- My Johnny Cash Impersonation
Last week was the 2nd annual community Trunk or Treat that our church puts on with 6 other churches in the community. Last year, we had around 2000 people come out to the elementary school so we moved to West-Oak Football stadium this year. Around 400o people came out for the event! It was a dream come true for me for several reasons:
1. I have always believed the Church is at it’s best when the church works together. None of the churches could have pulled off an event this size on their own. By pooling our resources we were able to create an unforgettable event. Size the day God called me into ministry I have desired to be a pastor that see’s other pastor’s as partners instead of competitor’s. Great to see that in action last night.
2. My wife has always dreamed of us being Johnny and June Carter Cash for Halloween and we pulled it off last night with the duet playlist playing. People seemed to like our singing. Most people knew more of the movie “Walk the Line” than the actual couple. It was stressful, but a lot of fun for us to pull off.
3. People from Oakway Wesleyan and Common Ground Community Church were involved. We even shared candy as the crowd grew and the supply shrank! As we move toward a merger between these 2 churches I see more events like this in our future. It’s about the Kingdom. As part of this merger discussion we distributed a vision packet. If you’re a pastor and haven’t read Church Unique
Over the next few days(weeks, months) I will be taking you through the process from excitement about vision to frustration when you can’t find the vision to receiving the vision to sharing the vision to building the vision. I’m no expert, but I’ve been on the journey.
To the future….
Dear Heath,
It was a joy reading this blog article you posted. A while back I received a follow request from you on Twitter. Since I have no connection to religion and my tweets are in the Dutch language most of the time, I normally would have declined. But.. Your ava made me check your profile and I read your tweets. That’s when I discovered that there is more than meets the eye to you. So, I accepted and followed back. With no regrets, I must say 🙂 because your tweets are always enlightening and positive. Good energy, so to speak. After I saw your link to your blogpost, I decided to sit down and read. Now why would a bloke from the Netherlands want to read about a Church event across the pond? I don’t know, but when I started reading, the story grabbed me. The good spirit and atmosphere depicted in Trunk or Treat reminds me of home. I grew up in a small village in the eastern part of the Netherlands. I was raised in a loving family and always found the way villagers cooperated very special. To be there for eachother. Do things together. Share joy, sorrow and pain. It all makes life rich. The effort you, your wife and the other people overthere took to work together is heart warming. 4000 people on the move to share the experience… That’s quite something. I absolutely believe you when you would tell me you looked even more like Johnny Cash than the man himself 😉
As I said, I am a man of no religion. I hope you don’t blame me for that. But I do respect religion and the people who believe. The Church communities that you brought together over there can be proud of their achievement. And so can you and your wife.
I am looking forward to your next tweet, or your next blogposting. Best regards from the Netherlands and keep up the good work!
Jan