Seriously?

We are facing what could potentially be the most consequential election of our lifetime and this is the best we can do? Seriously? Where are the truly great conservative leaders in this nation?

Here at Christmas time I recall what Isaiah prophesied concerning the coming of Christ, "...and the government shall be upon His shoulders." Two thoughts come to mind - 1) If we are the body of Christ then we are the shoulders of Christ. 2) The shoulder is a type of responsibility! It is our responsibility as the Body of Christ to shoulder the responsibility of government. We see plainly what happens when the godless rule. My prayer is that God will raise up righteous men and women to lead America again! 

The Peanut Gallery

When Charles Shultz started his comic strip Peanuts it was originally called The Peanut Gallery. A Peanut Gallery is a theatrical term for people you don't take seriously. That's exactly what Satan wants to make out of us - A Peanut Gallery that the world just laughs at. He wants to rob us of our credibility because he knows that God wants to make us the light of the world. One of the ways he puts us in the funny papers is by continuing to maintain strongholds in our lives even after we've been born again. By keeping us as pessimistic as Charlie Brown or a control freak like Lucy Van Pelt, Satan succeeds in making us look like a comic strip character in the minds of those we're supposed to be influencing in the world around us. 

The truth is, the desire to control people and the practice of being habitually pessimistic isn't funny. It may be cute when Charlie Brown or Lucy acts this way in the comic strip, but if you struggle with these issues or love someone who does, you know there's nothing cute or funny about it! 

These things can't be written off as merely a personality trait or even a character flaw - They are strongholds our enemy has placed upon us and that's not the will of God for our lives! God wants us free! Jesus said that if the Son sets us free, we are free indeed! God can liberate us from the Peanut Gallery by dealing with the Charlie Brown in us all. 

A Charlie Brown Christmas

A couple of weeks ago we hosted our first Christmas production in our new worship center. Crossroads is known for big, elaborate productions, so the pressure was on to ‘bring it’ in the new digs. We designed the new building for these kinds of events - A big stage with multiple curtains and fly tracks for bringing things on and off stage. It was so much fun having the facility we needed to accommodate the kind of production we wanted to share. 

Early this year, while the building was still going up, we decided on a musical stage version of the beloved Peanuts television classic, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I’ve always enjoyed the comic strip, and the television special has always been a family favorite this time of year. One of Broadway’s most successful shows a few years back was “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown.” The combination of adult actors playing these characters in the costumes we remember, with over-sized sets to make them look more child-like has a magic all of it’s own and we knew it would work with the Christmas special as well as it had with the “Good Man” story line. We just needed to work in some original musical numbers, build on the spiritual message that already exists in the original script and we would have ourselves a terrific production for this Christmas season.

We began with a great director. We knew we needed someone who had experience with musical stage shows, so we asked Kathy Pooler to direct and I’m so glad we did. She did an incredible job filling our huge new stage!

Next we were on to casting. The actors we selected did an incredible job! Jason Rhoades played Charlie Brown. (Completely shaving his head for the role!) Daphne Gaspard played Lucy, Aaron Domegeaux played Linus, Coy Watson played Schroeder, Kari Campbell played Sally, Phil Bergeron played Snoopy, Michelle Sanchez played Frieda, Madelyn Roberts played Violet, Stephen Clark played Franklin and Stephanie Elmore played Peppermint Patty. 

Coy Watson, Kari Campbell and I wrote original songs for the production. They came out great. Kari’s song, “Phobias” was performed by Daphne Gaspard as Lucy in the  Psychiatrist scene. Kari, playing Sally Brown, performed a song written by Coy called “Tens and Twenties.” The song I wrote was called “This Little Tree” and it was performed by Jason Rhoades, as Charlie Brown.  We also included a song originally performed by the Royal Guardsmen called “Snoopy’s Christmas.” The song featured a mechanical doghouse that ‘flew’ (thanks to Shane Thompson) in front of a 16x19 screen, with Jordy Davidson on vocals and Mariah Hebert, Ashley Boullion, Anna Hansen, Kriston Arceneaux, Gavin Kondo and Kevin Wold dancing as German soldiers. Michelle Sanchez choreographed the dance numbers. As always, Coy Watson did a marvelous job arranging and performing the music with his talented band consisting of Steve Melancon, Tom Lyles, Kari Campbell and Lance Morgan. The stage set designed by Rhett Wyatt and company was magnificent! Rhett also managed the XMC stage hands who beasted all the prop placements and scene changes! Holane Davidson was our costume designer. She and our hair and make up  artists, Britney Bergeron and LaGwen Miller made all the Peanuts characters look legit! 

We had over 4,800 in attendance, the largest service we’ve ever had, with 80 decisions for Christ which means Charlie Brown isn''t such a blockhead after all! Thanks to everyone who helped make this year's production such a tremendous success!