Archives for March 2009

Inside Today’s Experiences

March 22, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Wow I’m loving this series!

Another great day!

Had tons of people say how powerful today’s Experiences were.

Really got people thinking about the role alcohol plays in their lives.

Tough message to preach though…no matter what some people weren’t going to be happy…and just in case someone was happy, you throw gluttony into the mix and everyone leaves challenged.

We set another attendance record today largely in part to the 9:15 setting thier own personal attendance record for the 3rd consecutive week.

Way to go everyone…keep inviting people…lives are truly being changed.

Can you believe our band? They killed it today with their version of Carrie Underwood’s song “Last Name”.

Gayle did a phenominal job not just singing but playing the part…and how about Aaron’s guitar solo and Brian on the banjo!

Pretty funny when you think about it…last week Brian was mixing at the turntable and this week he plays the banjo…incredible versatility!

Yes we’ve got something planned next week that your not going to want to miss…make sure you invite someone to come along.

Someone asked me after the 9:15 what is the point in which someone is considered biblically speaking drunk.

My thought is once it affects your motor skills you are drunk. Which means that if you’re getting a buzz your close to the line if not already over it.

So please if your going to drink, do it responsibly…really no reason to have more than two drinks.

However, remember that all of us are taking the 30 day challenge…No alcohol at all for 30 days.

Again just to reiterate for those who may be reading this and you haven’t listened to the message. I don’t drink…haven’t had anything in over 16 years so this message has nothing to do with me and everything to do with teaching what the Bible truly says about alcohol.

The live questions today were once again fun but still a bit nerve wracking.

Answering questions in front of hundreds of people when you have no idea what’s going to come in is full of pressure but I think has been worth it.

The questions today were…

9:15- “Are ghosts real?”
10:45- ” Can Christians get tattoo’s?”

You can listen to both of my answers at the end of the message podcast.

Also on the podcast is the band performing “Last Name”.

Someday’s when we finish I pinch myself because I can’t believe I get to be a part of something this special and do it with a bunch of awesome people.

Today was one of those days!

The only negative thing that happened today was totally my fault and is sort of funny.

They were using my laptop to run lights and at 9:15 my computer crashed during the Exerience becuase it was completely out of memory.

Seriously it was out…no more.

So Andy had to switch to another computer…which put me in the dark for a few minutes.

He told me after the 9:15 what had happened and that he was workign to clean off my hard drive.

Turns out I had over 30GB being used just in my temporary files…ooops.

Guess I’ll know better for next time.

Had lunch with Aaron…a Burn’in Love Burger from Red Robin. Wow that’s spicy!

Time for a nap and then off to visit with friends…have a great week!

Week in Review

March 20, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Been a good week!

Worst part has been getting up real early almost everyday…like 7am early…I know for some of you that’s rountine, but for me going to bed normally between 12-1am that’s early.

Had some really interesting meetings this week.

I know interesting and meetings should never be used in the same sentence but I just did.

My sister made it through her shoulder surgery on Monday with flying colors which was a big relief…thanks for the prayers.

Got to do quite a bit of hanging out with people this week which was cool.

Wednesday Aaron, Adam and I shot a video that will be used for the message on temptation.

Got to see a rough cut of it last night and it’s going to be hilarious.

At one point we were afraid we might get arrested while shooting…which made it even more…hmmm…how shall I say this…FUN!

Last week’s message is “burning up the charts”. One of our most downloaded ever.

I have a feeling that this week’s message on alcohol though will quickly surpass it.

I love being able to talk with and help out other churches, so we were honored last night to have a team from Smithsburg Valley Baptist Church come in to check out our equipment and rehearsal.

Got home a little after 11 last night and after having sheltered myself all day long from the basketball scores, I sat down to watch Maryland’s game against Cal that I had DVR’d.

Yes…go TERPS!

In all I had 13 of the 16 games correct on day 1 in my bracket.

Today we prepare to head out, with the rest of our churches staff and leaders to our Strategic Planning weekend.

Going to be long and exhuasting but well worth the time to pray, think, dream and plan where God would have us go in the next few years.

