A South Florida pastor is taking the saying ‘people who live in a glass house shouldn’t throw stones’ to an extreme.
Troy Gramling, head of the Christian Potential Church just west of Fort Lauderdale, and his wife of 28 years Stephanie are getting ready to move into a glass house.
Literally. But only for two weeks.
The 500-square-foot structure is being built on the church parking lot this week, and the 50-year-old social media-savvy preacher and his wife are set to move in September 8.
Troy Gramling, 50, head of the Christian Potential Church near Fort Lauderdale, and his wife Stephanie are getting ready to move into a glass house
Glass house, no stones: The couple will live in a 500-square-foot structure on the church parking lot for two weeks where their lives will be visible for all to see starting September 8
Transparent living: Troy and Stephanie will sleep on a Murphy bed, cook in a microwave and a toaster oven, and conduct church business from inside the house
As much as the anti-hypocrisy message in the proverb, says the tattooed cleric, his two-week stint is about being vulnerable, naked, in an intimate relationship.
‘The house is quite small,’ says Gramling, who sports dyed blonde curly hair and hangs out in camouflage pants and Air Jordans, ‘but we’ve got a good AC unit.’
He and his wife will sleep on a Murphy bed, cook in a microwave and a toaster oven and conduct church business from inside the house, in full view of anybody who drives or walks by.
It all will be captured 24/7 by six cameras, including a night vision lens, and broadcast online.
Reality TV sex in the dark of night?
‘No,’ says Gramling after a chuckle. ‘We’re not going to make ourselves that vulnerable. Besides, I’m 50, that’s not happening.’
Bathroom breaks?
‘There’s no bathroom in there, so we’ll come out for that.’
Still, things will be tight in there: A former college basketball player, Gramling’s 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds.
The tattooed cleric says his two-week stint is about being vulnerable, naked, in an intimate relationship. But when it comes to sex, he said they won’t make themselves ‘that vulnerable’
In full view: The Gramling’s experiment will be captured 24/7 by six cameras, including a night vision lens, and broadcast online – He’ll then use what he learns in the glass house in his Sunday sermons for most of the fall
The unconventional home, which is still under construction, will not have a bathroom indoors, so the couple will have to use a restroom outside
‘I’m a bit nervous about it,’ says wife Stephanie. ‘We’ll learn things about each other we might still not know after 28 years. We still don’t have it all figured out.’
Vulnerability, says Troy Gramling, is what he wants the 6,500 regulars in his congregation and anyone watching online to think about.
‘The idea is let’s get naked,’ he says, ‘figuratively. Let’s be authentic, vulnerable. We live in such a cynical society that needs more authentic people with their good, bad and ugly.’
There is, Gramling admits, a part of marketing in the stunt. Despite the fact his congregation is one of the area’s largest and has branches in Pensacola, Fl., Hallandale, Fl., two South American countries and the Bahamas, he enjoys baptizing new members swayed by his ploys on busy beaches in ceremonies that lure several hundred people.
But then, he’s going to use what he learns in the glass house in his Sunday sermons for most of the fall.
‘There’s an honesty to what we’re doing,’ he says. ‘After a couple days, you never know what’s going to happen. I’m not really relishing the thought of sleeping and living under cameras.’
It’s not the first time, however, that Gramling has done that.
Twelve years ago, just months after Keeping Up With The Kardashians premiered, the Gramlings and their three children broadcast their daily routine on the web in a show titled My Naked Pastor.
‘The technology wasn’t very good then,’ he says. ‘And it wasn’t easy.’
But even if it failed, the show illustrated how marketing ploys, says church executive producer Heredes Ribeiro, are a way to stay above the media’s white noise.
Gramling says he wants the 6,500 regulars in his congregation and anyone watching online to think about vulnerability as they undergo their experiment
A church donation machine is seen inside the Potential Church in Cooper City
‘Last year, we sent a balloon into the edge of space with cameras, a bobblehead of Pastor Gramling and a memory stick with the names of all the congregation members onboard,’ Ribeiro says.
‘We put the footage on YouTube, where we have 27,000 subscribers. The message in that was how we should always try to surpass ourselves, our abilities.’
Ribeiro says spreading the church’s Baptist message through digital means goes beyond YouTube. Potential Church has his own app. It was downloaded 42,000 times over the past year with 2 million launches, and it will feature the glass house broadcast.
Gimmicks, meanwhile, cost money. Ribeiro, however, says congregants and local businesses do the heavy financial lifting.
‘The glass house is being built and paid for by the owner of a mattress store who likes what we do. Sometimes we cold-call businesses and tell them we’re doing something that’s going to be on YouTube, and they pay for it to get the publicity.’
Pastor Troy says he expects some criticism from viewers who’ll be able to text live on the feed.
‘I expect a lot of criticisms,’ he says. ‘I’ll just have to deal with that.’