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Have you ever organized a conference, ceremony, wedding, or performance? It is a ton of work. The guests simply show up and observe the show. A Master of Ceremony (MC) steps forward with the microphone into the spotlight to lead the guests through a journey. They orchestrate multiple speakers to the climax of the ceremony or performance, where the biggest moment takes center stage. I was that MC recently at my church for a Royal Rangers Gold Medal of Achievement Ceremony.\xa0 The Royal Rangers is a Christian ministry raising up boys to become godly men. They develop outdoor, survival, leadership, and spiritual maturity over a decade-long path. The Gold Medal of Achievement (GMA) is the highest award and equivalent to the Boy Scouts Eagle Scout Award. To put this into perspective, there are over 10,000 Royal Rangers nationally and less than 1% ever earn their GMA. Therefore, we celebrate this accomplishment with as much pageantry, formality, and fanfare as we can create to honor the recipients, their parents, their mentors, their church, and Jesus, their Master Ranger. On November 13th, 2021, Logan and my son Kenny Carfagno were recognized for this high honor. It was an emotional day. I've been preparing my first born son for this day for 10 long years in Rangers. Both young men crushed it! Feel free to watch the GMA Ceremony and hear the keynote testimonies of Logan and my son, Kenny.\xa0
There is a reason that I am sharing this story. Certainly, I am proud of my son. But there is a very important lesson I learned as organizer, leader, and MC of this ceremony. There are so many moving parts for the guests to view an incredible ceremony or performance. For our GMA Ceremony, it included the following: Printed programs in English and Spanish to be designed, printed, and handed out, ushers, greeters, cleaners, graphic art, stage design, lighting, sound and microphones, slide show synchronization, live streaming with multiple camera angles, close up photography, ceremony script, timing & placement of over 20 men and boys that were on stage, videos, worship music, the police officers showing up\xa0 between shifts to carry the American Flag, faithful women in the kitchen preparing dinner for the banquet, our chef preparing dessert, parents getting their kids to 3 rehearsals prior to the 13th, no one getting sick, setting up of the banquet, serving the food, collecting the letters of mentors from across the country, coordinating dignitaries, presenting gifts, and more. As the orchestrator of this ceremony, I was stressed at 3:30pm. I knew it was gametime after 3 months of planning and rehearsal. I was running around to make sure all last minute preparation was complete and everybody was in place. At 3:45pm, it was completely out of my hands. I had to trust that all the moving parts would function in perfect concert. I gave my worry to God, prayed, and sat down to allow others to start the ceremony off. At 4:15pm, I took the stage in front of over 100 guests to begin the formal portion of the recognition ceremony. I was not worried at all. I could see that all the parts were functioning. At 4:45pm, Logan and Kenny took the stage for their keynotes and captivated the crowd.\xa0
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