I am wrapping up my day here in Concordia. We have had a long day where we included a family outing with ministry business. It was both fun and very encouraging.
The ministry business was a trip to Manhattan to hear Karla Bauer in person. Earlier in the week, I had booked Karla to sing at the February 2011 Teens For Christ Rally. This was done after some correspondence with a friend who produced her two CDs and a long phone conversation with Karla. Her web site (www.karlabauer.com) made the decision process very easy to.
Over the years, I have made it a habit to travel all over Kansas, Nebraska and even Missouri looking for suitable talent to share at the Teens For Christ Rallies. Some trips have been very successful like the one on December 4th. Some trips were successful in the fact that I learned that the talent wanting to come to Concordia wasn’t suitable for our program.
On occasions, the talent knew that I was coming. Other times, no one had a clue that I would be there. No matter the situation though, I always walked away with a good idea if that person would be working with Teens For Christ.
Over the years, I have drove up to five hours to see a 15-30 minute presentation or concert by someone wanting to share at a Teens For Christ Rally. One time, I drove to Hays to see a music group. After watching their concert, I knew that we wouldn’t be a good fit. Condom and beer jokes were prevalent with this group of young men who thought by closing the concert with a Christian song that all would be well. Anyway, when the member in charge of the booking called me the next week, all I had to say was that I was at their concert in Hays and all I got in response was an “Oh.” He ended the conversation and never called again.
The reason that I write this is the fact that many times we schedule someone for a Teens For Christ Rally only to have someone inquire if the speaker, music group or movie is any good. I try hard not to roll my eyes or growl at the person. I even had a lady say to me in a church the morning after a concert, “If I would have known they were that good, I would have came last night.” I still shake my head at that and laugh.
After hosting over 300 Teens For Christ Rallies here in Concordia, I can say that we have had some that were a bit embarrassing due to the fact that the guest involved made some poor spiritual decisions later on in their life. Looking back over those 300 plus programs, I can say that we have had 5 or 6 programs where I have thought, “Why on earth did we do that?” So you can say that I have been pleased with 99.98% of our programs.
Why am I 99.98% with our programs? One reason is that I take the time to seek new talent out. If I don’t seek that talent out personally, I wind up relying on someone else whose opinion I trust totally.
Earlier in 2010, a person came up to me before a TFC Rally and told me someone wanted to be there that night to see if our rally speaker was good enough to have at their church sometime. I just smile and politely said, “If they are good enough for the TFC Rally, they are good enough for any church.” That simple answer wasn’t appreciated, but I felt the need to be honest.
I always like to apply what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: "But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;" – 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NASB) Today, my family got to be a part of that examination process. We are going to hold fast to Karla.
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