immediately, the fast-thinking Dan flung the glass sanctuary doors shut and kept the bat out in the narthex.  Some guys, then, proceeded to chase the bat outside.

And I didn’t notice a thing.  Worship never missed a beat. A bat in the sanctuary during worship probably wouldn’t have put an end to worship very quickly.

As a pastor, I can’t help but wonder…
How would I have handled a bat in the sanctuary during worship?
How much commotion would that “rat with wings” have caused?
Would worship been salvageable at all?

I am glad I didn’t have to find out yesterday.  But something tells me that I need to be ready 🙂

-edh-