Craig Gross

Q and A with Tony Jones from ABC television in Australia

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:49:40 -0700

Q and A with Tony Jones from ABC television in Australia

A interview I did in Australia

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:47:31 -0700

A interview I did in Australia

My favorite video from the Superbowl. Some people just love...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:13:58 -0700

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

My favorite video from the Superbowl. Some people just love Madonna

This guy paints pictures with his penis.

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:03:00 -0700

This guy paints pictures with his penis.

Say Hello To Heaven

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:31:39 -0800

Tonight I am sitting on a plane headed to Sacramento. 9 years ago I remember sitting in a hospital room awaiting the birth of my son. He was overdue and Jeanette could not wait to give birth. On 2/28/2003 Nolan C. Gross was born. The “C” sounds so prestigious my grandma told me. She was the first to know of his name. We told her a few months prior that we were going to name him Nolan. That is my my grandmas last name. Ellie Nolan is my dear grandma. We were debating on the middle name when we spoke with her and she seemed to be more excited we landed on C. for the middle name then the fact we were naming him after her.

My grandma lost her husband Edward when I was in 5th grade. I never knew Edward that well but shortly after my grandma moved to Sacramento where she rented an apartment close by the house I grew up in. She and I had a special relationship. We would see a lot of movies together across from her apartment. We would talk a lot. Maybe we got along so well because we both drove my parents so crazy. I remember taking my grandma to the downtown theater one day and we watched the horrific movie “Kids”. I remember sneaking sandwiches into the movies theater that day and then having a crazy conversation with my grandma about how disturbing the movie was and the language and all the sexual references… ya that’s my grandma and me in the movie Kids. I remember at my sisters wedding my grandma on the dance floor and her wig falling off while dancing and grabbing it real quickly so no one would know.

I know a lot of people frown on the wigs but Ellie were them proudly and so will I someday. I remember driving to Reno once I was of age to gamble and spending the day playing slots with her. At the time she was the only one in my family I knew who would step foot in a casino.

She flew down to southern California years ago and I remember her on the way to dinner and the button on her skirt fell off. She kept walking while her skirt was on the ground until Jeanette stopped her. We had a long laugh all night about that after at Jerry’s Deli.

I will never forget her face the first time she ordered a salad at Cheesecake Factory. She was so disgusted by the size of it and kept saying over and over “this is why people are so fat”. She refused to even try it due to the mass size and made the waitress bring her something else.

We flew her to Vegas for a couple days and put her up at the Excalibur. I am sorry Ellie that place sucks but was all we could afford at the time. We ate, played slots and just had a blast. We thought she would enjoy Blue Man Group. She did and 10 years later still does not understand it and almost died that night at the conclusion of the show where they take the toilet paper from the back of the room and move it all towards the front of the stage. We were in the third row and I could not see her underneath all that tissue paper.

My grandma got sick about 8 years ago and had to move into a retirement home. I fought like hell to keep her out but it was the best option. This place is just a place you go to die. Little did we know she would hold on like no one thought for 8 years. She has never been the same. The first couple of years she could leave the home. We would pick her up and she could still get around town and come to my parents house. Over the last few years she has not gone anywhere. She has suffered strokes, pneumonia, infections after infections and yet she holds on. She is 92 years old.

I got to see her at Christmas and so did Jeanette, Nolan and Elise. She could not talk but kept pointing at Nolan as she was eating a See’s candy lollipop. I think she remembered him and knew who he was.

I got the news tonight that she had a stroke and is fading fast. I sat the Nolan and Elise on the bed with Jeanette and said Ellie is dying and I am going to say goodbye. They all wanted to come and say goodbye and I said it was not possible. They each said a prayer for Ellie and then Elise said “When will we get to see Ellie in heaven.. I want to go to heaven now”

There are many things I love about kids. One is that they believe anything you tell them. Elise believes in heaven because I told her and so did her mom. She does not know much about it but she believes it is in the air and God is there and one day we will all be there. We must have said enough to make her believe that it is even better then this pretty cushy life she lives now where she has a couple American Girl dolls, toys, friends, a healthy family and has been to more places by the age six then my grandma at age 92.

Maybe I am fortunate but only two people that I have been close to in my 36 years of life have died. One was my friend Marie who I met on the side of the road in Fullerton, CA who was known as the town greeter. She was taken at the age 76 and were we close like family. The other was my friend Steve who wrote for XXXchurch and took his life two years ago. I feel pretty fortunate to have only lost two. I know as we all get older that death becomes more of a reality.

