166 thoughts on “Bus Routes”

      1. Our pastor was from Indiana but usually put on a Southern accent when preaching :\

        1. Many whites moved from the southern states to various points north during WWII for work. Specifically, Michigan acquired quite a few, creating a southern subculture there. Same reason there are opossums in Washington state (they’re not native) – they were introduced by the same folks who settled in Darrington, so they would have them to hunt. Darrington is where the big mudslide was, so you may have heard traces of the south in the people interviewed for TV.

        2. Christy, are you saying people brought white Southerners to Michigan so they could hunt them??

        3. Michigan has one of the most messed up economies of the country, and Detroit has one of the worse economies in the world. Hmmmm…..must be embarrassing to all of you, knowing that Detroit just “happens to be” about as far left and Democratic as one can get.

        2. Re: above with the origin of possums in the PNW – take it how you wish. Coffee hadn’t fully kicked in.

      3. Would that be Dr. Oullette’s church in Saginaw? Or maybe he’s in Bridgeport?

        2. …
          In Shaginaw, in Shaginaw
          I went to Shunday Shule;
          The only thing I ever learned
          Was called the Golden Rhule,—
          But that’s enough for any man
          What’s not a proper fool.

          I took the pledge cards on my bike;
          I helped out with the books;
          The stingy members when they signed
          Made with their stingy looks,—
          The largest contributions came
          From the town’s biggest crooks.
          …

          From “Saginaw,” by Theodore Roethke

          Here’s the whole poem:
          http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-saginaw-song/

        3. Wow! That’s a trip and so true! Our former pastor used to make a big production about his “tithe” going into the plate first every Sunday, but the other receipt he didn’t turn in and get reimbursed for was the receipt for his Cadillac!

        4. If its Community Baptist in Saginaw I think that’s Doug Jackson. Oullette is in a more rural area than Saginaw which is a pretty rough town.

        5. Speaking as someone who grew up in Ouellette’s church, it’s in Bridgeport which is Saginasty’s little ugly sister. We ran bus routes into Saginaw (the bad part of town), and Community Baptist ran their’s on the other side of Saginaw (the only slightly better side of town). There was always a weird judgmental rivalry between the two churches which was weird considering that Ouellette’s wife’s sister is Doug Jackson’s wife. Believe it or not, Community Baptist at the time was a little more liberal than us which made them bad. I think they’re all one big happy family now, though.

          Our bus routes ran way more kids than shown in this video, and yes, it was always segregated from the regular church. The worst bus route came into the church in the afternoon when all the regular folks had gone home. There was too much risk of fights breaking out and craziness that happened. I always wondered why we were bothering to bring all these kids in for 45 minutes of barely being able to control the madness just to send them home again. And I did this for six years.

      4. Yes. I was a bus kid. Yes, eventually (during teen years) I was treated very differently from the church family kids. Yes, I am grateful that I began my Christian walk at an early age. Yes, I ended up dazed and confused spritually in my twenties……but now as a public school teacher who attends a very non-fundy church….my heart is full for the kids in my elementary classroom who have never even been in a place of worship!!Until I looked at this site, I did not know bus ministry still existed. Not too much of it in rural Georgia that I know of.

      5. Michigan is lousy with IFB churches full of southern transplants – many who relocated to fill auto plants back in the day. Some of them have lived in the North for several generations and still talk like that. Probably because they rarely leave the 4 walls of their sutherin church haymen!

        Finding a decent church with “Baptist” in the name likely can be done in Michigan, but you would have to carefully traverse a minefield of epic proportions of a variety of disfunctional craziness to find those churches.

      6. Llutgard, I’m naive. Are you just “punking me,” as the kids would say? No one can believe with a straight face what you just said, can they?

        The symbiotic relationship between corrupt unions and the Democratic machine does nothing but economically destroy and halt any economic progress. Unions aside, Democratic, Progressive policies do nothing but destroy gainful economies and by and large destroy cultures as well.

        Granted, NAFTA did quite a bit to destroy the manufacturing sector of the American system as well. And that was a bipartisan issue equally hailed by both Democrats and Republicans.

