Today's Magic Moment is a more recent one in my youth ministry career, going back only 12 years to a wonderful night in Tampa (It was a Thursday night, making this a legitimate Throwback Thursday!). As I approached the end of my first year at Wesley Memorial UMC in October of 2002, it was clear that it had been a very difficult year, with lots of changes in the student leadership and an unwanted pastoral change as well. We had struggled, but it felt like we were turning a corner and many of us were excited about the future of the student ministry. I wanted to do something big to mark the occasion, and my first choice was to host Michael Bridges (guitar, lead vocals) and George Baum (keyboard, slinky, recorder, vocals) for a concert at the church. George and Michael are better know as the great two-piece band, Lost And Found. I had seen them at many National Youth Workers Conventions, had hosted them at FUMC-K in 1999 (and been the keeper of their van for a week) and had spent time with them in Chicago in early 2001. I knew they would provide us with the kind of big event we needed to keep our momentum going. It turned out they were flying to the Tampa area for a weekend confirmation retreat with a local Lutheran church, and we could get them on a Thursday night. (Side note: I didn't know this until later, but those guys are royalty among Lutherans. They even wrote a song about Lutherans, listing famous Lutherans much the way Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song lists famous Jews.) So on October 10th, exactly one year after my first day in my office at WMUMC, we hosted Lost And Found.
The only thing most of the students knew about the band was that they were the guys who sang Lions, a song we often did at youth group. They loved that song and loved yelling "SLINKY!" at the appropriate times. To further prepare my students I began telling them stories about some of the songs they would hear. I told them how requests could be made to the "Panel of Judge" (George) but were not likely to be played in the order approved. They learned all about great songs like Baby, Used To Be, Saskatchewan and Slide Girl. As a result of the Slide Girl stories (the video below contains an explanation from Michael so I won't bother here), many of them showed up for the concert dressed in blue, with blue hair or other assorted tributes. Although the crowd was smaller than I had hoped (about 300, and a third of them were local Lutherans!) we had a great night.
Lost And Found recorded that performance at Wesley, and the song below is the version of Slide Girl recorded that night. Since the song changes each night to include people from the audience, it is a treasured memory and a true Magic Moment. You will hear them mention Lenny, one of our guys who dyed his hair blue. They refer to Rebecca, Stephanie and Ashley, three more of our folks who made their very own t-shirts with a slinky attached to the sleeves. And you will hear them sing about my one year anniversary. It was the kind of exciting, memory making night that you pray for as a youth pastor. The band would be back to WMUMC two years later, but by then things were very different. Enjoy the song below. It is a classic moment captured in time...
Because of Jesus,
Every year on September 11th I re-post this particular piece, if for no other reason than it speaks to me. I hope it speaks to you as well.
"The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it." - Chinese Proverb
I confess that I dread days like this. Things like marking the anniversary of the September 11th attacks are exactly the kinds of things that we USAmericans so often get so wrong. We produce countless documentaries so that those who suffered the greatest losses can watch those planes and buildings blow up over and over again. We profit from their pain, selling souvenirs disguised as remembrances. And we focus on the wrong things. Today is not about the terrorists, or conspiracy theories, or poorly thought out government responses, or military success. Today is most certainly not about patriotism. Today is about remembering those who through the most random of circumstances lost their lives 12 years ago today. And today is about those who, that day and in the days that followed, stood with God and with great faith refused to allow the human spirit to be crushed by the events of that horrible morning. This is my tribute to those people.
I watched that morning, completely stunned like the rest of the world. I hear many people talk about how surreal it seemed to them. It was very real to me almost immediately. I was living in Chicagoland, and rumor spread quickly that the next target was the Sears Tower. My wife Marilyn worked downtown, and almost immediately the evacuations began. Panic and chaos were the words of the day. As our church staff sat in our weekly staff meeting and tried to figure out some way to respond, we learned a local youth pastor had been on one of the planes. It was all too real. Three days later Marilyn was flying to Tampa to check out our new home. Going to the airport and feeling the tension, being scared of something that had never scared us before, made it all too real. As we watched for weeks as workers sacrificed, struggled and died in the hopes of finding even one person left alive in the aftermath, it seemed like life would never be the same again. But eventually, we moved on. We remembered, but we moved on.
