7/5/07
‘Power Team’ unites brute strength, spirituality
By Philip Gibbons

PHILIP GIBBONS/Manning Times

One of the Power Team proves his strength by breaking an entire deck of cards in half. His team members, each with their own special strength, urge him on.

“For thirty years, the Power Team has broken things to bring people closer together.”

This short statement on the front page of their official website makes it clear what the Power Team is all about: breaking down barriers and uniting crowds of people while doing it.

Founded in Dallas, Texas in 1976, the Power Team combines an evangelical Christian rally with a performance art show. It features heavily built martial artists – all of them ordained ministers – performing nigh-impossible stunts in front of an audience. They smash bricks, bend steel, crack bats over their legs and lie on beds of nails, among other things. In-between these stunts, they preach messages of spirituality to the crowd.

The Power Team’s mission statement, according to their website, is to “reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ which an ordinary church meeting or event cannot; drawing people through the use of performing visually explosive and spectacular feats of strength by incredible athletes who share with them the life-changing message of the cross.”

Their ultimate goal is to attract people from all walks of life, including those who don’t normally attend church services. They claim that 60 percent of those who show up aren’t members of churches, and that local church attendance increases an average of 20 percent after their show is over.

The Power Team performed at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Manning between Wednesday and Sunday of last week.

“The Power Team [came to] Emmanuel Baptist to talk about many of the issues that trouble our society and teens in today’s world,” said EBC’s Youth Pastor Mike Jewell. “They are very interested in building character and self esteem in young people. They portray all this through incredible feats of strength!”

The Power Team consists of at least fourteen members, but only four were needed to rock the house last week. They included Jamie Morrison, who did most of the preaching; Ray Clark, a bodyguard and Marine; Jannett Abraham-Clark, who appeared on the show “Roller Jam” as the “Abrah-Hammer,” and Riley Israel, a former Body Building Champion who tore through steel as if it were paper.

The stunts ranged from spectacular to amazing to dangerous. Abraham-Clark folded a steel rod with her jaw. Israel ripped a phone book in half, and Ray Clark sprinted through a wall of fire. By the end, the stage was littered with debris, paper, and woodchips.

As scraps fell off the stage, young people rushed out of their chairs to claim them as souvenirs.

Near the end of the show, an audience member was invited onstage to see how many bricks he could smash in a certain amount of time. According to Morrison, his destruction set a new record.

Members of the crew talked about their struggles growing up and what eventually led them to salvation. Abraham-Clark told a painful story of a life of neglect and drug abuse that got turned around when a woman she met in a Laundromat began witnessing to her. Jamie Morrison talked about overcoming an abusive childhood and a crippling disease.

Said Morrison, “We’re only on the Power Team because we plugged our lives into the Power Source. That’s Jesus Christ. It’s changed our hearts, and made us real men and women.”