A few Christmases ago, The young people in my church decided to participate in a Rice Bowls donation campaign to raise awareness and money for orphans around the world. (Rice Bowls is a pretty easy and cool way for all people of all ages to practice charity and learn about fighting hunger.) We had done a good job of getting the word out and getting the whole church involved in the campaign. After the deadline we all met to count the money collected and to our surprise we had passed our goal, even collecting a token from the local arcade.
When it came time to thank the congregation for their part in the effort, I stood on stage, card in hand with the amount raised written on it, microphone in front of me, Christmas tree to my left, and the rest of the band to my right. The congregation clapped when we told them how much was raised. Here is where it got a little weird. For some reason i felt a little rushed that morning and instead of simply placing the note card on the stand in front of me, I leaned to the side, whispered to myself, which evidently was still in range of the microphone, "moving on," and tossed the card to the floor. In my own mind, it was a logical thing to do. perhaps I had watched one too many talk shows where the host fling their note cards (Cue Borderline Tonight).
I suppose it would have been fine, but instead of the card floating to the ground, it flew swiftly into the tree standing next to me. The tree gently swayed as a sense of awkwardness fell over me, and perhaps the congregation too. It was hard to tell, they always act that way when I'm on stage. Maybe it's just me? Yeah, its definitely me...In an attempt to regain focus, I stepped back to the microphone spoke the familiar worship leader greeting: "Please stand and worship with us."
All in all, I would not say it was a disaster, I mean, we all joked about it later. I learned to never throw things while standing on stage, especially when standing next to a Christmas tree. But I can't help but think there is a great lesson to learn in this blooper, I'm just not sure I've learned it yet...
I like to think that in addition to giving money to orphans (by the way, I'm starting to see a pattern in my charity habits: Rice Bowls, Endorphins for Orphans...), I also gave the congregation a little gift of fun that morning.
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