Archives for March 2008

• Great Easter Experience today!
• 7 more people born into the Kingdom as we discovered that the King still had one more move!
• I woke up real early this morning excited about the day.  I’m always like that on big days.  It’a combination of excitement and nerves.
• That means my stomach is definitely not in the mood for food…coming in this morning to the smell of bacon and eggs didn’t really help.
• As I was walking in from the parking lot, I noticed the sun was behind me and nowhere near the windows they were going to look out for the sunrise service…found out the were able to see the sun at the very end…sounds like it went well.
• One of the guys “yelled” at me for not dressing up for Easter.  As I told him today of all days…with a lot of guests in attendance…it was the day of all days NOT to be dressed up.
• I’ve got a lot of commotion going on around me as I type this…as I proofread the previous sentence, I realized I had omitted the word “up” at the end.  So it it read…”it was the day of all days NOT to be dressed.”  WOW…now that would have made for a memorable Experience.
• From a technical standpoint the day went very well except for me forgetting to turn my mic on at the beginning of the message.  Our transition time was different than normal so I was completely out of my rountine. 
• It was great looking out a full room…we crushed our attendance record both in United and as a church.  
• Looks like we’ll soon have to add a second United Worship Experience on Sunday mornings to keep up with the growing crowd.
• I’m excited about that because it will allow people to sit in one and serve during the other….or vice versa.
• I thought the band as normal knocked it out of the park.
• I’m super stoked about the new series starting next week called, “Take it to the Limit.”   I had many people afterwards say…”oh man I really need to hear that.”  As I shared with them…I hear people talking about being maxed out all the time so I think this will be a very life changing series.
• We went to my cousins house for Easter dinner.  Her mom makes the best sweat tea in the world, but the only time I ever get it is after funeral or at Easter time.  I realized that means someone either has to die or rise again from the dead for me to get it…for some reason that just struck me as being really funny.
• Tonight we’re together with our entire small group for just a fun night…can’t wait!

If you don’t think I’ve done a lot of my busy work today down in the Youth Room watching the basketball tournament, then you are sadly mistaken…this weekend is the most exciting weekend for a sports junkie like me. Add in Easter and wow how can it get much better?

• Wow things are busy!
• I love it though…can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in our Easter Experience.
• If you haven’t let go of the rails yet by inviting someone, let go and invite them you big chicken.
• Seriously, Jesus suffered on a cross so you could be forgiven but you won’t invite someone because it may hurt your feelings if they say no…what?  Re-read that again…are you kidding me?
• Sorry if that sounds like I’m being hard on you, but this is one of the 2 weekends per year where people are even more receptive than normal to attending, so I’d hate to miss this golden opportunity.
• Along those same lines, 5000 households are or have already this week received our big Easter mailer promoting all the activities we have going on this weekend.  Please pray that people will respond and that their lives will be forever changed by the good news of Jesus death, burial and ressurection.
• Because of having a special service tonight, the United worship team had to practice on Tuesday this week instead of our normal Thursday.  I’m so proud of all of them…even with a short week, they came in as prepared as they could be and we’re willing to stay late to make sure that what they do is done with excellence and in a way that glorifies God.  Make sure you thank them sometime for the countless hours they put in each week to make your Experience…well…an Experience.
• Today I’ll be getting the invite cards for our next series, “Take It to the Limit.”  In it we’ll be looking at how to build margin into our life in all areas so that you don’t get burnt out.
• I know I say this all the time, but I think it’s going to be a life changing series for many.
• Hey speaking of life-changing…I’ve had tons of people both in person and through e-mail this week share how touched they were by last week’s Experience on forgiveness.  Apparently many of you are/were dealing with this and God touched you in a major way…yeah God!

Did you know that this Easter will be the earliest any of us will ever celebrate it? It won’t be this early again for another 220 years…now obviously that’s not the real reason to come, but thought you’d enjoy that useless tidbit of info anyway…use your new knowledge wisely. :)

• As I expected, today was a very life changing Experience.
• For 6 people it was life changing in that they gave their lives to Christ!
• For so many others it was life-changing in that they got serious about letting go of unforgiveness.
• The morning started out smoothly but I just had a feeling things were not quite right.
• Most mornings I don’t even think about checking my mic battery, but today I did…unfortunately I didn’t actually check it.
• I think that’s why I knew immediately what happened when my mic gave up…luckily I knew we were getting ready to go the video so I didn’t sweat it.
• I’m really enjoying some of the new songs the team has been adding into the mix…today it was Break Free…Brian is doing great leading these!
• I could really tell  people were connecting with the message, then the video and then the song while communion was being distributed.  There were a ton of tears and communion could have and should have been a very impactful moment.
• Hannah and Gayle did an awesome job with “You Are My King.”  We’re very blessed to have so many talented people.
• I kept wondering why are the ushers standing up front.
• Then I thought…I wonder why if they’re standing there aren’t they taking it.
• Then I noticed Galen finally walk up and grab some stuff…I thought he was getting stuff for the rest of the guys.
• When I looked down then and saw them with plates full of the juice cups, I knew we were in trouble.
• Luckily I’m usually pretty good and thinking on my feet and we were able to handle it, but communion (at least in my opinion) lost some of the power that it could have had.
• I later found out that our head usher was so used to how they do it in the Sanctuary…which is one element at a time, that he forgot we distribute them all at once.
• Hey everybody messes up occasionally and he does an incredible job of leading the team, that I will…forgive him…just heard a message about that.
• During the time communion was being distributed I real quick ran down to the guest reception, grabbed Earl and asked him to go warn Dianna and the Children’s Ministry team that we were going to be really late.
• At that point I was so worried about getting everything done that I would have forgotten to take the offering had the guys not come back up.
• The part I rushed and shouldn’t have was the importance of next week…please, please, please make sure you invite people to come with you…this should be the best Experience we’ve ever had and you and your friends shouldn’t miss it.