        1. “Democratic, Progressive policies do nothing but destroy gainful economies and by and large destroy cultures as well. ”

          Libertarian/Objectivist nonsense. Compare Scandanavia to Somalia and then start digging your way out of that statement.

        2. Llutgard,

          I’m beginning to think that you actually are serious and you actually believe what you are saying. Our nation is so naive and dumbed-down by the Progressive Establishment, that you are not a minority. There are many who agree with you. America is finished as a great nation and is headed towards the dust bin of history, thanks in large part to Progressive policies.

          How dare you even make a comment like you did! You compared Somalia to white Protestant or non-religious Scandinavia, trying to imply that Scandinavia is better! How dare you! Somalia is an Afrian-American country and also Muslim! How dare you start making comments like you did!

          Of course, you made a totally true statement, and I totally agree with you that any Muslim-dominated culture is intrinsically backwards and backwoods and repressive. You and I are in 100% agreement with each other there. But how dare you, as a Progressive, have the nerve to even bring this up! It is against your rules to bring up common sense logic in your views. This area is supposed to be untouchable to you and it’s how you shut down all common sense debate about anything. Just label something as a “racial” issue and stifle all debate. But here you are the one who brought up cultural issues, so you are breaking your own rules and only further making my point for me!

          By the way, another reason, other than they are not Muslim, why Scandinavia has not totally economically collapsed yet is because they have so much oil that they almost cannot help but be successful, in spite of their Progressive policies.

        4. stacymcanderson – I want some of what you are smoking. The only thing missing is you calling us out for voting for Clinton twice.

      7. Llutgard,

        Your comment about a “Suthn'” accent is classist and degrading. No culture is any better or worse than any other, and pointing out differences is racist and harmful.

        2. Llutgard,

          Hey, no hard feelings, ok? I’m sure you’re a nice person in real life. While I think you are horribly , horribly naive and gullible to actually believe the claptrap political ideologies that you do, you probably think you are correct. Interestingly, the leaders of the Progressive movement know that their policies are disruptive and will destroy cultures and republics, and that’s why they push for this agenda, because they hate what used to be known as the traditional American way of life.

          I don’t know if you hate freedom and Christianity, like many of the posters here at SFL, and that’s why you follow those policies, or just are gullible to false teaching and don’t totally hate Western ways and Christianity. But in any event, you seem sincere in your beliefs. No harm done. I enjoy coming to SFL and reading the wacky views of you ultra-liberal types and don’t mean to be unkind in my disagreements. And on rare occasion I even agree with some of you. I think it’s great that this Daryl guy does allow a bit of diversity in that he allows the rare poster like me to post pro-Christian or pro-capitalistic views.

        3. Dear Stacy,
          Please step away from Fox News and put your tinfoil hat back on.

    2. Doesn’t seem super white to me! Of course my family buys the super large size factor 50 sunscreen so we don’t resemble lobsters…

      1. I meant so the Arizona sun doesn’t make us resemble lobsters!
        That was in response to “Could he be any whiter?”

  3. I get motion sickness watching that – five years on the bus and I never got over it. The only time the bus was fun was when there were 50+ kids – chaos!

  4. It was weird how he kept looking around . It was like he was looking to make sure he was getting the right response from the pastor as he did his little presentation. Scoring some points with his MOG.

    1. His MOG . . . who I think is also his brother. (Isn’t this the church that’s run by a bunch of super-white and super-awkward siblings?)

  6. Seems that the camera operator has a bad case of the delirium tremens.

    And why is the pastor driving the bus? No one else in the church available?

    1. To be fair, he’d probably be damned if he did, damned if he didn’t.

      MoG drives bus: why no-one else to drive bus?
      Someone else drives bus: Ahh, I see the MoG is too superior to drive the bus!

      Maybe he’s the only person with the appropriate license?

      1. Eric Capaci in Hot Sorings still does his own bus route. I think he doesn’t for the sheer enjoyment of it.

    2. That is an assistant pastor driving the bus. At least the senior pastor is willing to share his glory.

      1. I meant share his glory by allowing someone else in his church to be called pastor.

      2. In Bible “college” we were taught that a church should never have Assistant Pastors because there’s only one pastor. Anyone in that type of role should be called “pastoral assistants” or “assistants to the pastor.”

