The James River Church invited me to perform as part of their Stronger Mens Conference last April.
I hadn’t thought much about it lately, but I just came across a picture of me onstage, and then looked down and realized I was wearing a t-shirt from the event.
This picture was of me doing one chainsaw and 2 balls. As you can see it was a large crowd. i believe around 17,000 people!
The event was unlike anything I’d seen before. The primary purpose of the event as to support the churches ideas and support the men of the church. That’s right, the 17,000 people was all men! The church has another event for women that I understand is equally impressive.
They had famous cars parked in the building that were really cool. They had basketball trick shots, loud music played live, and even navy seals shooting guns from the roof.
The special guests were also amazing. They had 2 NFL players, and Matt Huges from UFC did a talk. It was interesting to me to hear a UFC fighter talking about his connection to God.
Woodsmen Show at Church!
In the first evening they had a woodsmen show to close the evening. I was brought in to do the chainsaw juggling in the middle of the competition so the athletes could get a rest. They had the top Stihl Lumberjacks compete in 4 events. I could only watch the axe throwing as I was backstage most of the time, but it was awesome!
In years past the church has hosted Monster Trucks, American Ninja Warrier, and even boxing (or as I call it, fisting).
I did drop a saw at this event, you can read about that in another article I wrote a while back: https://chainsawjuggling.com/chainsaw-juggling-accident/
I’ve never seen a church event like it! Check out their great event at https://strongermen.org.
PS The event also had “Try not to laugh” with “dad jokes” that I particularly enjoyed.