Magic Moments: An $8000 Oops

Today's Magic Moment takes us back to 1997, and a night that by all worldly accounts was a failure. But God had other plans...

It was supposed to be the greatest day in the history of student ministry at the First United Methodist Church of Kissimmee.  It was a day we planned for over a year, that we poured our hearts and souls, our prayers and resources into, in the hopes that we could make a major impact for Jesus in our community.  This is the story of that day, and how it all went wrong.  Until God made it right, that is....

I met Geoff Moore & the Distance (GMD) at the National Youth Workers Convention in 1995, when we wound up sharing a table at the hotel restaurant for dinner.  I didn't know much about them at the time, but they were great guys with huge hearts for serving God, and I liked them immediately.  Once I began listening to their music, I was completely hooked.  About a year later our Youth Ministry Team began to dream and pray about bringing a major Christian concert to Kissimmee.  We wanted to do something huge for Jesus.  GMD had a big hit with Home Run around this time, and after much discussion we decided to contact their management and see what could be worked out.  We decided on July 10, 1997- a Thursday that was part of our Youth Week. We decided we would host them at the nearby Tupperware Convention Center (TCC), a 2000 seat venue that had been home to many concerts, including Willie Nelson and The Moody Blues.  After securing the arena and setting ticket prices, we knew we needed to sell 1000 tickets in order to break even.  A full house would earn us around a $10,000 profit to use in our ministry.   All systems were go.

Except that all systems were NOT go.  The TCC would not let us sell the tickets, except for a few hundred they gave us on assignment.  This meant people had to go to the box office to buy tickets that were more expensive than the ones we were selling.  We sold ours at church, and sold them all.  The TCC sold almost nothing.  We had also planned to save some money by doing the load-in and set up ourselves.  Again the TCC said no, saying that only union members were allowed to touch incoming or outgoing equipment.  We had planned to advertise on Z-88.3, the local Christian radio station.  Another concert promoter, hosting a concert at Universal Studios that same night, blocked us from running any ads until the week before the show.  We tried to get the word out, but we just didn't sell enough tickets.  By the day before the show, after my final meeting with the folks at TCC, it was clear to me that we were going to lose a lot of money. Maybe as much as $8000. I was very depressed.  Instead of the greatest day ever, it was looking like one of the worst.  I went to bed that night praying for a miracle that my weak faith was certain would not come.

The Geoff Moore & the Distance tour bus arrived at the Tupperware Convention Center around 8 AM on the morning of the show after driving all night.  At Geoff's request, I had arranged for he and a few others to play golf that day.  Jill Painter and friends shuttled them off to the golf course while myself and some others remained at the arena to make sure things went smoothly with the set-up.

Show time arrived, and my prayers for a miracle had seemingly gone unanswered.  A crowd of about 500 showed up to hear one of the best concerts I have ever attended.  If the band was disappointed in the size of the crowd, they never let on, and it did not effect their performance.  They rocked the house for two solid hours before closing with a moving time of commitment.  Even though I stood in the back of the TCC feeling depressed, I could tell everyone was enjoying themselves.  I especially remember that GMD played two new songs from an upcoming album- Only A Fool and Free. Both were awesome.  After the show, the band hung around and sold hats and t-shirts and signed autographs until the last youth had left the building.  Our students were thrilled.  It had been an amazing night.

So why was I so down? I knew we had lost a lot of money and did not have the huge impact on the community we set out to achieve. I felt like a failure. But God was not done with that night just yet.  A man from FUMC-K came up to me and put his arm around me.  He knew I was down, but he wanted to tell me something.  He said that during Geoff's time of worship and response that night that his wife, who had never given her life to Christ before, went forward.  His exact words to me were "Carl, the whole thing was worth it- if just for that one soul." He had just put the night into perspective- God's perspective.  Over the next few days I heard from others with similar experiences. Someone donated a large sum of money to help cover the losses.  I had prayed for miracles, and even though I had lacked faith, those miracles were popping up all over the place!  God had taken what seemed to me like a massive failure and turned it into a Magic Moment!  "To God be the glory, great things He has done..."

Because of Jesus,

Night Of Joy 2002

Night of Joy, 2002

The student ministry of Wesley Memorial UMC had some definite momentum as we exited the Summer of '02.  Our mission trip to DC, our Myrtle Beach trip, our Youth Week and all of the little relationship building events had created a sense of community and some real excitement.  Our next big event, Night of Joy at Walt Disney World, seemed to pulling it all together.  We were only going for Saturday night, and we had way too many youth signed up for our van, so I chartered a bus.  We left mid-afternoon on the 90 minute ride over to WDW and were in the Magic Kingdom at 7 PM when the gates opened.  Our group was excited for a variety of reasons.  Some were psyched to hear artists like Audio Adrenaline, Jacquie Velasquez, Plus One and Michael W. Smith.  Others were more interested in Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and the other attractions of the MK.  And the high school guys...well they were just excited about Ed's Sister.

