The Legend Of Pastor Bill

Let me say...I love this documentary that airs on LinkTV. "The legend of Pastor Bill" was a film shot by an englishman sometime during 2001 and follows the founder of a huge kids ministry right here in Brooklyn which is widely known as "Yogi Bear" because of their mascot but officially known as Metro Ministries. Pastor Bill Wilson is a celebrity here in Bushwick, everyone who grew up as a child of the 80's such as myself knows about "Yogi Bear". Metro Ministries is known for their Saturday "Sunday school" (if that makes any sense) which has 3 services throughout. A fleet of old yellow school buses go all around Brooklyn picking children up from their homes to gather in an old converted brewery for some madcap mayhem and Gospel learnin'.
One of the quotes I loved best by Pastor Bill in this special was "I will do anything that is morally and ethically correct to get a kid under the sound of the Gospel one time" Apparently ole' Bill Wilson has been accused of using bribery-meaning promises of free food, money, prizes-to attract children to Metro. Essentially doing whatever it takes to get a child to stay in church for more than 14 seconds.


Listen the guy reaches 20,000 children during a week and because the guy is a bit wacked and eccentric, you can't argue with those numbers. For many of the children who attend this is the best thing to happen to them every week so in that respect I think it's great. Also there have been some rumblings about Billy lovin' the girlies a bit and messin' around where he shouldn't have been messin' around...when you're single and you have an awesome charisma and a little celebrity on your side, it's always a recipe for disaster. All I can say is that if he's repented and those thousands of kids from broken homes go away learning something at the end of the day then God Bless. I remember my own experience with Metro. Something edible was promised for that saturday that I signed up, a pizza party maybe, I was all set to go the night before but the day after all I wanted to do was stay home and watch cartoons like any other kid on the weekend. The bus pulled up and since I wasn't waiting downstairs like I shouldn't have all the kids yelled out my name outside the windows "LLLLLUUUUUIIIISSSS" oh I felt so bad here I was cozy in my bed watching cartoons and those poor kids are being delayed by a scumbag such as myself.


Needless to say I never saw that bus pull up again but I missed my opportunity to meet Pastor Bill...someday. Anyway this documentary on Link TV (if you have satellite) is all about the good Pastor and I suggest you watch it when it's on.
Showtimes








Dig that crazy 1974 hairstyle on Pastor Bill eh? Nothing looks better on a man pushing 60.

The Day After

My church was gracious enough to start the services at 2pm the next day taking into account that many people probably didn't hunker down to sleep until much later in the day. The songs that the worship team chose to do on sunday were much better than the ones we did the day before so I was in much higher spirits--secret is the more I like the song, the more energy I put into playing it. Hey, that's not to say that those simple quick 3 chord songs don't have their place it's just you'll usually see a disgusted groan come out of me if the team brings one of them up. Here are just a few pics I took-







Oh yeah and it seems that after our performance one of the worship team members who seems to have the most problem with reliability and regular attendance said that she/he would now try to do whatever it takes and stay on the up and up. Maybe this person saw the light and realized how much of a blessing this ministry is and wants to approach this with the dedication needed from each member. I can only hope but I can say this, this is that person's last chance because there are no needs for more headaches then there are already. There is also another wayward person on the team who seems to be toying with this ministry and this person really needs to realize If he/she wants to continue with the group full-time or never. We don't have backup singers or musicians so obviously it becomes harder if somebody isn't there that should be and if all signs point out that come rain or shine you should be with us at rehearsal on Saturday and on Sunday without any problems, then it's time think about if you really want to continue with this or not.

Any problems we have should by the will of God, be resolved this coming Saturday. I'll post an update obviously.


Cya!

So this is the New Year

Alright! One day into the new year and I still haven't done anything significant with my life yet. I shall not give up hope though, I'll be counting down the rest of the 364 days left to squander good opportunities. This was my second year spending New Year's eve at my church, the other years I would just spend in front of the TV watching (pre-stroke) Dick Clark and let out a lackluster "yeah great" at the ball dropped 15 miles from where I live. Our pastor right at the end lets all the families huddle together 5 minutes before 12am delivering some faith-assuring messages. At the very end the church gets into one huge hug fest, that lasts for about 15 minutes and then we all do something afterwards that doesn't involve alcohol or illegal contraband. We're christians after all. Here are some photos-