Gilbert Thurston

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

Inside Today’s Experience

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Inside Today’s Experiences

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  • Think this is the latest I’ve posted one of these but I’m just now getting home at 10:10PM.
  • Another great day….set another attendance record at 9:15 and overall the numbers were great.
  • The most important number though is 9…that’s the number of people who today prayed to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins and to take control of their lives!
  • Man that never, ever gets old.
  • Wow I was all kinds of full of myself today…especially during the announcement times…even I was wondering if I was ever going to shut up.
  • Anytime though you can slip a Wizard of Oz reference and the phrase “lighting a fire under your butt” into the annoucnements…you know it was an interesting morning.
  • Said both of those things at the 9:15…yet another reason to attend then…you never know what will come out of my mouth before I’ve fully woken up.
  • Even Andy’s son Dylan (9 years old) was on me…he said, “Man Gilbert you went really long today…we were just waiting out in the hallway for you to finish”.
  • Truthfully the new song we did today I wasn’t 100% sure of even after Thursday night’s practice.   But as usual the team pulled it off great and I really got into it.
  • Yes, I do realize that the above means that I had to “Embrace Uncertainty“.
  • Funniest moment of the day occured when Andy’s daughter Hannah wanted to take both of her baby dolls to Sunday School, but Andy said no you can only take one.  She was about to get upset about it when he explained that we needed her in order to help run sound for the day.  So we dressed her up with full size head phones and put a mic in front of her.  Thus the picture above.
  • Aaron at lunch today asked me to say something nice about him in today’s blog…ummm…thinking…”Great comeback on me at the 10:45 about not wanting to worship&q

Other Weekend Thoughts

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  • Friday for the first time in a long time, I truly felt like it was a day off…wow that was refreshing.
  • The only thing I did that was even close to being ministry related was go out to breakfast with a pastor friend of mine.
  • Saturday too was pretty laid back…other than putting the finishing touches on the weekend’s message.
  • Speaking of, I’m not sure I’ve ever had so many comments on a message…for whatever reason that one really hit home with a lot of people.
  • I’m really excited about what God is doing in people’s lives right now and I believe that even better things are yet to come!
  • God is personally stretching me right now as well which is really cool!
  • Last night we went with Andy and Gayle to the Hershey Bears hockey game.
  • The game was great for 4 reasons…
    • We were in a suite so how can you beat leather seats, a TV to check out the football games and of course free catered food!
    • We got to see an AHL record be broken when Alexander Giroux scored a goal in his 15th consecutive game.  Any time your at a game and they have to stop it to do a special presentation, you know you just saw something pretty significant in the sporting world.
    • Hershey won after being down 2-0.
    • Can you say…Dippin’ Dots.
  • Last night I finally got tagged on Facebook to do the 25 facts about you thing.  Here’s the link if you’re interested.  If the lonk doesn’t work  let me know and I’ll re-post it on the blog.
  • Today I’m studying and writing for the message on February 1st…it will be on taking risks and I can’t wait for you to chase even bigger lions!
  • Speaking of big lions, I have a meeting tomorrow morning about a big lion the church is chasing that could impact us for many years down the road so please pray about that.  Then in the afternoon, I’m going up to Harrisburg with Earl so we can help our denomination chase a huge lion.
  • I’d be interested to hear what lions God is calling some of you to chase…let me know in the comments section.

Inside Today’s Experience

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  • What a great day!
  • We set another 9:15 attendance record as well as the overall attendance record at United and for CFCOG in total.
  • Wasn’t sure how the different order for the Expereince today would affect things, but overall not too bad.
  • I think some of the late arrivers were surprised to walk in and I was already in the midst of my message.
  • the other thing we hadn’t considered was how hazy it would be for the end of my message.  We we’re trying to coordinate for it to start kicking on right at about the time I started to pray, but it didn’t quite work that way.
  • At 9:15, I was surprised to all of the sudden be overtaken by a cloud…must have looked like the smoke monster on LOST.
  • Was totally impromptu to jump off the stage and finish in the crowd for both Experiences, but it was sort of fun and I don’t think I spit on too many people.
  • There was great participation during the music time…hopefully we can keep that kind of energy.
  • The worship team did a phenomial job as usual, but I know they were particually excited about today and they came through.
  • It’s quite a privilege to be able to work with so many talented people and together be seeing God do some amazing stuff all around us.
  • The guest reception was packed…I mean packed today with people…must have been at least 20 some at one point.
  • After that we had one of our Pastor’s Luncheon’s with some of the people that are newer to the church in the past month or two.  
  • It’s great having an opportunity to talk with and hear the stories of how God is moving in people’s lives.
  • I’m more convinced than ever that God has a great plan for us and that we haven’t yet seen or Experienced all that He has in store for us.
  • Tonight we’re going up to Hershey for the hockey game…Andy has us in the luxury box, so even if the game turns out to be bad, who cares…lots of food and fun!

