Gilbert Thurston

Random Thoughts About Life, Ministry and Whatever Else Happens to be on my Mind

Archives for August 2009

Inside Today’s Experiences (Vacation Edition)

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  • Got to catch up with their campus pastor, Mike Albon.

I got to know Mike when I worked for Purpose Driven.  He is a great guy and doing
an awesome job leading the Harrisburg site.

  • Mapquest sent us to the wrong place to start with but once we were there, their worship time was very similar to ours.
  • Their worship leader was incredible…one of the best male voices I’ve ever heard.
  • Since they are a satellite campus, the teaching time is done via video.
  • To help make it seem like the speaker is actually there, a huge screen comes down and projects the speaker at life size.
  • This picture hopefully explains it better…IMAG0108
  • Interestingly enough, I still ended up watching the side screens with the tighter shot of the speaker most of the time.
  • Hoping we can add live video on our side screens soon.
  • In any case, LCBC Harrisburg had great music, a great convicting message and other creative elements that made the service…an Experience!
  • Afterward Lisa and I went to City Island and walked around for awhile before eventually heading to Red Robin.
  • Vacation was a blast, but I can’t wait to be back next weekend as we start the Unveil series.
  • If you or someone you know is trying to figure out God’s will, this will be the series for you.
  • Even if you have no big decisions to make right now, I will be sharing the process you need to go through any time you need to make decisions, so this series is for everyone!
  • So with that said…Invite, Invite, Invite…and then go out and invite some more!

Inside Today’s Experiences

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  • From the outside looking in, today looked pretty good, but behind the scenes, it was a rough day.
  • Pretty fitting though considering that I was preaching about how to go through tough times and grow from it.  :)
  • Despite a lot of technical difficulties, it was still a fun day.
  • I’m sort of sad that we’re done with the medley’s…they were all a lot of fun!
  • Don’t know how many people picked up on the Milli Vanilli lip synching gag…oh well at least we amused ourselves.
  • Brian and Adam’s dancing was about as good as mine….haha!
  • I thought then that the whole team really pulled it together for Loser.
  • Brian did a great job of remembering an incredibly confusing song, Adam played the slide on the guitar to perfection and Andy gave Brian some neat effects for the rapping portions.
  • At the 9:45 I was really flustered by everything that had happened in the morning and then my mic was causing some weird feedback which never happens.
  • I was disappointed, but I’ve had quite a few people tell me that the message really spoke to them.
  • At 11:15 then I was able to bring it with a bit more passion.
  • I was sharing with a few people that if we ever do a series like this again, I’m scheduling it for the winter…
  • All these wigs and costumes I’ve been wearing are very hot…nothing like wearing flannel today when it’s hot and humid out.
  • Had some guests tell me that a greeter at the door asked them if they wanted the “smokey and wild” service or the normal one.
  • Interestingly enough with a description like that, they still chose to come to United.
  • I forgot to mention at the 11:15 that if you’re interested in helping with set-up or tear-down, we could really use your help.  Either put it on a Connection Card or e-mail Tony at  thediehls@comcast.net
  • I’m excited about this up-coming week for two reasons…
    • First, Lisa and I will be on vacation in Florida!
    • Second, Josh Schlotterbeck is going to finish out the Rewind series by looking at the song Criminal.
  • Josh is an awesome young man of God and I promise you’ll not want to miss out on what God wants to speak to you through him.
  • This is going to be big-time salvation message, so if you have friends, neighbors, co-workers or relatives that don’t yet have a relationship with Christ, do whatever it takes to make sure they show up next week.
  • The following week then I’ll be back with the start to a new series called, Unveil:  Revealing God’s Will For My Life.
  • That’s a question everyone wants to know so I’m excited to share with you how to discover God’s will.
  • Again there are plenty of invite cards in the back, so invite, invite, invite!
  • Since I’ll be on vacation, I probably won’t post much, but check back periodically for vacation up-dates.

