worship eagles
Other than some unexpected sex advice from an older gentleman and my father, the minister, initially forgetting to give us our rings, my wedding was fairly normal. My friend's wedding, however, her wedding was extraordinary.
She married a great guy who is a Bible scholar. One of the ways he honored this deep love for God's Word is by having an eagle in his wedding.
Go ahead and read that last sentence again. It's a big one.
While most people plan candle moments and have their silver medal friend who was not good enough to be in the wedding party read "Love is patient," this guy actually hired an eagle to make a cameo. Now, there's some debate about whether it was an eagle or a hawk. I think that's kind of like arguing about whether it was a shark or a barracuda that bit your foot off while swimming. The details don't matter nearly as much as the fact that he had a bird of prey in his wedding.
My brother went and said that he spent most of the wedding filming action scenes in his head in which the eagle swooped down and flew off with the flower girl. It didn't though. Apparently it sat up next to the minister on a tall perch looking all "eagly" and just chilling, with a look on its face that kind of said, "Yeah, I'm an eagle. Don't sweat the technique."
The reason my friend loves eagles is due in large part to the Bible verse in Isaiah 40:31 that says, "they shall mount up with wings as eagles" (KJV).And he's not alone. I found forty-one eagle-themed products on a Christian website once.
But I don't think that's enough. I don't think we've worked enough eagle into our lives. So I prepared a short list of ways I think having an eagle on staff could help a church.
Interpretive Dance
Can you imagine how amazing it would be to have a live eagle fly around your sanctuary while people did an interpretive dance routine to Bette Midler's song "Wind Beneath My Wings"? I'm starting to tear up a little right now just thinking about seeing him unfurl his wings as sweet Bette sings "Flyyyyy, flyyyyyyy, fly high against the sky ... "
The Seat Saver
I personally am not a huge fan of that guy or girl who saves nineteen seats at church with a variety of papers and Bibles and purses. We do all this work to get visitors to come to church and then tell them they can't sit here, here, or right there. An eagle would fix that. I would have our falcon master (you would need to add that position to your church regardless of whether an
eagle is considered a falcon; someone needs to wear that big leather glove) teach the eagle how to pick up the junk people use to save seats. Just as you put down a trail of bulletins across some seats you wanted to save, a missile of feathers and talons and beak would swoop down from the heavens and steal every one of them.
The Crying Kid
Occasionally, someone feels their kid is too old or young or tired or delicate to attend childcare or Sunday school. So they bring him in the church, squirt Capri Suns down his throat for energy, and then pretend they don't hear him wailing through the entire service. Oh, but the eagle hears. The eagle hears all. With the softest approach in the game, the eagle would lightly pick up the child, carry him away, and drop him in a ball pit outside with all the other crying kids. (Am I the only one who thinks this way?)
The Hype Man
Instead of having that guy/girl on staff who is in charge of randomly yelling "Amen" during the sermon to get the crowd going, you could use the eagle. Whenever you made a good point or wanted to increase the energy in the room, you could have the eagle do that loud, piercing scream they are known for. No one would ever doze off in church again. Although some pastors
would abuse it and overuse the worship eagle like the way I once abused the phrase "if by." I was constantly saying stuff like, "Am I hungry? If by 'hungry' you mean, 'I'm about to eat my own shoes,' then yes." My younger brothers, Will and Bennett, had to have a joke intervention. It was a very unfunny season in my life.
She married a great guy who is a Bible scholar. One of the ways he honored this deep love for God's Word is by having an eagle in his wedding.
Go ahead and read that last sentence again. It's a big one.
While most people plan candle moments and have their silver medal friend who was not good enough to be in the wedding party read "Love is patient," this guy actually hired an eagle to make a cameo. Now, there's some debate about whether it was an eagle or a hawk. I think that's kind of like arguing about whether it was a shark or a barracuda that bit your foot off while swimming. The details don't matter nearly as much as the fact that he had a bird of prey in his wedding.
My brother went and said that he spent most of the wedding filming action scenes in his head in which the eagle swooped down and flew off with the flower girl. It didn't though. Apparently it sat up next to the minister on a tall perch looking all "eagly" and just chilling, with a look on its face that kind of said, "Yeah, I'm an eagle. Don't sweat the technique."
The reason my friend loves eagles is due in large part to the Bible verse in Isaiah 40:31 that says, "they shall mount up with wings as eagles" (KJV).And he's not alone. I found forty-one eagle-themed products on a Christian website once.
But I don't think that's enough. I don't think we've worked enough eagle into our lives. So I prepared a short list of ways I think having an eagle on staff could help a church.
Interpretive Dance
Can you imagine how amazing it would be to have a live eagle fly around your sanctuary while people did an interpretive dance routine to Bette Midler's song "Wind Beneath My Wings"? I'm starting to tear up a little right now just thinking about seeing him unfurl his wings as sweet Bette sings "Flyyyyy, flyyyyyyy, fly high against the sky ... "
The Seat Saver
I personally am not a huge fan of that guy or girl who saves nineteen seats at church with a variety of papers and Bibles and purses. We do all this work to get visitors to come to church and then tell them they can't sit here, here, or right there. An eagle would fix that. I would have our falcon master (you would need to add that position to your church regardless of whether an
eagle is considered a falcon; someone needs to wear that big leather glove) teach the eagle how to pick up the junk people use to save seats. Just as you put down a trail of bulletins across some seats you wanted to save, a missile of feathers and talons and beak would swoop down from the heavens and steal every one of them.
The Crying Kid
Occasionally, someone feels their kid is too old or young or tired or delicate to attend childcare or Sunday school. So they bring him in the church, squirt Capri Suns down his throat for energy, and then pretend they don't hear him wailing through the entire service. Oh, but the eagle hears. The eagle hears all. With the softest approach in the game, the eagle would lightly pick up the child, carry him away, and drop him in a ball pit outside with all the other crying kids. (Am I the only one who thinks this way?)
The Hype Man
Instead of having that guy/girl on staff who is in charge of randomly yelling "Amen" during the sermon to get the crowd going, you could use the eagle. Whenever you made a good point or wanted to increase the energy in the room, you could have the eagle do that loud, piercing scream they are known for. No one would ever doze off in church again. Although some pastors
would abuse it and overuse the worship eagle like the way I once abused the phrase "if by." I was constantly saying stuff like, "Am I hungry? If by 'hungry' you mean, 'I'm about to eat my own shoes,' then yes." My younger brothers, Will and Bennett, had to have a joke intervention. It was a very unfunny season in my life.