    • Inside Today’s Experience

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  • Another very interesting day.
  • I left the house this morning and slipped and slided all the way through my neighborhood…but then the rest of the roads were clear.
  • Wasn’t sure what to expect attendance wise, espeically after I saw the 8:00 sanctuary service was about half the normal attendance.
  • So imgaine my surprise when people just kept pouring in for the 9:15…another record crowd!
  • Brian was leading today so Aaron could shoot some video for some promotional videos we want to do and I thought he did an awesome job!
  • Man the 9:15 crowd really has been getting into it the last few weeks…even though that crowd is about 1/3 the size of 10:45, you guys are rocking it hard and participating like crazy…awesome!
  • One guest today at 9:15 introduced himself to me and said that he actually heard me speak my last day at my former church before I went on staff with Purpose Driven.
  • I don’t know I found that kind of neat.
  • So after the big crowd at 9:15, I wasn’t sure what to expect at 10:45…my gut thought it would be a low attendance morning because of the ice, but I wasn’t quite sure.
  • Sure enough, 10:45 then had the lowest attendance we’ve had since we went to two Experiences.
  • I hate bad weather!
  • Still though wasn’t a terrible day attendance wise and I’m hearing nothing but postive reports about this series…apparently a lot of have some lions that need to be pursued and your now doing it!
  • There are about 10 people who serve on our tech team and they do a phenominal job!
  • I’ve always likened them to umpires or referree’s…you only really notice them when they mess up.
  • Welll our team does a great job of keeping the mistakes to a minimum and even when they are thrown a curve, they do a great job of minimizing distractions…great job guys and gals!
  • Congratulations to the people in 9:15 who got what eaglesuperphobia was before I even explained it….caught me completely off guard.  So at 10:45 I hesitated to see if anyone got it then, but no one did.  Don’t know how you figured it out beforehand, but you’re very smart whoever you are.
  • Speaking of…the Eagles won this afternoon, so my phobia is only growing worse.
  • At the end of the 10:45, it was fun getting out into the crowd and jumping and getting excited with some people…just a chance for us to remind Satan why he got kicked out of Heaven!
  • For lunch we went to Earl’s (Senior Pastor) for our staff Christmas party.
  • Great food and our staff gets along very well so there was a lot of laughing and good natured joking with one another.
  • After lunch we played what we called, “Dirty White Elephant Bingo”.  Basically it was a combination of various games some of us had played in the past and we rolled it all into one to receive our gift.
  • I got the “Complete Idiots Guide to Prayer”.  
  • We were supposed to get a gag gift, but this idiot needs all the help with prayer he can get, so I’ll gladly read it here in the near future.
  • After that we played Wii and watched the end of the football game.
  • Tonight Lisa and I visited with friends in WV and have just now gotten home and are getting ready to call it a night…I’m beat.
  • Have a great week…chase the lion…and don’t forget to invite some to come back with you next week as we look at how to overcome adversity in our lives.

    • Top 10 Reasons to Attend the 9:15 Experience

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    A few weeks back I preached a rather controversial message and came down hard on people for not making the switch to the 9:15 Experience so that people far from God could have the better timeslot at 10:45.  To say the least, it has definitely got people talking. 

    My one regret was that I failed to mention that there are some legitimate reasons for not making the switch…like if you’re already teaching a class for the kids at that hour or if you’re a nurse at the hospital, or already getting up at 4am to milk the cows.  Other than that, though I still feel strongly that sometimes we have to give up what we want/prefer in order to see God’s Kingdom advance.

    Sure enough this past weekend, a lot of you made the switch to 9:15 (we had a record crowd), but here’s the funny part…10:45 was just as crowded as always.  We had 70 more people at 9:15 than the previous week, but yet we only had 9 less people at 10:45 than the previous week.  This is a pattern that we’ll continue to see…as long as seats free up at 10:45, then we’ll continue to grow and most importantly…help the 91,000 people in our community who are destined for hell, find the same love and forgiveness of Jesus that we have received.

    So with all that said, I’m still asking more of you to make the switch, if you can.  This time though let’s take a more humorous approach.  So here are the top 10 reasons to switch to 9:!5:

    10.  The workers in the Cafe’ spike the coffee for the 9:15 crowd.

    9.    The bathrooms have only been lightly used.

    8.    You get to hear Gilbert say something crazy BEFORE Lisa makes him
           change it for the 10:45 message.

    7.     Since another Experience is starting right after the 9:15, you know 
            you’re going to get out on time.

    6.    The 9:15 is presented to you in 3D.   Ok, not really but since you may be 
           tired, it may seem that way.

    5.    4 words for you….No Putting Away Chairs!

    4.    It’s a little less hazy first thing in the morning.

    3.    Your odds of sitting next to someone who smells goes down
           expotentially.  Unless it’s your husband that smells then you have to sit
           next to him regardless of what time you come.

    2.    You get to beat the other churches in town to the lunch buffets.

    1.   YOU FREE UP A SEAT SO THAT SOMEONE FAR FROM GOD CAN HAVE
          YOURS AT 10:45!!!