Breaking boards for the Lord

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/09/2010 (5828 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Tiffany Shields, a hot water bottle isn’t just a source of comfort during illness, but an ever expanding vehicle to publicly display her lung power.

“We never know what’s going to happen. All we know is it is very difficult,” explains her colleague Matt Dopson as Shields blows up the bottle to a size bigger than a basketball in front of a roomful of junior high and high school students.

“She’s going to take everything she’s got to blow up this hot water bottle until it explodes.”

Bursting hot water bottles, breaking baseball bats and bending steel rods is all in an afternoon’s work for Shields and Dopson, members of the Power Team of Dallas Texas, which visits Winnipeg this week for two dozen events sponsored by Church of the Rock.

Their feats of strength — which include breaking boards and cinder blocks with bare hands, or in some cases, bare heads — are not really about the size of their muscles, but the capacity of their hearts, explains their road manager.

“It’s effective, (and) we get people’s attention,” says road manager J.R. Longstaff of the exhibitions of power by the 20 members of the team, which performs 100 times a year.

“If it’s crazy and it gets people’s attention (so we can) give a message of hope and inspiration, that’s what we’re going to do.”

During their first visit to Winnipeg, Longstaff and four members of the team, including former professional football player Todd Keane, were planning to speak to students at 20 schools.

As well as those mostly inspirational, motivational messages, they’re presenting evening shows at Church of the Rock with a distinctly Christian message. The last two shows run at 7 p.m. tonight and Sunday at the church’s complex at 1397 Buffalo Place in Fort Garry.

“God has given you the ability to overcome any obstacle in life to power through,” says Longstaff of the theme of the evening presentations by team members, who are all ordained ministers except for Shields, who is still working toward ordination. “If you trust (God), there’s nothing you can’t do in life.”

That message of hope and empowerment — and the gratuitous breaking of boards, bricks and 150 kilogram telephone poles — is what folks at the Church of The Rock hope will get the attention of people who don’t usually darken the door of their sprawling suburban worship complex, also home to their weekly television show broadcast across Canada.

“Ultimately our goal is to bring them to God,” says Rev. Duane Masters, an associate pastor heading up a group of dozens of church staff and volunteers to put on these free public events. “But the motivational presentation alone is of value.”

The Power Team has lots of experience of conversions, with their website (www.thepowerteam.com) boasting of millions of souls saved over the last three decades. Their fast-paced 45-minute school shows touch on issues of suicide, making good choices, and keeping one’s virginity, bookended with the type of strength tricks no one should attempt at home.

Masters says his church decided to use the muscles of the Power Team to help address issues such as violence and gang activity in Winnipeg.

“We see problems in our schools in the city,” Masters says. “We feel if we can make an investment in them we can help everyone.”

The non-denominational Christian church is spending about $50,000, including the value of donated concrete blocks, baseball bats and metal rod, to bring the not-for-profit Power Team organization to the city.

While this type of showmanship evangelism may be attractive to some, many Canadians might consider it too splashy and too American, says a professor of youth leadership at a local evangelical Christian college.

“The new model (of evangelism) is the old model. The best way to influence other people with the gospel is through friendship,” says Chris Marchard, who teaches at Providence College and Seminary in Otterburne, just south of Winnipeg.

“It’s the same thing Jesus did, just getting to know people.”

Master says his church intends to keep in touch with anyone who expresses interest in Christianity.

And he knows gimmicks like bursting a hot water bottle or squeezing a pop can to death are just ways to attract people, the same as a preacher’s jokes or an entertainer’s songs.

“We’re not trying to equate it with a biblical message,” says Masters, who admits this venture is unprecedented for his church. “We’re just trying to grab people’s attention to hear what we’re saying.”

brenda@suderman.com

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