As always, do whatever it takes to get people to church with you on Sunday…I promise you won’t regret it!

Tag Team Effort

March 17, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

I grew up in the midst of the WWF’s (now WWE) heyday. Guys like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, the Iron Shiek and Rowdy Roddy Piper were bigger than life both literally and figuratively. But it was the tag-team events that I truly loved…the British Bulldogs were my favorites.

The reason I bring this up is the way we do United is much the same…the tag-team part that is, not all the other stuff. I mean it’s pretty obvious that the words steroids and Gilbert Thurston have never been used in the same sentence until now.

You see when you walk through the doors you are in essence tagging me, the worship team and our creative team saying…”You do your part to make sure me and my friends have an Experience with God today”. And then when you leave we tag you saying, “Go out into the community and be bold enough to invite someone to come back with you again next week”.

We have an amazing partnership in this way and I just want to encourage you to do your part. This weekend’s message about alcohol is an easy one to invite people to…and as you saw last weekend, we’ll do our part to create an Experience that people will never forgot, but more importantly will be life-changing.

We’re working hard right now to make sure Sunday is memorable…are you doing your part?

Inside Today’s Experiences

March 15, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Great Experiences today!

3 more people asked Christ to forgive them of their sins and asked for His leadership!

That never gets old.

Coolest part was a son and his mother were two of the three but they both did it at seperate Experiences.

In other words…God spoke to both of their hearts and they responded but about an hour and a half apart…amazing!

The 9:15 set another attendance record…total we had our 2nd highest attended day ever and church wide we did set a new attendance record.

So great to be a part of something where God is moving in so many ways.

The day started out real early…it was still dark when I got in, but all the extra work was worth it.

Got a call right before practice from Hannah to say she has laryngitis.

That meant a lot of what we practiced on Thurday needed to be changed but Aaron and Andrea did a great job of adapting.

Speaking of Aaron he and his creative team did an incredible job with the new stage set for this series and the corresponding lighting.

And what can you say about Brian? What an awesome job he did on the turntables. (pictured above)

What other church can say they used Fergie, the Beastie Boys, and the Shop Boyz to set-up a message today?

Brian did a great job mixing it all together and the lighting for it was sick!

I included Brian’s mix on the beginning of the message podcast.

And speaking of the podcast…I also included both live questions we took at the end of each message.

At 9:15 the question via text was “What happened to the dinosaurs” and at 10:45 it was “What does the Bible say about swearing”?

Ok actually at 10:45 they wanted me to answer, “How do you stay so good looking” but I refused.

The 9:15 crowd must have gotten a lot of sleep last night…they came in rowdy and ready to go…the energy was great.

I had alot of fun with today’s message and yes at 10:45 I did say that God can even use an ass to get his point across.

If you don’t believe me read this…Numbers Chapter 22

In the message I also referenced Tim Steven’s book “Pop Goes the Church“…seriously pick up a copy…you won’t regret it.

I can’t wait for next week…the next question you wanted answered was “Is It Alright for Christians to Drink Alcohol”?

Yet again you’re not going to want to miss what we have up our sleeves…do whatever you can to get people there!

Don’t forget to use our new Promo Video to help in the inviting process.

Ok time for a nap and then it’s off to some friend’s house for dinner.

March 11, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Ok, maybe it was only while I was sleeping, but this morning something significant happened…

We launched the new United web-site on 10/4/07…1 year, 5 months and 1 week ago. Early this morning we received our 100,000 hit on the site!

I probably find that way more fascinating than you do, but I wanted to share it anyway. I think it’s so cool that we are able to influence people we don’t know and possibly will never know not only in the US but all around the world.

For example, I know at least 1 hit earlier this week came from Iraq and that whoever it was listened to one of the messages from the Pursuit series. How cool is that that someone is “chasing lions” in Iraq while at the same time chasing after “bad guys”.

Of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank my beautiful bride, Lisa for all the hard work she did in getting the site ready. Who knows…maybe somebody will come up to you in heaven one day and thank you for helping them get there because this resource was made available because of you.

https://www.gilbertthurston.com/113/