Let me bring you up to speed.  Ed Smith (along with his wife Robyn) was a part of our Youth Ministry Team, and he was with us on this adventure (that's him squatting in the front of the picture).  Ed had a lovely 20-something sister named...well, no one could ever remember.  I didn't know her.  The older guys guys, for whom Ed was the small group leader,  just knew her as Ed's Sister.  And they were all "in love."  When word leaked that Ed's Sister (front row, far left) would be joining us at Night of Joy their excitement levels went through the roof.  There was one (actually lots, but for the purposes of this story, one) major problem.  Ed's Sister would be joined on the trip by her boyfriend, Ed's Sister's Fiance.  Nonetheless, we invaded the park with great energy and enthusiasm and had a marvelous evening.  As we chatted and caught up on everyone's evening in the park on the bus ride home (around 2 AM), I was reminded of an essential truth of student ministry.  An important part of building relationships is a shared history.  Nothing gives a group more of teenagers more shared memories than a trip.  Every trip is a completely unique experience, because that particular group of people will never be together in that place again.  Every person is important to the event.  The memories you create are special to that group and help create a bond that cannot ever be removed.  This trip helped to cement the relationships that had begun to bloom that summer.

A couple of years later we would return to Night of Joy from Tampa with a huge group, staying 2 nights at Disney's All Star Sports Resort and having an amazing weekend.  But the roots of that story (to be told later) could be found in this simple little bus trip from 2002.  And while I like to think my creative planning was the key to the whole thing, I know this to be true- it wouldn't have been the same without great people like Ed Smith... and Ed's Sister!  Every person counts.

Because of Jesus,

It's A God Thing



dc Talk- Michael, Toby & Kevin

 In my career as a youth pastor it seemed that at every stop along the way there was a moment, early on in my time at a church, that set the tone and opened the door for special relationships and bigger things to come.  At New Garden Friends Meeting in the late 70's it was a trip to Myrtle Beach and the I've Got This story.  At Springfield Friends Meeting in 1987 it was The Super Bowl Surprise.  At FUMC-Kissimmee in 1994 it was our Mountain Top Mission Trip, also known as The Best Worst Week Ever.  Even the Union Church of Hinsdale had a moment- April Fools Day on our mission trip to Dungannon, VA in 2000.  Each of these stories describe what I call a God Thing; an unplanned happening that allowed my relationships with the students I served to move to a new level.  In October of 2001, God had such a moment planned for the youth of Wesley Memorial UMC.  This is that story.

Pastor Jerry Sweat came through on his promise to get us a 15 passenger van within a couple of weeks of my arrival at WMUMC.  It was very used and pretty beat up, but after some repairs and a new paint job it was ready to go.  We decided to break it in by going to a concert in Lakeland (about an hour away) to see a lot of bands we didn't know much about- and dc Talk.  The concert was at Carpenter's Home Church (kind of a pretentious name, huh? Jesus' home church...it is now defunct...), a 10,000 seat building and home to many of the great concerts we saw during my Kissimmee days.  I was already well aware that we were in the final days of dc Talk as a group.  In fact, the day before the concert I learned that Kevin Max Smith, one third of the trio, would not be in Lakeland.  Even so, a dozen of us (I was the only adult) headed out for an adventure.

I remember very few details about the actual concert.  I do remember that it went on forever.  Band after band took the stage and rocked the place, but I have no memory of who those bands were.  We we ready to see what Toby and Michael would do to wrap the show- and we were not disappointed.  They each did solo stuff, and then they did a set of dc Talk classics, finishing with Jesus Freak.  It was awesome.  By the time we left the church it was well past 11 PM, so I had all the students call their parents and tell them that I would just deliver them to their homes.  I scored big points with the parents for that offer.  More importantly, the ride home turned out to be the best part of the night.

As we travelled we talked about the recent history of the youth ministry at Wesley.  We talked about music.  We talked about relationships.  We stopped for Slurpees to wake everyone up, and we talked some more.  As we arrived back in northwest Hillsborough county, each of them began to help me map out a route to get everyone home.  I had only been in Tampa about 2 weeks; I didn't know where anyone lived or how to get anywhere.  My students gave me a guided tour of the area and discovered where their friends lived.  We stopped at beat up old homes and in gated communities.  It was quite an education.  By the time I got back to my house it was well almost 2 AM.

The next day at church I was no longer just the new guy.  I had built relationships with a small group, and they were telling everyone they knew that I was OK- maybe even cool.  I had stayed out late with them and bought them Slurpees.  And I knew every dc Talk song.  God had used the van, the concert and the trip home to accelerate the community building process in ways I could have never accomplished on my own.  Just a few weeks in and I was so psyched.  But we were all about to be sucker punched in a way we could not have imagined.  That story next Monday...

Because of Jesus,