Crucified Upside Down

It was in the cold of wintertime. A workday was called at the church by the new young preacher, Bro. Green. He was only about twenty-five. This little community church had always been non-denominational. “Just leave your doctrinal beliefs outside and come on in,” they would say. Let us call this church, “Vine of Praise.” On previous workdays usually only the old pastor and I would show up. Several other young and stronger men would seem to leave all the work up to the old pastor and me. I was only nine or ten and not much help. Workdays were always on Saturday and we’d do our best. The next day, Sunday, all the other men would tell us how we did it all wrong again. By this time, the older preacher had worked himself into poor health and had to resign. The church had always been more Baptist than anything else. Now it had taken on a much more Pentecostal flavor.

The reason for the workday was to fortify the altars. They were plenty strong but the coming evangelist was a large heavy man who liked to walk on the altars while preaching. I was very excited about the revival. I helped pastor Green hand out revival posters to everyone we could. The young pastor was very athletic. While I handed out revival posters, he was practicing gymnastics and warming up for the revival services that evening.

It was finally 7:30 pm and time for revival. The small church had all its faithful few and a number of visitors. Bro. Green was a very dynamic and athletic preacher. He would run all over the building, this was considered, “spiritual.” He would leave from behind the pulpit and run to the left side of the sanctuary. When he got to the back of the sanctuary, he would run across the back to the right side. Then he would run back up to the front and up into the choir area. From the choir he would run toward the pulpit and jump it and land in the center between the two roles of pews. He was shouting the whole time. I always sat on the front pew next to the center isle. He would often take a foot launch next to me and jump two or three pews. His record was four. I sat on the front pew because I didn’t want to miss out on learning to be a preacher.

The evangelist was a large man and very loud. He preached so hard it was hard to understand him. However, everyone liked his enthusiasm. Each night for more than a week, he watched the more athletic pastor run, jump, and praise. The revival would continue for weeks unless the Lord impressed otherwise. The evangelist was forced to quit due to health problems. The health problem came about while he was preaching. The most peculiar thing happened to him. He was so inspired by the younger, smaller, athletic pastor; he also began running and shouting all over the building. He left the pulpit and ran to the left side and down to the back. He ran across the back to the right side and back up into the choir area. He then attempted to jump the pulpit. However, the microphone caught his pants in the crotch. He went over the pulpit head first and upside down. When his head hit the pulpit, it sounded like a canon had gone off. He was out colder than a wedge and hanging upside down. The pastor quickly responded that the evangelist, like saint Peter, didn’t feel worthy to die like Jesus. The evangelist was all right after all and the revival was over.

Crucified Upside Down

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