We are excited to introduce you to Family and Children’s Ministry Pastor Dave Carl and Stories From the Workbench. Pastor Dave has a gift for storytelling. The magic he has created in his workshop will touch all generations. We recently sat down with Pastor Dave to learn more about his passion for his workshop and telling Bible stories—and why you might just want to watch this video series with your family.
About Stories From the Workbench
Question: Why do you love woodworking, and how did you get started?
Answer: I remember very well being in the garage with my dad working with wood. He had a small table saw that was ancient back in the 1960’s. He had built a cabinet of sorts around it to make it better able to handle larger stock. I also remember going to the lumber yard with him. The smell of fresh cut wood still makes me breathe deep with nostalgia. He had some other tools like a lathe. I was probably in my teens when I was let into the garage by myself. I tried stuff and made some very crummy things, but I learned from all of it.
Question: When did you start developing the workshop videos?
Answer: The COVID-19 lockdown hit in the spring of 2020. Suddenly, we were all isolated and homebound. This was great for about a week but then it started to eat at my pastor’s heart. I am nourished by being with people and being useful. Stuck in my home, not able to be with people other than my family, I started feeling frustrated. I saw on the evening news that Jimmy Fallon was doing his late-night show from his home. He had his elementary-age daughters color pages that he used as show elements. It was so low budget, but it was incredibly engaging “because” of the simplicity. That is where I got the notion to do something very simple that I could share with the families that I could not see face-to-face.
Question: Why did you decide to write these episodes, and why feature Bible stories?
Answer: I am wired to hear and tell stories. Some people are music people, some are math people, I am a story person. Bible stories have always drawn me in. They are often really big with parting seas and battles with giants, and they also speak of common things inside all of us. Things we fear, things we hope for but don’t know how to get. Stories help us organize our thoughts about difficult things and particularly well-told stories like the parables of Jesus can show us deep things through what appears to be rather simple tales. I love to tell these Bible stories because they are dense with meaning and they appeal to —well all humans, not just kids. It occurred to me in that spring of 2020 that not every kid gets to work in the garage with his dad, cutting boards and nailing things together (pretty badly in my case) so I wanted to bring these two things that I love together and offer them up to the kids in my church who might just watch. And the technology we have just laying around made this all possible. I have shot most all of the Workbench videos on my phone or my old iPad. This could not have happened twenty years ago.
Question: Which Bible stories have you told?
Answer: I created a list of Bible stories I have told and others I wanted to tell. I quickly came up with 33 of them. I started with David and Goliath because I have told this one many times, it is so amazing, and it has so many things to draw out of it—and there is a really good beheading in there too. Always a crowd pleaser.
Not necessarily in the order I’ve done:
- God, David, and Goliath
- God, Jonah, and the Fish
- God and the Story of Easter
- God, Adam, and Eve
- God, Elijah, and Ahab
- God and Gideon
- God and Noah
- God and Sampson
- God and Daniel in the Lion’s Den
- God and Esther Part 1
- God and Esther Part 2
- God and Moses Part 1
- God and Moses Part 2
- God and Moses Part 3
- God and the Exodus
Question: Is there a connection between the wood and your faith?
Answer: I find wood so interesting in and of itself. No matter what I build, the wood is the most interesting part of the finished piece. Especially if you are using hand tools, you must “listen” to the wood to tell you how to work with it. If you use it while it’s still green, it is easy to carve but it will move and shrink, even bend later. You have to listen to the wood. I love that. I’m not the master of the wood, I am a co-laborer. Oh, and Jesus is a woodworker, so when I get to Heaven, I’m planning on heading to His shop straight away.
About the Workshop
I am not a master woodworker by any stretch of the imagination, but I love to work with wood. I am NOT the one to show anyone HOW to do woodworking well; there are many other places to go online for that. I just wanted to introduce kids especially, but dads also, in an engaging and non-threatening way to the possibilities in a woodshop, so I introduce the tools I work with.
Not unlike golf or hunting as a hobby, the secret is that tool/equipment accumulation is perhaps 50% of the fun. My shop has only taken about 40 years to build. I am incredibly cheap, so I have found tools in garage sales, flea markets, stuff thrown out by school workshops, etc. My shop has been a great project in and of itself. I’m always scheming on how to make it better.
Question: Where is your workshop?
Answer: My workshop is my garage. My wife is a very long-suffering woman. Sawdust gets everywhere. But occasionally there is a new piece of furniture brought into the house, so it is not all for nothing.
Question: What was your first tool, and was it a gift?
Answer: I remember getting a rather small Black and Decker belt sander for Christmas one year. I was probably in my early teens. I used that tool a lot, and I had it for decades. I believe I gave it to someone else eventually. To get that from my folks (really my Dad) was a vote of confidence for me. This was something I was interested in, and this little belt sander was encouraging. Now, had I gotten a calculator because I was not good at math—that would have been a slight wound. I was drawn to wood and that was encouraged. I’d recommend not gifting someone in a way that communicates that you would like them to be different than they are. It’s offensive.
Question: What is your favorite tool and why?
Answer: My favorite tools come in categories. I like some because they are so well conceived and simply made but do their job so well. I have a dovetail saw that is just that. Not much to it, but it is beautiful and cuts wood so well.
Another category is the tools that were given to me. This is like hunters giving their kids a favorite shotgun, etc. I have tools from my wife’s grandfather that I use all the time. They are very useful, but every time I reach for that mallet or hand saw, I remember Grandpa Juenemann and I smile. I loved him, and I love his tools that I now have.
Question: What is your favorite wood to work with and why?
Answer: I love Cherry wood. It is the lumber of choice for the Shaker style which I love. I also had a bunch of Black Walnut, and I made a bunch from that pile. I love Black Walnut. Because I am soooo cheap, I love the thought of getting old barnwood, which I have done. I made a bunch of furniture from that old barn.
Question: What is your favorite thing you’ve built in your workshop?
Answer: A favorite thing of mine is our dining room table. It was made from really old church pews, coincidentally made of Cherry. I planed down the seats and built a rather large table that the family can sit around on special events and holidays. It’s a simple Shaker design, but I’m kind of a simple guy so it all works together.
Question: What project did not go so well, and what did you learn?
Answer: Most everything I build barely survives the burn pile. I have to use plans because I am not a designer in any way. One of the biggest problems in woodworking is to mis-measure something. There is a good reason for the old saying, “Measure twice, cut once.” I once made a table and cut the legs very wrongly. I actually assembled it and the fairly hefty table top sat above what looked like straight spider legs. It was a Salvador Dali table. I had to cut the legs off and start all over again. So, measure twice and cut once.
Watch Stories from the Workbench Here:
You can hear more stories from Pastor Dave by listening to Paws & Tales, Biblical Wisdom for Kids. The folks in Wildwood live just like you and me. They love fun and adventure, enjoy their work and family, and try to learn each day what it means to be like Christ. Share a laugh with C.J., Ned, Staci, and all their friends in The Club. Sit down and hear Captain Gus tell you a story from his days sailing the high seas. Visit Paw Paw Chuck at his fix-it shop. You might even run into Hugh McClaw and his cronies, Mange and Molty.
Whether you’re six or 60, when you listen to Paws & Tales you’ll always find something to laugh about, something to sing about, and something new to discover about our great and loving God.