Death is real. Heaven is real I think but I have not had to think much about it. I am a pastor. I love Jesus. I get it but when my daughter says “When can we go.. I want to go to heaven now”. I am not afraid to die but I can’t say that I want to go now. Is it wrong that I am not in a rush to get there. I really don’t want Ellie to get there tonight either especially before I see her………

I am back on the plane. It is just before 6am. I sat in a Ellie’s room from 1030pm-3am tonight. She does not look like the Ellie Nolan on the dance floor. Her frail 90 pound body struggles to take each breath. She saw me tonight out of the corner of her right eye. We talked. It was not like our old conversations this one was just one sided. I told her I loved her and that my family will miss her and we will never forget her.

I have never been so close to death before. I asked the Lord to take her home while I was sitting there so I could be there for her last breath. I’m not sure why he did not answer that prayer. Maybe he knew I probably could not have handled that. As I sat there and watched her I kept thinking of some more words from the prayer Elise prayed earlier “God.. give Ellie a safe death”.

I pray she goes in peace and one day we won’t ever have to say goodbye again.

Tonight my family celebrates life. Nolan C. Gross is 9 today. I am sure at his birthday dinner we will talk a lot about life and the kids and Jeanette and I will discuss and learn a lot more then we wanted to about death.

Nolan is one of the featured kids in the new Mischief and Mayhem...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:44:11 -0800

Nolan is one of the featured kids in the new Mischief and Mayhem costume line for 2012.

Superbowl with Dad, Brother and Son

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:33:22 -0800

Superbowl with Dad, Brother and Son

Talk from Last week’s Youth Conference in San Diego

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 10:18:45 -0800

Talk from Last week’s Youth Conference in San Diego

Fireproof Executive Board All Dressed Up

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:20:04 -0800

Fireproof Executive Board All Dressed Up

New x3watch.com video

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:21:00 -0700

New x3watch.com video

Amazing Ministry

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:04:41 -0700

Amazing Ministry

Video

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:04:11 -0700

Some of the staff from Surfing The Nations took us out to the...

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 18:11:07 -0700

Some of the staff from Surfing The Nations took us out to the Northshore to surf today. I have only done it one other time when I was 17. Nolan had never tried it. We both got up right away…we had great teachers. So much fun….

X3’s Company #5 - Down and Dirty

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:53:17 -0700

X3’s Company #5 - Down and Dirty

The Gutter is Back. Back in stock at Amazon.com for only $9.99

Sun, 22 May 2011 08:52:27 -0700

The Gutter is Back. Back in stock at Amazon.com for only $9.99

Episode #4

Mon, 02 May 2011 12:21:18 -0700

Episode #4

Video

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:44:46 -0700

Video

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:25:41 -0800

Covenant Church Conference - Explanation

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:33:44 -0800

Here is a rundown of all the events of the week that lead to the decision to cancel my gig at the Covenant Church Conference.

*Monday night I headed to Dallas. The news predicted a storm to come in Monday night at midnight and snow through the night. I landed around 9pm and when I woke up in the morning Dallas was covered with snow. The Dallas airport was closed due to ice for the first time I believe ever. Several people I know where not able to get into Dallas on Tuesday at all.

*The ice never melted in Dallas and the city was shut down all week basically. We tried hitting up a movie theater Tuesday and everything was closed. School was cancelled all 5 days this past week.

*The news predicted the storm was headed towards Chicago predicting the worst storm in 30 years. The storm was going to hit there Tuesday and Wednesday. As soon as we heard this and realizing our situation we made contact with the office of the Covenant Church and started talking about possible back up plans. They told us that weather had not cancelled many people because most people got in before things got really bad.

On Wednesday, We sent the Covenant church a video of a message that was set to be shared at Porn Sunday at 350 churches on February 6th. This was a brand new message that no one had seen or heard and featured 5 NFL players and has been the topic of CNN, MSNBC, TIME, WASHINGTON POST, FOX and more. My friend Jake Larson was scheduled to go to the event with me and his flight was from California on Wednesday returning home on Friday. My flights were scheduled for Thursday and returning to Dallas on Friday afternoon. The Covenant office received the video and said “keep us posted”.

Wednesday Chicago got 22 inches of snow and was the topic of all news. Jake’s flight was cancelled. I was getting more nervous and our office continued to talk with Covenant church office on what was going on.

*On Thursday my flight was scheduled to leave out of Dallas at 6pm. The same American flights were cancelled from Dallas from 6am-1pm and they they opened up those flights. It looked like I could get into Chicago.

