Gilbert Thurston

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

Other Weekend Thoughts

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  • Had a great dinner with the Dell’Aqua’s on Friday night in their new home just up the street from the church.
  • Lisa and I are not really big on cooking so we eat out a lot.  It was nice having a homemade meal.
  • Saturday we saw the Broadway touring show of the Lion King down at the Kennedy Center in DC.
  • OH MY GOODNESS!
  • The story of course was familiar and the singing and acting while excellent wasn’t earth shattering either…
  • It was the costuming and special effects that just still has me shaking my head.
  • Click here to get a brief glimpse of some of what I’m talking about.
  • I kept leaning over and saying to Lisa, “Can we get that for United?”  Just one awesome effect after another…amazing!
  • Went back to my uncle’s house then for dinner with about 20 other relatives…it’s fun catching up with everyone as we celebrated Christmas in August.
  • Yesterday at church I had at least a half dozen people tease me about falling and spraining my ankle…everything from time to pick out a nursing home to maybe I’d better get one of those medical alert thingies to wear around my neck.
  • “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
  • I’m really enjoying the 9:15 Experience…
  • Really liked that during the special I could hear people getting into the music that was selected…there was laughter, some “ah-ha” I know that one’s and clapping along.
  • 10:45 just sat there…hmmm wonder what the difference was?
  • Last night we had dinner with some friends whose little girl starts Kindergarten this week.   Seems just like yesterday that we were holding her just moments after she was born.
  • And don’t even get me started on my niece whose 9th birthday was yesterday….my goodness maybe I am getting old.
  • I did recently get an AARP card in the mail by accident…maybe I should start using it.   :)

    • Inside Today’s Experiences

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  • Because of being out of town yesterday I had to get to the church early this morning…
  • Really early…6:30 early…uhh watched the sun rising early.
  • I hate early.
  • Everything went smoothly with set-up and the band had a good practice after Thursday night’s debacle.
  • About 2 minutes before we were to start the 9:15 Experience, Dirk taps me on the shoulder and says, “Uh Andy needs to see you.”
  • Go back to the tech area to find Andy in a bit of a panic.
  • What’s wrong?   “We’ve lost all of our files for this morning.”
  • Somehow when they went to start the countdown, the computer crashed and when the program was re-opened all the files were missing.
  • I ran around to let the worship team know we’d be in a bit of a delay.
  • That didn’t feel good on a sore ankle.
  • Ran back to the tech area and watched as Andy started trying to get things working.
  • Not sure anyone really knew we were in a delay but we were 7 minutes late in getting started.
  • Never did get all the files back, but we made due.
  • Miraculously we were able to make up the time…although I felt like I was flying through the message.
  • During the 1/2 hour break in between Experiences Andy was able to get some more things back so the 10:45 went off without a hitch.
  • Attendance was down today, but I had expected that after looking at last years numbers the week before school started.
  • On a positive note, I thought Jack’s movie medley that he put together was excellent.
  • I also thought that the band really pulled the whole thing together.  We had substitutes in 3 areas but yet they blended well.
  • I was able to avoid last week’s mistake and keep my adrenaline pumping the whole time and so I felt much better about the 10:45 message.
  • Next week is going to be intense…the Dark Knight is an incredible movie and the buzz created by it makes for an easy invite.
  • As I said…I will be giving a clear presentation of the Gospel….do whatever you need to do to make sure you have people with you.
  • It was great to be able to finally announce our new Creative Arts Pastor hire.  Aaron Schwindt is talented in many ways that we need, but more importantly is a great man of God.
  • I’ll give more details about him later in the week.
  • For now, it’s nap time then dinner with friends tonight.

    • Random Friday Thoughts

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  • My sprained ankle is feeling much better this morning…thanks for the prayers.
  • Guess I need to add “getting the mail” as one more thing on my be careful as you’re doing it list.
  • Seriously we had a terrible practice last night. 
  • All week long and even up to yesterday afternoon we we’re scrambling just to get a team together.
  • Not really anyone’s fault…but when half the team comes in not prepared because they didn’t know they would be playing or what they’d be playing until that afternoon, it makes for a rough time.
  • All that to say…first pray that things come together on Sunday.  Second…I’ll be glad when vacations are over.
  • I finally posted some pics from the CAYA trip to Hershey Park on my facebook account.  Click here to see them.
  • Hey don’t forget to use the forums to share prayer requests and ideas…as well as discuss each week’s message.
  • Tonight we’re having dinner with Chris and Jan Dell’Aqua.  They are some of the original set-up crew team members and have been a tremendous asset to the United team.  Looking forward to just hanging out.
  • Tomorrow we head down to the Kennedy Center in DC to see the Broadway version of  “The Lion King.”
  • My uncle works there and treats us to a show every year.  It’s always a lot of fun and it inspires me to have as high of performance standards as what they do. 
  • They do it for money…we’re doing it because people’s eternal destinies matter to God. 
  • That’s one of the reasons that churches who do things cheesy and with poor production qualities bother me so much…don’t they realize what’s at stake?
  • That’s also why your continued faithfulness in tithing is so important.  We have to try to pull of as good if not hopefully better production standards but at a fraction of the budget.
  • Money doesn’t solve all problems but it sure does help.
  • Even with all the problems last night, I’m still excited about this weekend.
  • Let’s face it…pride is something we all deal with and I’ll tackle it head on as we look at the movie Get Smart.  Also, I’ll be announcing what our next series will be….and I’ll be making a HUGE announcement that you won’t want to miss.
  • Don’t forget to invite someone…it could be a life altering decision.

