I did Pikes Place Fish Market last year in the service before our annual meeting and budget voting. People loved it. (message...envision it, make it happen, be successful)
I was lucky to find blow up balls with Nemo on them at the dollar store. I had done this years ago with bean bags, but the blow up balls were more of a hit. One of our older members actually stood up to hit it with his head.
A Fish Tale
Today, for Children's Time, I'm going to ask the children to stay in the pews with their families. You'll all understand why in a minute after you hear this story by Christine Fry.
Once upon a time, in the city of Seattle, at the Pike Place Market, there was a stall that sold fish. Customers who wanted service had to work to get the attention of the men behind the counter who were big, burly fishmongers, that's a name for people who sell fish. It wasn't always easy.
The staff seemed to work in slow motion. Picking up cold, smelly fish all day was hard, boring work. When a customer wanted to buy a fish, the fish guys used to walk from behind the counter to pick up the fish, and then walk back behind the counter to wrap up the fish and ring up the purchase.
One day the new owner of the fish stall gathered the fishmongers around him. He asked for their ideas on how they could sell more fish. After a while, a young fish guy spoke up, "Hey, why don't we become world famous?"
It was a radical idea, the kind that usually comes from someone too innocent or inexperienced to know any better, but the idea took hold and grew. The fish guys discovered four important creative principles that would soon make them world famous. Show up! Choose your attitude! Play! Make people's day!
One day, soon after the meeting, one of the fishmongers walked around the counter to get a fish for a customer, but then he did something different.
Instead of walking back around the counter with the fish, he threw it to one of the other guys to weigh and wrap. Whoa! Not only did this cut out a lot of walking, but it created a new form of performance art. Fish were flying at the Pike Place Market. Soon all day long fish were being tossed over the counter by the fish guys to the delight of local shoppers and tourists from all over the world. The stall with the flying fish at the Pike Place Market did indeed become world famous, and the fish guys weren't slow and bored any more. There work had become play. They had a successful business plan and were even hired by other businesses to teach their workers what the fish guys had discovered. Show up! (Toss) Choose your attitude! (Toss) Play!
(Toss) Make people's day! (Toss and toss)
*With each "toss" I was throwing a small bean bag fish into the congregation and then urging them to keep tossing. The pianist was playing appropriately spritely music.