Gilbert Thurston

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

Tag Team Effort

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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

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brian

  • 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.

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    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/

    You’re Not Gonna Wanna Miss It

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  • I can’t wait until this weekend…the launch of the You Asked For It series is going to be awesome!
  • Make sure you invite your friends…
  • The stage design is going to be sweet…
  • We’ve got a special musical performance planned that you won’t want to miss …
  • I’ll be preaching on is it alright for Christians to watch R rated movies, listen to music that isn’t labeled as “Christian” and in general enjoy the entertainment that society throws our way…
  • And to top it all off I’ll be answering at least 1 question live that gets text messaged in during the Experience.
  • This is such an easy series to invite people to…in other weeks we’ll be looking at the subjects of alcohol, temptation and how to overcome doubts about our faith.
  • In addition on April 5th most of that day’s message will be nothing but text message questions that I’m fielding live.
  • Have you ever wanted to ask me a question…now’s your chance.
  • And the cool part is I’ll have to come up with an answer in front of hundreds.
  • Uhhh yeah I’m a bit nervous.
  • So do whatever it takes short of sin to get people to attend with you…should be a lot of fun.
  • Don’t forget to utilize our new promo video which you can watch here or here.

    • Inside Today’s Experience

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  • What a contrast to last week…in more ways than one.
  • The weather today is incredible and unlike last week all aspects of set-up went very well.
  • Not sure though the extra hour of sleep helped though…even though we didn’t move our clocks forward, everyone seemed a bit lethargic.
  • I know some were fighting colds…Aaron was a real trooper battling through both Experiences despite a bad cold.
  • Had a record crowd for the 9:15…think we picked up some of the 10:45 crowd because attendance was down there although overall attendance was about average.
  • Here are some links I mentioned in today’s message…
  • Now you know why I don’t sing!
  • A lot of fun though with everyone singing along…especially the “Nobody Bothers Me” commercial.
  • At 10:45 though I started in a key higher than I should have an just barely made it through “Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man”.
  • I promise no more singing for awhile.
  • A big thanks to Dan Fry, Jenny Shilfer and Missy Kibbe for their testimonies during this series.
  • Can’t wait until next week and the kick-off to the “You Asked For It” series.
  • The creative team has some great surprises in store…don’t forget to invite someone.