    • Other Weekend Thoughts

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  • Wow Michael Phelps was amazing in the Olympics!
  • Did you see the finish to his 7th gold medal?  I was using the DVR to go through frame by frame to see the finish…incredible!
  • I’ll be glad when the Olympics are over though so I can get to bed earlier.
  • I received my new personal credit card because the expiration date was about to expire.
  • I was cutting up the old one, when I noticed that I was cutting up my church card instead.
  • Yet further proof that I am an idiot.
  • Sunday at 9:15 I said that Eisenhower had approved the Interstate Highway System in 1965.
  • Afterwards I was told that couldn’t possibly be right that it had to be…in the 1950’s.
  • Went back and checked my notes…”65″ was what I had written, but this guy was old enough to know so I changed it to 1955 in the second Experience.
  • Went home and checked the book I had used as my original source and it said 1965…but yet I knew that was wrong.
  • In doing more research, I discovered it was actually 1956…the book had transposed the last two numbers and an editor never caught the mistake.
  • History not having been one of my stronger subjects in school…I didn’t pick up on it and trusted that a hugely popular book would have no errors.
  • Uhhh, guess I was wrong…so now I have yet one more thing to do each week as I study…make sure editors did there job correctly…aye-curumba.
  • Speaking of the message…I’ll never figure you guys out. 
  • This week’s message has already been downloaded and/or listened to online more times than last week’s.
  • You’d think that dealing with anger would have been more popular than loneliness….but again what do I know.
  • I was really proud of my former boss Rick Warren this weekend!
  • The way he handled the Saddleback Civil Forum with John McCain and Barak Obama was awesome!
  • I was so refreshing to hear each of the candidates talk as real people, not their canned stump speeches.
  • I love that Rick asked some tough questions, like which Supreme Court Justice would you not have nominated?
  • Best line of the night goes to Barak Obama.  When asked by Rick what constitutes rich, Barak said, “Well if your book has sold 25 million copies…”
  • What’s amazing about Rick though is he has given most of the money away. 
  • In addition to 5 non-profit organizations that he has helped to launch, he tithes 90% of his income and he has stopped taking a salary from the church.
  • Oh yeah, he also paid back 25 years worth of salary.
  • I miss getting to spend time with him.  :(
  • But if I was still there…I wouldn’t be here…and I love you guys and the privilege of being your pastor!
  • God is definitely doing something awesome in our midst and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
  • Another big announcement coming soon!

    • Wild Goose Chase

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    Through the years I have had the pleasure of getting to know some of the top pastors in the country.  One of them is just down the road from us in DC and not only does he pastor one of the most influential churches in the nation, but God has given him the gift of writing.

    Mark Batterson is the real deal.  Not only has he been gracious to me with his time, but his first book, In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day helped inspire me to chase after even bigger dreams for United than I had first even imagined.

    Now his second book, Wild Goose Chase is getting ready to hit the bookstores tomorrow.  Mark and his publisher were kind enough to send me an advanced copy and I spent this weekend reading it.  Wow…Mark was worried that maybe his “sophomore album/season/book” wouldn’t be able to live up to the hype that the first book created.  Thankfully he was wrong!  Wild Goose Chase will help anyone become all that God has designed them to be.

    The premise behind the book is that the ancient Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit- An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.  Mark encourages us to see, rightfully so, our lives as Christians as a grand adventure…a following after the Holy Sprit…a Wild Goose Chase.

    The problem though is we many times “cage” the goose.  As Christians we often want to play it safe, not take risks, remove all traces of danger.  But as Mark says, “Jesus didn’t die on the cross to keep us safe.  Jesus died to make us dangerous.

    Over 174 pages Mark explains the 6 cages we most often find ourselves in.  To follow is each of those cages and my favorite quote from each chapter.  It was hard to narrow it down to just one because the book is that good, so you’ll have to pick-up your own copy to get the rest.

    The Cage of Responsibility- “I would rather fail at something I love, than succeed at something I don’t enjoy.” The Cage of Routine- “One of the greatest dangers we face spiritually is learning how and forgetting why.”

    The Cage of Assumption- “When I pray, the best I can do is no longer the best I can do.  Now the best I can do is the best that God can do.”

    The Cage of Guilt- “Love people when they least expect it and least deserve it.”

    The Cage of Failure- “Getting where God wants me to go is not nearly as important as becoming who God wants me to be in the process.”

    The Cage of Fear- “Faithfulness is not holding the fort.  Faithfulness is storming the gates of hell.”

    So there you go…a taste of the Wild Goose.  I highly recommend this book.  If you buy it via Mark’s site www.chasethegoose.com you’ll also be able to get a free copy of his 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals which by itself is worthy of the money you’ll be spending for the book.