Tonight Scott and I went to Celebration Church to hear Craig Groeschel (the pastor of LifeChurch.tv) speak. Before the service started we were speaking with John Wyatt, who is the Families Pastor at Celebration. He and Scott were talking about what it is like for Scott to be on staff at LifeChurch.tv and work remote.
At the end of their conversation John asked us if we want to say hello to Craig. Of course we said yes and I started getting giddy because I had never had the chance to meet him before.
John ushered us through a side door, down a hallway, and through an inconspicuous door guarded by an intimidating looking man. When I walked through the door I saw Craig sitting on a couch by himself surrounded by tables with tons of untouched food, and talking to 3 people I didn’t recognize.
As soon as Craig saw us he immediately recognized Scott because they had had lunch together once before. (I know what your thinking. Scott has worked for LifeChurch.tv for 7 months and has only met his pastor one time? When you are the second largest church in America and have 300 people on staff, it’s pretty hard for the pastor to meet everyone.)
Scott introduced me and I think I said something along the lines of what an honor it was to meet him. Honestly, I was a little star struck and don’t remember exactly what I said. The three of us sat on the couch and talked for about 5 minutes while I concentrated on keeping my jaw off the floor.
Craig was extremely friendly and warm and made me feel at ease. He ended up asking me what I did for a living and I told him I was training to be a scuba diving instructor. He was intrigued and I was able to explain to him a little about the process. Craig then gave us his latest book “The Christian Atheist” and told us to come back after the service to meet his wife and kids.
About that time, Stovall Weems walked in the room and we were introduced to him. We chatted with he and Craig for a few more minutes until the service started.
After the service, Scott and I attempted to make our way back to the green room by ourselves, but as we were walking through the side door a large man grabbed Scott’s arm and asked us where we are going. We said we were going to talk to Craig and he said he couldn’t allow that. Scott explained to him that he is on staff at LifeChurch.tv and we had an invitation by Craig himself. He smiled and said, “In that case…” and escorted us back to the green room.
Craig introduced us to his wife and 4 of his 6 kids and then pointed to me and exclaims, “She scuba dives for a living!” We offered to take he and his family out to dinner, but they declined saying that they already had dinner plans with the Stovall and his wife.
Oh well….we tried.