In March of 2003 I took a group of youth from Wesley Memorial UMC in Tampa to NYC for a few days, and while there we headed over to Ground Zero. We expected to be moved by the destruction, the lists of those who died, and the remembrances of the horror of the day. And we were. But those things were not what we really remember from that visit. It was our stop at St. Paul's Chapel that changed us all. The little church on Wall Street, which backed up to the devastation, had been an oasis of peace and rest in the midst of the tragedy. It had become a shrine to the human spirit and the love of God. It honored the dead, but also honored those who had given so much as first responders. It honored those who came as volunteers from all over the country simply seeking to help. Pews in the sanctuary were damaged by the heavy equipment many of the firefighters wore that day. Flowers, signs and banners were everywhere in honor of those who had served. As you read the log books. watched video interviews and walked around the building, you could not help but realize that this was not an USAmerican thing; this was a GOD thing! It was the loving responses of the many that would not allow evil to claim victory on that site.
So how will I mark this occasion today? By remembering these things- when despair overwhelms us, evil wins. When anger rules, evil wins. When revenge is our motivation, evil wins. When faith, hope and love are all we are left with, then God wins. There is a story told that a volunteer from St. Paul's tells of how he overheard one of the exhausted rescue workers coming into the church for a meal and a break, and he was singing. The song he was singing was a youth group favorite by Lost And Found- "Oh them lions they can eat my body but they can't swallow my soul..." And that should be our lasting lesson from September 11, 2001. It's also in the Gospel of John, chapter 1. "The Light (Jesus) shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it." For me, that will always be the story of 9/11. Today, do not waste energy hating those who are evil. Remember the fallen and those who were heroic in their selfless, sacrificial, Christ-like response. That is what this day should always be about. Let's remember the right things...
Because of Jesus,
As I approached the end of my first year at Wesley Memorial UMC in October of 2002, I was excited about the future of our student ministry. I wanted to do something big to mark the occasion, and my first choice was to host Michael Bridges (guitar, lead vocals) and George Baum (keyboard, slinky, recorder, vocals) for a concert at the church. George and Michael are better know as the great two-piece band, Lost And Found. I had seen them at many National Youth Workers Conventions, had hosted them at FUMC-K in 1999, and had spent time with them in Chicago in 2001. I knew they would provide us with the kind of big event we needed to keep our momentum going. It turned out they were flying to the Tampa area for a weekend confirmation retreat with a local Lutheran church, and we could get them on a Thursday night. (Side note: I didn't know this until later, but those guys are royalty among Lutherans. They even wrote a song about Lutherans, listing famous Lutherans much the way Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song lists famous Jews.) So on October 10th, exactly one year after my first day in my office at WMUMC, we hosted Lost And Found.
The only thing most of the students knew about the band was that they were the guys who sang Lions, a song we often did at youth group. They loved that song and loved yelling "SLINKY!" at the appropriate times. To further prepare my students I began telling them stories about some of the songs they would hear. I told them how requests could be made to the "Panel of Judge" (George) but were not likely to be played in the order approved. They learned all about great songs like Baby, Used To Be, Saskatchewan and Slide Girl. As a result of the Slide Girl stories (the video below contains an explanation from Michael so I won't bother here), many of them showed up for the concert dressed in blue, with blue hair or other assorted tributes. Although the crowd was smaller than I had hoped (about 300, and a third of them were local Lutherans!) we had a great night.
Lost And Found recorded their performance that night, and the song below is the version of Slide Girl recorded that night. Since the song changes each night to include people from the audience, it is a treasured memory. You will hear them mention Lenny, one of our guys who dyed his hair blue. They refer to Rebecca, Stephanie and Ashley, three more of our folks who made their very own t-shirts with a slinky attached to the sleeves. And you will hear them sing about my one year anniversary. It was the kind of exciting, memory-making night that you pray for as a youth pastor. The band would be back to WMUMC two years later, but by then things were very different. This night remains one of my favorite memories of Wesley. Enjoy the music!
