I’m not sure why the church building had a blackboard behind the pulpit but I was glad it did. To this day I can still see one particular diagram that our preacher put up on the board. Wayne was his name and his wife was Rowena.

Now we had another preacher after him but I couldn’t tell you his name, he didn’t use the blackboard. At the ripe old age of five I didn’t understand small church economics. Wayne preached for the church part time, what he did with the rest was certainly of no concern to me. I was busy building forts and playing in the trees that surrounded our home.

I didn’t know what I had until he was gone. Wayne loved to draw on that chalkboard for his Sunday message and I loved to recreate his work. My mother loved to parade my fine drawings before the minister following each sermon. I guess it showed I was a real go-getter, I was really on the ball.

Wayne didn’t last long, at least not long enough for my taste. I wanted him to stay forever and I always asked if he would possible return. I enjoyed him, he had a warm face, and I loved his artwork. The church simply couldn’t afford him and he couldn’t really afford the church.

When he left I was sad. I asked my mother why the new minister didn’t draw on the chalkboard, I mean it was there. I even asked the preacher why, but this only seemed to confuse him. It was the first church building I can really remember, it would be years before I realized the chalkboard wasn’t the norm.

Fast forward thirty-two years to a gym in the town of Great Bend, Kansas. I found myself helping a family friend run a program for the Great Bend school district. Well, I guess I can’t say I was helping that much. My wife was really helping, I just came up for a day to be a part of the event and give an evening parent class.

It was one of those eye opening experiences. The program was called FACES and it used a lot of visual aids and movie clips to teach the children values that the school district had deemed important. It wrapped this visual teaching around different exercises that got the children involved in the learning.

It was less about telling the kids the values and more about allowing them to experience the values in different ways.

I was hooked. My wife and I were well on our way to looking for a ministry position outside of the fellowship of my youth. Their mindset and basic attitude were not conducive to change and experimental teaching, at least not in my journey.

I began to use more visuals in my messages, I began to quote from books that were not “Christian.” I looked for a place that would allow me to connect my preaching with my love of visuals. I dreamed of creating diagrams on chalkboards all over again.

I had a message that I used at each place I tried out for. It was a clip from the Karate Kid, wax on wax off. We found the place and they agreed to purchase a computer and programs that would allow me to create videos. In the end they gave me hope that this would be a place for that boy who loved that chalkboard.