A few weeks ago, I took my family to the Monster Truck Rally at the Colorado State Fair, and my little boy LOVED IT! (of course) I enjoyed taking pictures with my zoom lens, and finally got around to making a highlight video… ENJOY:
(Here is a download in case you’d ever want to use it in ministry! 24.6MB)
What IS it about Monster Trucks that makes them so exciting?
Is there a lesson for KIDMIN? I think there is. Do you know the history of Monster Trucks? I’ve learned quite a bit about them as a dad with a boy who is in love with them.
It all began in the mid-1970s, when Bob Chandler, then a St. Louis, MO. construction contractor, owned an F-250 4×4 pickup truck. Chandler used his truck on the job and for off-road family fun on the weekends. But he found ways to break even the toughest of trucks, and that led to the discovery that there was no place in the Midwest to get 4×4 parts and service. Recognizing a potential market, Bob, Marilyn, and Jim Kramer started Midwest Four Wheel Drive & Performance Center.
They still used their 4×4 as a work truck, and partly as a promotional tool for their business. They tried out new parts on the truck, and kept making it bigger and better, always a step (or two) ahead of everyone else. Soon the truck itself became an attraction – especially once he put GIANT WHEELS on it. In 1979, it did its first paid event, a Denver car show. Truck pulls in arenas and stadiums soon followed.
Then, in 1981, Chandler tried something that forever changed the monster truck concept. It fueled an explosion of fan interest and led to a legion of imitators. He decided, just for fun, to see if he could drive BIGFOOT over a couple of junk cars.
The first car crush ever in 1981. A few months later, he duplicated the stunt in a stadium show. The rest is history. In 1983, BIGFOOT began a sponsorship association with Ford Motor Company. In that time, the BIGFOOT fleet has had 16 monster machines and the F-Series pickup has become the world’s best selling vehicle.
Quite simply, MONSTER TRUCKS are just regular trucks – made BIGGER and doing BIGGER things. But people love it. Bob continued to ask, “What will make it more fun?” But he also continued to ask, “What will make it safer?”
Today, drivers are safer than ever with suspension harnesses that keep drivers bouncing in their trucks as they do huge jumps, and their trucks can be remotely turned off by up to three different people outside the truck at the push of a button in case the driver loses control and the truck goes racing toward the stands full of spectators!
What can Kidmin Leaders learn from Monster Trucks?
If you want to draw kids and families to church – ask yourself the same questions Bob did. What needs are there in your community that no one is meeting? Meet them! And you will draw people to your church. Then ask, how can we do church BIGGER and BETTER than ever before? But don’t neglect asking as well, how can we do it safer as well?
When you read about a game or object lesson or skit or other children’s ministry idea – BLOW IT UP! Make it BIGGER AND BETTER. Any idea can be done HUGER!
Whatever you are doing, ask yourself, “What would GIANT TIRES look like in this situation?” Be ahead of the pack and GO FOR IT! You just might stumble onto something that will fill your church with new folks who you can then share the Gospel with. OR, you may just end up with an object lesson or game that is ten times more impactful or memorable.
Turn ordinary ideas into MONSTER IDEAS by blowing them up!