*The incredible thing is the news is not always right but on this storm everything they predicted was pretty spot on. Dallas was still on ice and word broke that on Thursday night it would snow again in Dallas sending Dallas into another crazy situation. I called American and asked “what would happen if I can’t get back to dallas on friday”. They told me that “if your flight gets cancelled, you have to fly standby to get back to your location, because all confirmed passengers on flights have first priority”. The guy on the phone LAUGHED when I asked him about stand by. Over 13,000 flights have been canceled this week and there was not an open seat going to Dallas because of the Superbowl. I even called Hertz and Avis and asked about renting a car to drive from Chicago to Dallas and they said they had nothing and that was a horrible option. A crazy thing happened when I talked to American airlines is they offered a FULL REFUND of my fare before the flight was cancelled just because of the crazy situation with weather.

* I had an obligation to speak for a pastors conference with the covenant church. I also had an obligation to the 350 participating churches that were part of National Porn Sunday. We have been in Dallas preparing for this event and I needed more then anything to get back to Dallas and no one could give me a good way of making that 90-100% sure. Did I have a ticket to the Superbowl? YES. Did I cancel the event with the covenant church because I wanted to go to the Superbowl? NO. I also heard that I cancelled chicago to go on CNN. We did local media in Dallas on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday all media knew that I would tape in Chicago if needed or via skype and they were fine with that.

National Porn Sunday is the biggest event WE HAVE EVER DONE and I could not put things in jeopardy.

*I made the decision Thursday afternoon to not go to chicago and really felt like this would be okay. I offered to tape a message apologizing for this situation and saying it was out of my control. I knew people would understand because CHICAGO and DALLAS were the two cities on the news more this week then anywhere else because of weather.

*You wonder why things happen. I actually thought this could be an amazing thing after all. The covenant church had a video already sent to them of a 40 minute talk and I would film this intro bit.

*Snow fell on Thursday night as expected 300 flights were cancelled to Dallas on Friday is what I heard and on Friday we heard from the Covenant church that ‘They might not play my video of my 40 minute message…because it did not fit into the theme of their conference”. I was completely shocked, why they would not play this. I was going to speak live and do a different message BUT for sure would incorporate things from that message as well. In my head, I thought it would be amazing for the pastors to hear the message that would be played for National Porn Sunday and if they liked it would take that back to their church since the video is available for churches to play all throughout the year not just Superbowl Sunday.

*Both videos were handed off and we thought all things were good until I started getting messages on twitter, Facebook and email saying “the word is you blew off the conference for the Superbowl”

*Apparently, the conference did not play my message apologizing, they did not play the video message I sent them and someone just made and “announcement” that I cancelled.

*I made an agreement to speak at the conference but there are some things like weather that I can not change or control. I rented 4 billboards in Dallas this past week that were not graphics they were just letters. Kind of like “wheel of fortune” boards. One of my billboards said

95 Million People will watch the game
40 Million People watch XXX everyday
Nationwide - pornsunday.com

On Wednesday, we held a press conference in Dallas with news media in front of this billboard with this message. When we got there the billboard said

9 M l m e ple w l watch the ame
40 Million People watc XX everyda
ationwide - ornsunday.com

I was upset. I had news coming in 30 minutes. I had a 25 foot elephant we blew up underneath the billboard and I called the guy who I rented these from. He said Craig “remember we talked about this earlier in the week”. He said with the ice and winds sometimes we have letters fall off the tracks and if it is iced over in the parking lot or on the ladder I cant send my guys up the ladder to fix the signs.

I explained to him I was desperate. He asked if I could redirect media to another billboard that still made sense but I could not. So, after some pushing he said I will go myself and try and fix it. The media got there and it was awesome because this guy was on the billboard with letters in his hands. He climbed up and tried to make it work but within minutes of putting some of the letters back they had already fallen because of the ice in the track.

We laughed it off and said to the media ” See what happens when you talk about porn” It is difficult. I noticed that all 4 of the billboards had lost letters and

I have no idea why the covenant church decided to pass on a message that I believe was timely, was appropriate and could have had massive impact on many people there and potentially thousands more through their churches. Sometimes I think we can plan and do our stuff but in the end maybe when things happen instead of thinking about what WE wanted we should maybe look to what HE wanted.

I wish I could have been there. If you want to see the message that I tried to get to you all you can go to www.pornsunday.com and download.

Craig

MT of X3 is a Rock STAR!

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 08:00:41 -0800

MT of X3 is a Rock STAR!