illustrations gone bad

i have done some pretty bad illustrations in the past in messages that weren’t quite thought all the way through…here’s a few…

topic…cutting down dead wood in your life- every branch that doesn’t bear fruit need to be cut down…we erected a huge dead tree in the gym and then i used a chainsaw to cut down the dead stuff…i could not get it started so i set it on an altar and started it cutting a huge chunk out of the altar…ouch! topic…rain-we had a walk way that surrounded the gym and i had an umbrella and at different points in the message i would put up the umbrella-well you cant use water to throw in a building so we used marshmallows…marshmallows were raining down and i was protected with an umbrella-until they were picked up and thrown…we lost the crowd in a marshmallow fight.  at one point you just joined in and started chucking marshmallows…it was out of control!

whenever i bring my sons up on stage…you never know what will happen. our youngest likes the stage and loves to make people laugh, our oldest goes blank on stage and just smiles…but turns into the enforcer when his brother gets out of line. last night i interviewed them in front of our students and asked them about christmas…”what’s the best part of christmas?” one says opening gifts! the other looks right at me and says “jesus” now that makes you feel good. exiting the stage our youngest decides to crawl down the stairs and our oldest proceeds to drag him by the shirt down the stairs and across the gym floor. now that’s unexpected and brought down the house…

some things you can control…other things you can’t…so control what you can, think through it from every possible angle and by all means video tape it…so you can at least laugh at yourself!

eggs, runners and stockings…another night at crave!

what’s eggs got to do with wednesday night youth church?  here’s how crave unfolded last night… the bus pulled into a neighborhood we pick up in and there was a large crowd waiting to get on…the test begins- anyone without a form cannot get on the bus!  kids tried to sneak on…one kid took a form a student tried to use to get on…but was not able to, because he was under the age of 12 – literally the kid was 8 years old…well the first kid erased his name and put his name on in place of the other…our bus attendant caught it and sent him away! no form no bus…well we turned away 15-20 kids and when they started to pull away eggs started flying at the bus…i guess a few kids got upset enough to egg the bus.  you gotta be doing something right when kids egg your bus when they can’t come to church. come on now! thats drama!

runners – not for exercise or even for taking laps around a sanctuary…which at calvay that is a common experience. runners run when they want to get away from something.  last night our middle school and high school
worshipped together and then we split up for the remainder of the service…when you have over 100 Middle school students and you split – some look for the door out and take off- 3 kids took off but thanks to be God who gives us the victory…well a few on our security team ran them down.  runners run…but you gotta out run the security man.stockings…every christmas we give out stockings at a home for teenagers with life issues. this year 74 students a re at the homes..so we get all their names and write them on stockings to give a personalized gift at christmas.  well tonight some of our incredible staff spent the evening decorating stockings to be stuffed for an outreach this weekend.  this is the highlight of the holidays…spreading the love of christmas to those in tough situations.

God moved last night and saved and touched lives in a huge way! its a privilege to minister to these kids! oh yah i forgot-i got to drive the bus home and drop off all my kids-whenever this happens i have to stop at krispy kreme and get a hot doughnut and a chocolate milk- now thats on way to finish off a night!