Inside Today’s Experiences

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  • Another great day!
  • What a lot of fun this series has been and today was no exception.
  • From a behind the scenes perspective, we couldn’t have asked for a smoother day.
  • I really love the new song the team did today called, “Arms Open Wide”…a good mix of slow worshipful reflection and driving rock.
  • Brian is doing an awesome job with the stage sets and this particular one has made his lighting go to another level.
  • So cool to have Dustin Swartz as our guest guitarist for “Don’t Stop Believing”…only 14 years old…wow!
  • For those that missed the story, he played it as his audition song for Aaron just a matter of minutes after the creative team meeting in which we decided to use it as a part of this series.
  • There’s coincidence and then there is God…we definitely thought this was a God thing and so we used him.
  • Awesome job Dustin…keep using your gift to glorify God!
  • Even after the wild outfits the last few weeks, today’s made me feel incredibly self conscious.
  • Maybe because some people still dress like that today and I was embarrassed to be seen like that.
  • I had a lot of fun with today’s message…talking about video games and the Gospel…does it get any better?
  • Had 8 more first time professions of faith…that will never get old!
  • Can’t wait for the Next Steps ministry to start in September.
  • Speaking of new ministries…in case you missed it, last week we started the “You Matter” ministry and the first task was to provide a week’s worth of food for the Boys and Girls Club of Chambersburg.
  • Not only did we do that, but we far exceeded it.  We gave…
    • Enough drinks to last them through November…
    • Enough food to last through the winter…
    • Enough cash and gift cards to get them to next summer!
  • This week’s task is to fill backpacks for needy kids and already about a dozen have been filled and turned in…wow!  Keep it up.
  • I met some great new people today and all of them just couldn’t get over how different United was than what they expected from a church.
  • If I haven’t mentioned it for awhile, let me remind you that I love getting to be your pastor.  You guys rock!
  • I’m really excited about next week…not only will there be a 1990’s medley but I’ll be preaching based on the Beck’s song, Loser.
  • I’m really, really looking forward to this message…make sure you invite a lot of people.

Will You Be My Friend

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As many of you know, I’m a big fan of Facebook and Twitter and other social media networking sites.  They allow me to follow some of my favorite pastors to get inside their head today instead of waiting for their next book to come out.

And Facebook to me is one of the best things that ever happened for pastors of larger churches like ours.  We’re in the process of implementing some new software for the church and in the gathering of information stage, we’ve discovered that about 1600 people call CFCOG their home church.  That’s a lot of people!  It’s impossible for Earl and myself to know every single person’s name, much less details about their lives.  Facebook however does help in at least getting a brief glimpse into people’s lives.

However, here’s my problem with it all.  It has never been easier than today to have “Friends”.  Just click the “accept friend” button or “add as friend” button and BOOM there you go, “I have another friend”.  But really you don’t…yet many people are today gauging their quality of relationships on the quanity of friends or followers they have on these sites.  So with that said, here are a few thoughts:

  • People aren’t looking for a friendly church, they are looking for a friend in church.–  It’s easy to be friendly, but it takes time and effort to truly be someone’s friend.  Just because you “friend” someone on Facebook doesn’t mean they are your actual friend.  So when someone new comes in, we must be sure to go beyond the superficial and truly be a friend.
  • People don’t need MORE relationships, they need a few DEEPER ones where they give each other refrigerator rights.–   Again the quantity of “friends” you have in life or Facebook means squat.  My guess is that 99% of the people who are friends with you on Facebook would be irked if you called them during the middle of the night with a problem.  A true friend is someone you can call in the middle of the night to say you need help and they just come right on over without asking a billion questions on the phone first.  A true friendship is when someone is at your house and they just get in your refridgerator without even asking, because they’ve earned that right.  The bible gives us 58 “one anothers” we are to be doing with each other…some of them are quite deep like, “confess your sins to one another”.  Posting your deepest, darkest sins on your Facebook wall for all your “friends” to see is not the wise thing to do.  So who are you intentionally developing a deeper, personal relationship with so you can pray, encourage and hold each other accountable?
  • Proverbs 18:24-   “A man with many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend he can have that will stick closer than a brother”.

If You Hate Technology So Much, Then Try This…

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Have seen and read a few things today that made me want to post this…

Often times people complain about the increased use of technology in life (texting, facebook, twitter, etc.) and in the church (lights, projection, etc.)

It’s on days like this (very hot and very humid) that I want to tell people that don’t like technological advances to turn off their air conditioners.  I’m mean at one point AC was the latest and greatest but now is pretty common place.  The key to technology in my eyes is this…Is it a tool or a toy?

To me texting is easier than sending a letter(tool).  Facebook allows me to keep up on the latest and greatest in the people’s lives that I’m called to (lead).  Lighting, projection and a lot of the other things we use at United help us to present the Gospel message in a way that reaches people that other churches aren’t reaching (tool).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go downstairs to microwave (tool) my lunch, in my nice air conditioned home (tool) and watch my big screen TV (Toy…definite toy!).