        You can imagine my delight when I first started watching The Office. “I’m Dwight Schrute, assistant manager.” “You mean assistant to the manager?”

    3. I doubt that the pastor was driving the bus — he wasn’t even sure of the guy’s last name — probably some assistant/associate.

      I don’t think I’ve ever been a member of any IFB church in which I didn’t know the pastor’s name.

  7. Did he just say, “We love Jesus a bunchie????” You should sit down before you fall and get a bunchie bruises.

    1. Aww don’t be too hard on him. Standing up on the bus was probably the most entertainment he got all day.

      1. Well potato chips, Deacon ‘ s Son. Thank you for rebuking me in brotherly love. 😉

    3. We used to sing that Potato Chip chant on the bus all the time. I thought it was ridiculous. What do potato chips have to do with loving Jesus?

      1. It’s merely because Fundy Baptists don’t like it when you sing “One Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”

  9. I guess I’m just dumbfounded that even in the bus ministry that a suit and tie is required. Seriously? Obviously the passengers haven’t been fully converted because none of them were wearing suits and ties. The entire video makes me want to vomiteth my munchies a whole bunchies.

    2. The passengers are just numbers. They don’t have to convert, they just have to show up every Sunday for the sake of a head count.

  10. He keeps looking around nervously, like there are alligators about to attack or something. Probably a song in there somewhere about “munchie munchie”, etc.

    Sigh. This video was definitely cringeworthy.

    1. Hi kids! Welcome to The Uncle Bobo Show! Are you ready to sing? Come on, let’s go!
      Billy and his family
      Went on a holiday
      They went down to Florida
      To laugh and dance and play
      Bill went in for a swim
      He didn’t see the harm
      But when he came back out again
      He was short an arm!

      ‘Cause Rippy The Gator went CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP!
      Rippy The Gator went CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP!
      Passing the time By ending children’s lives
      Down in the bottom of the swamp, swamp, swamp..

      http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/a/arrogant_worms/rippy_the_gator.html

  11. This is like the third or fourth SFL video in recent memory that has someone rattle of the “judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” verse apropos of nothing in particular. Has this become the IFB’s Life Verse?? Or maybe its mantra?

    1. Of course, when you think of the fact that Lord = MOG to these people, it all makes much more sense.

    2. It’s a magic incantation that keeps them from having to defend their positions on anything.

    3. I didn’t get what that verse had to do with the bus ministry, but I guess I ask too much for wanting actual context.

    4. “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether”: I think this translates, “I sure as hell don’t understand why I’m supposed to be on this damn bus either. I did something wrong.”

    5. When you have no concept of God’s grace and live in constant fear of his judgment, you probably tend to focus on a verse like this.

  13. I was forced into the bus ministry at an IFB college and the experience completely soured me on children’s ministries. I don’t like to deal with children anymore and sadly sometimes I even avoid activities with my own kids. Thank you IFB bus routes.

    2. Can I identify with this! I was forced into teaching Sunday School with little kids; I had no training; I expected them to listen, but they just acted up and paid no attention. I resigned on the spot that day, and have never wanted to be involved in any children’s ministry again.

      I like teaching, but I think I need to deal with people who generally, choose to be present, and not young kids.

  15. NO, NONONONO!!!!!! NOT THAT STUPID MUNCHIE CRUNCHIE SON-OF-A-BUNCHIE SONG!!!!!! IT’S ALL COMING BACK!!!!! Those horrible, old Fundy U forced labor bus ministry worker memories!!!

    Quick! Someone give me a brick to bang my head on!!!

    1. *jerk*twitch*aaack…. Right up there with buckets of pickles and worm infested Nutter Butters

    2. Natalie, I am the Queen of Bricks. Since I’ve not gotten a single butt cushion delivered to my front door, I’ll not let you have any bricks.

        1. I’ve never gotten any butt cushions delivered to any inbox, real or imagined.

          I’m rethinking my butt cushion position. I may have to separate from you because you see white pianos.

