"Jesus, You & Me"

Shortly after my arrival in Kissimmee and my introduction to John Willis' muppet Hollywood, John informed me that they were making a video of family devotions called Family Living With Jesus.  This project was being headed up by Pat Pribyl, a church member with extensive background in TV and video production. They were filming John and Hollywood interacting with church families and learning more about Jesus.  As part of this enormous undertaking, they had begun a nationwide contest for a theme song.  John knew I had written some songs and told me that while the contest was almost over and they had a number in entries, he thought I might want to give it a shot as well.  Actually, it was more like he wanted me to give it a shot.  So I did.

I wrote the song Jesus, You & Me in a couple of hours in my new office at FUMC-K, and I submitted it to the committee that was picking a winner.  I was very surprised when I was informed I had won the competition.  The prize was $100 (which came in very handy!) and a chance to record the song for the video.  I thought "record" would entail sitting in front of a microphone and a cassette player and singing.  I was so wrong.  I still didn't understand the scope of John's vision for this project.  John, Hollywood, a choir of about 30 children and I were going to a professional recording studio in Orlando.  I would play guitar and sing, backed by the children's choir on the chorus.  John and Hollywood were taping an introduction.  The song would be released on cassette in advance of the video to try and stir up interest in the project.  The session took a couple of hours and was one of the more interesting things I have ever done.  It was pretty amazing to hear the chorus with the kids singing behind me after it was professionally mixed.  The chorus had a very simple message:

We're family, Jesus, you and me

walking side by side and hand in hand

Yes we're family, and Jesus holds the key

Families  living with Jesus in God's plan.

The song and the tape were both pretty well received at church, but did not make much of an impact anywhere else.  We took boxes of the video to a Christian Education conference one time and set up a booth in the resource hall to sell them.  We returned with boxes of the video...  My only professionally recorded song did not earn me a gold record- it was more like an aluminum record-  something to wrap up leftovers in!  But it was certainly fun.  The real impact on me was the realization that John Willis wanted all of us on staff to pursue excellence and to be as creative as possible with our ministries.  I was only a few weeks into my ministry at FUMC-K, and I had already done things I had never done before.  That list would get much longer in the years to come.  Working for this church and this pastor was going to be inspiring...and fun! 

I still have the video and the cassette.   I sold the rights to the song to Hollywood, but I think he has retired now.  Maybe I should update the song and see if the Veggietales need me...

Because of Jesus,