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Greg Lewis smashes his elbow through flaming cinder blocks
Jeff Neal of Team Impact asks audience members to raise their hands if they want to be saved by Christ during the team's performance at Westmoreland County's Oak Grove Baptist Church on Wednesday night.
In a demonstration of strength, bodybuilder Greg Lewis strains to break a wooden baseball bat behind his back at Oak Grove Church. |
FOR JEFF NEAL and the
breathless hundreds
watching the bulky behemoth's muscles strain to the breaking point, the moment of truth is at hand.
For more than an hour, the glib, pony-tailed power-lifter and former Houston Oiler footballer has put Team Impact through a demolition derby of sorts, pitting bricks, blocks and huge slabs of ice against various body parts.
Wearing T-shirts ripped to reveal biceps thicker than lampposts, Neal and three beefcake buddies have slammed fists, elbows and even heads into enough brick and block to build a storage shed for the host church.
To lure nonbelievers and those in need of religious rebirth to the Westmoreland County
crusade, Neal and his crew of weightlifters have also snapped bats, bent steel bars and sandwiched one of their own between
a bed of nails and Neal, who happened to be holding a 315-pound barbell at the time.
Though he's got a honey-throated delivery that many a pastor would love to borrow, and the show has the pizzazz of a Los Vegas revue, Neal's already admitted it's all a big come-on.
"We're the bait, luring you in here by putting our heads through bricks," he said. "The message we share, that Jesus can be your salvation, is what it's all about."
To that end, the whole evening is a slowly building cauldron of excitement and exhortation.
One by one, huge stacks of bricks, blocks and ice have been smashed and cleared away, giving way each time to a Herculean feat even more impressive, like the blowing up of a hot-water bottle as if it was nothing more than a child's balloon.
It's all building to this, the moment when Neal will try to snap a pair of handcuffs locked around his wrists.
After that, the plan calls for him to share personal testimony and then urge the listeners to break free of their earthly bonds.
That comes in the altar call that ends all the Team Impact shows. If the carefully crafted marriage of masonry carnage and tent-show revival is successful, a bevy of tearfully joyful listeners will march up to secure salvation.
Bracing his massive shoulders, then adjusting layers of duct tape on his wrists to prevent his skin from tearing, the 340-pound Neal takes a deep breath and begins.
Once, twice, three times the veins on his forehead seem ready to burst as he pushes with all the strength that comes from bench pressing more than 600 pounds.
Bowing his head for a brief moment of prayer and effect, he starts again. The look on his face says that this time, something's breaking: either the cuff's steel links or his wrists.
With a sudden snap, he's free, raising his arms in a salute that's both a celebration and a call.
Answering his call for "the only true path to eternal salvation," more than 50 children answer and approach the stage.
"Tonight isn't about Team Impact," he said at the show's close. "It's about the power of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ."
Chalk it up as another successful evening for the Dallas-based Christian outreach ministry.
Willard Bowen, pastor of the church, said Team Impact was invited to hold 7 p.m. shows nightly at the church through Sunday as part of Oak Grove's year of Christian outreach.
While in the area, Team Impact will take a secular show, stressing an anti-drug-and-drinking theme, to schools in Fredericksburg, King George, Westmoreland and Northumberland counties.
Preston Philpott, a coordinator for Team Impact, said it got its start as a prison ministry.
Today, he said, the ministry has been transformed into a broader effort, using entertainment value to attract those not normally drawn to church.
"Seventy percent of the people
at these evening shows will be unchurched," Philpott said. "Many will be fans of the [World Wrestling Federation]. But once here, many will be open to the message they hear."
Greg Lewis, a former bodybuilder who snaps bats and breaks flaming blocks during the show, said he joined the ministry after being born again in 1992.
Tucked in among the 40,000 the group says answered altar calls last year, Lewis said there were people he can't forget.
"A young woman named Amanda came up to me after we were at her school," said Lewis. "She said that she'd been about to commit suicide, but now had given her life to Jesus instead. It was pretty amazing."
Neal said the Team Impact group is more than 25 different weightlifters, bodybuilders and former football players who'll do 70 crusades in the U.S. and other countries this year.
Asked how life in seven seasons with the NFL and CFL compares to life now as an ordained minister and Team Impact member, Neal said there's no comparison.
"This is the real thing, there's no comparison," he said, looking out at those who've come forward. "Doing this is a true blessing."
Team Impact newcomers, Randall Harris of Dallas and Jim Hoskinson of Florida, said most team members are competitive weightlifters, who fill crusade down time by pumping iron.
Parishioners at Oak Grove, who were asked to provide four meals a day for Team Impact, were pleased with the show.
"Like they said, the feats of strength are a drawing card, a way to get people in to hear them," said Neva Muse. "It was interesting."
Lyle McWhirt of Fredericksburg was moved as well, having brought three teens to the show.
"Two of them answered the call," he said, smiling. "I'd call that a pretty successful night."