    3. “He’s a peach of a Savior”,”Twelve men went to spy on Canaan”,
      Oatmeal cookie sandwiches (and other “quiet seat” prizes) from Aldi, writing out the bus verse visual (and doing two if your boyfriend was on a different bus)… so many memories

  18. This is Community Baptist Church in Saginaw, MI. All men on the staff are Maranatha grads. Doug Jackson, the senior pastor, is on the board at MBU, chairman, I think. His style seems to be more hylesish than most from Maranatha. I was at his church with the MBBC Madrigal/Handbell Choir in the 80s.

    1. Ahhh…… Doug Jackson — know him! He’s best friends with King Tommy (our former pastor). King Tommy, Doug Jackson, and Trieber were college buddies! Doug has spoken more than once at our missions conferences and had his son, who has Down’s Syndrome, recite Scripture from memory to prove that ALL of us CAN memorize Scripture.

      1. Ah Him! I remember him speaking a few times in chapel at Maranatha. One of the last times I was there his son recited the part of the Luke account on the birth of Christ that he had just learned. IT was nice and we all thought he did a very good job.

        1. King Tommy also had Don Williams from Hepzebah House (one family that used to go to our former church sent their daughter their — they call it HELL HOUSE). My friend said that was pure hell for their daughter!

        1. Better to get an autographed copy of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” It’s a more factual account of history.

  22. I always thought it was weird when churches did those kind of chants, but then preached against Christian rap.

    1. Yes! Me, too. I remember my first time hearing a cheer at a fundy summer camp. I was in shock at the “ungodly” beats, but then figured that all the ultra-spiritual leaders there must have a valid reason for allowing cheer beats but not rock beats, and I accepted it.

      It wasn’t until years later, when I started listening to secular music, that I realized how many parts of those cheers came straight from popular music. (My team did the “who let the dogs out, who, who, who, who” and I was totally clueless about where it came from.)

  23. Our young bus captain’s youtube account has also liked a video called “The Hot Violinist.” Apropos of nothing.

  24. As a child in churches with bus ministries, I grew to resent and despise anyone who came on the bus. “Bus Kids” were fed and entertained and bribed whereas “Church Kids” had to sit in the long boring adult services. “Bus Kids” could run amok without anyone speaking to them because “we’re just glad they came to church.”

    My BIGGEST complaint, though, is all the stuff I missed out on b/c I didn’t ride the bus: hot dogs, kites, yo-yos, pumpkins, etc. Every Sunday was a “ride the bus and we’ll give you xxxx” Sunday. I still remember standing in line at my church with all the bus kids to get a kite. When I got up to the table, the lady said “You can’t have a kite! You come to church all the time!”

    And that was why I felt I deserved a kite, a hot dog, a pumpkin, etc. I was there for every single service, choir practice, revival, etc. yet I never got one darn thing. Whereas the bus kids went home weekly with all sorts of stuff.

    And church leaders wondered why none of the “church kids” would be friendly to the “bus kids.”

    1. Isn’t that especially ironic considering that Fundy theology is all about doing stuff to get rewards? The resentment is not only understandable, it’s idiotic that they wouldn’t have expected it. You tell everyone to do X in order to earn Y from God, and then when the kids do X every week they darn well expect their Y.

  25. Hi, I’m Elise and this is our bus route. Generic Community Church Name #7 church’s bus route. Hi. I’m Elise. This is Pastor Dr. Emperor Jude. Hi. I’m Elise, and we’re from Generic Community Church Name #7. This is our bus route. And…this is Pastor Dr. Emperor Jude. This is our bus route.

    Say hi all seven of you! These are the seven we managed to hoodwink onto the bus. Look, Ethnic People!

    “AND THE MEN OF THE CITY SAID UNTO ELISHA, BEHOLD I PRAY THEE THE SITUATION OF THIS CITY IS PLEASANT, AS MY LORD SEETH: BUT THE WATER IS NAUGHT, AND THE GROUND BARREN!!!”

    Here, I’ll prove they’re being properly brainwashed:

    ACTUNG! YOU REPEAT-UN AVTER ME, YAH? I AM WEARING ZE TIE, YOU OBEY. SOFORT!

    Snack cake, snack cake

    SNACK CAKE, SNACK CAKE

    Deception and fraud!

