Tonight is our third annual volunteer appreciation dinner at our church. It's not only a blast, but it's a bonanza. You see, our church doesn't have its own facility for worship and large gatherings in Blacksburg. Since 2003, we've been meeting in the Blacksburg Middle/High School (long story about name change there).

That means that for almost 10 years, volunteers and members, guests and staff have been setting up tables, chairs, music stands, children's ministry rooms - and taking them down - 52 Sundays a year. In addition to that, it's amazing how involved and plugged in our people are to their small groups, agencies and clubs in our community, service opportunities and other ministries.

So, once a year, we go all out to say a huge thank you to our volunteers. I'm so grateful for so many people who serve the Lord by lifting chairs, babysitting children, and a dozen other overlooked and under-appreciated ways. Tonight's theme is The 80s, and here's the promo video for it.

The volunteers tonight will get to eat a great meal, laugh a lot, and even see some more staff-produced videos that will hopefully bruise their funny bones and communicate to them the lengths that we're willing to go as leaders to show them how much we care for them in their service to our Lord.

Each year, it seems that the videos get more "over the top." Here's last year's promo (western theme):