Video the Bishop (A Vintage Post)

I blogged this story back in 2010, but it has been on mind again since attending the General Conference of the United Methodist Church here in Tampa a few weeks ago.  I was surrounded by Bishops!  It is certainly worth telling again...

The newest building on campus (about 5 years old) at FUMC-Kissimmee when I arrived in 1994 was the Administration Building.  It housed the offices of the majority of the church staff, the church library, a conference room and a couple of classrooms on the bottom floor.  The second floor contained my office, several more classrooms and the Youth Room (That's the custom-made giant bulletin board I had built for the youth room pictured on the left).  The Youth Room (then known unofficially as the attic; now known officially as The Attic) was a gigantic space, with a pool table, ping-pong table. video games, big screen TV and monster stereo system.  It had a folding wall you could use to cut the room in half (known as the $10,000 wall; anytime it was up I had to threaten the students with an "if you break it you buy it" speech) and plenty of room for games and small groups.  It was a great space with only one major problem.  The youth room was located directly over the church offices, and there was no sound insulation between the floors.  So when we walked in the youth room, they heard it downstairs.  When we played games like the Technicolor Stomp, the whole building shook.  Summers, when we were often up there everyday, were hard times for church staff trying get work done...

Sometime during my first year on staff the church received an anonymous (well, I know who it was, but I'm not telling!) donation of over $600,000 to pay off the debt on that building.  It was an amazing gift that would free the church to spend more on ministry.  It was decided that a Sunday morning would be set aside to celebrate the gift and burn the mortgage on the building, as well as to consecrate it.  The date was set around the schedules of our District Superintendent (DS) and the Bishop of the Florida Conference.  Having been Quaker most of my life, I didn't really understand how significant it was that the Bishop was going to be there, but everyone was very excited.  Looking back now I think it was the only time in my 12 years working at UMC churches that a Bishop visited on a Sunday morning.  One Tuesday in staff meeting we were discussing the actual ceremony, which was going to be held outside the Administration Building.  Pastor John Willis wanted to make sure that the entire thing was filmed, and we began to discuss how we could best accomplish this task.   Someone suggested that we put a cameraman in the back of a truck so he (or most likely she; I am sure Pat Pribyl got stuck with the job!) would be elevated and have a good angle on the Bishop and the flaming mortgage note.  Our church administrator, Ginny Johns, then set in motion events that would change memories of the mortgage burning forever.  She said, "Hmmm... Video the Bishop from a pick-up truck.  Sounds like it ought to be a country song..."  And then they all looked at me...

The Sunday morning came and went without a hitch.  The note was burned, we had wonderful worship services, and the DS, the Bishop and their wives had lunch at the parsonage with the Willis family.  At some point during the post-meal conversation, John remarked that the staff at FUMC-K was really coming together, and that they might be interested to know that the new youth pastor was a MORMON.  Not Quaker, but MORMON.  John's son, high school senior Todd Willis, heard his dad's mistake but decided it would be more fun NOT to correct it (if the story I was told later is accurate).  Apparently both the DS and the Bishop along with both of their wives turned pale, and someone asked, "Really?  A Mormon?"  John still didn't hear his faux pas and began to tell them all about me.  Finally the truth came out, and everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief.  The DS said later that he was ready to schedule a meeting with John to talk abut his future- and mine!  I have always thought that John did me a favor- by the time they found out I was Quaker that seemed fairly normal.  It was something we could laugh about later.

So the debt was paid, the building was dedicated, the note was burned and we moved on from the Mormon incident.  But there was still the matter of the song...  Join us tomorrow for the rest of the story!

Because of Jesus,