    DECEPTION AND FRAUD

    I have no fear of

    I HAVE NO FEAR OF

    A Holy God!

    A HOLY GOD!!

    We’re just so happy to be out here serving this city like this. This is our bus route. This is Pastor Dr. Emperor Jude. Ok. This is our bus route. Bye!

  26. Didn’t Hyles boast of the biggest B.M in the universe?

    I wonder how that’s working out for him NOW? Relief? Agony?

    1. Yes, he said his B.M. was the world’s largest, and his church now claims to have more toilets than the White House.
      I’m not making this up.

  27. Oh and I’m just going to say it…. What parent with any kind of sense would let their kid go of with strangers from some church for 4 hours on a Sunday morning? I mean some of these kids were barely potty trained.

    1. I’ve often wondered about this myself; then I was talking to a pastor of a church that lives in a different part of town; the parents there generally DO NOT let their children go off on a bus with strangers, and DO CARE what their kids are being taught. He said that it is admirable that parents care; as a consequence, he doesn’t have big bragging bus numbers.

      When we were in the HAC-church, bus routes only went to the very poor areas – probably because that’s where they could find more parents who didn’t care.

  29. So all these kids that wind up on buses sunday mornings..is part of this that there are goodies involved, and part of it is the parents get somewhere to send kids Sunday morning?

    I’m not trying to be judgmental here, just trying to understand.

    1. I was a bus kid for about a year. The church was Baptist, no idea if it was fundy or not. My parents and the parents of the neighborhood kids that went to the church on the bus weren’t trying to get rid of us for awhile, as far as I know; no one’s parents objected if they decided to stay home on a Sunday. It was just that church, and the bus ride to and from church, was honestly fun, so we went.

  30. Route 98E? I hope that has something to do with a part of town or that they just randomly throw numbers at their routes. 98? E?

  31. I never worked the BM, but my ex did, before we were married. The church had two big vans, and he drove the blue one, up the hill, mostly to the lower lower-class homes. 5-8 kids, off and on. Parents never appeared.

  32. BM…. did it for 2 weeks while a friend could not do it. depressing.

    Do you think he had permission from the parents to post images of their kids online?
    The schools here have to have a parents consent to post or use a child’s image.

  33. Oh, dear.

    My husband and I attended this church for about three Sundays in 1989. I had misgivings from the moment I stepped in the door. (Even now, twenty-five years later, I felt a little queasy when I realized this video was from that church.) When I pointed out to my husband that pretty much everything about the church had the pastor’s name printed all over it, he agreed with me that we needed to move along. That same pastor is still there with quite a few of his relatives.

    I know a couple people who attend this church now. They are really great people. They are wonderful people, in fact. I guess it just goes to show you that you can’t judge all people by the church they attend.

  34. Who did Saturday morning bus visitation???
    I was a bus captain all through high school and then on to IFB college. I remember Saturday morning bus visitation. The bus kids were in with the church kids when I was in high school, but when I went to college the IFB church I attended had them segregated in a different “children’s church”.

  35. Most of the IFB churches we were in did not have segregated classes for “church kids” and “bus kids” — we were in one church that was fairly large, and they did have separate bus kid classes and non-bus-kid classes.

    I felt a bit awkward about it; I often wondered “If these kids are THAT disruptive, why are we bringing them to our church?” Never heard a good answer, unless it was about numbers.

  36. I went to this church for a little over a year about 7 years ago. So glad I got out. Pastor Hawes does not look excited.

  37. “Potato Chip, Potato Chip”
    “Crunchy, Crunchy”
    “I just threw up in my mouth”
    “A bunchy bunchy”

    That bus was packed!!! And maybe he should introduce himself to pastor “what’s his name.”

  38. Started reading this blog when this was first posted because I attend community baptist and I know this kid. FYI, I attend with my presence only, definitely not in my spirit anymore. I stopped drinking that Kool-aid long ago. I am making my way through the blog from back to front now.

    This just surfaced in the Saginaw news a couple days ago and I thought I would just share for everyone. I do warn you there is “mature” content in this news story. It is a little background that just got revealed about him.

Comments are closed.