R-E-S-P-E-C-T

... find out what it means to me!

Last week our FRC-Lima band was invited to be the main event at a large, citywide youth rally. It was cool to receive the invitation from the Peruvian Christian radio station that was sponsoring the event, but unfortunately the event production fell far short of the mark in various areas, including R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

First off, in the weeks before the concert, the radio station rep who was in charge of managing the event made about 1,000 promises to our band about different equipment & items that he would provide so that we wouldn't have to bring all of ours all the way across the city. He delivered on exactly zero of his promises, & only informed us about it a couple of hours before the concert, causing us to have to back-track & scramble to make sure that we had everything that we'd need for the concert.

During the concert, the audio system continually faltered. I think it consisted of a megaphone, tin foil, & bakery string. Our band just played on, as if they were performing in front of 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden in NYC.

After the concert, our guitar cables were stolen. The crack security staff promised by the radio station rep was either sleeping, looking the other way, or watching an old re-run of "I Love Lucy." The main suspect right now, ironically enough, is another Christian band!

When I brought the theft to the attention of the radio station rep, he seemd about as interested in the theft as he would be in belly button lint or toe jam. He mumbled something about looking into it. Today, four days after the event, he has yet to call us with any more information. We have had to call him to find out if he has been able to locate the cables but, again, his tone & attitude on the phone suggest an interest level that is less than zero.

Of course, this is very frustrating for us. We were invited to play the radio station event, received nothing that we were promised, and had our guitar cables stolen as well, with nary a bit of interest shown in trying to help us to recover them. Unfortunately, we will now have to go over the radio station rep's head & deal directly with his boss. It is an unpleasant but necessary choice.

This all has happened because of a great lack of R-E-S-P-E-C-T on the part of the radio station rep. He's not being asked to kiss anybody's ring, but to merely help us out after we suffered a loss due to his negligence. He's seems totally uninterested in doing this.

This unfortunate episode is also a lesson for us, in how to treat other people. Normally when you treat someone with R-E-S-P-E-C-T, it is reciprocated. This is an important thing to consider in your church & ministry. How is R-E-S-P-E-C-T shown in the culture where you are doing church or ministry? How is it shown individually & corporately? Make sure you know how to show R-E-S-P-E-C-T wherever in the world that you are doing church or international ministry, & hopefully R-E-S-P-E-C-T will be shown right back to you.