- Interesting day!
- Speaking over in the sanctuary at both 8:15 and 10:30 meant things were in some ways more hectic than normal but at the same time things went smoothly.
- Uhhh, I woke up at 6:30 so I could get over to the church to get ready for the 8:15 service. With both Earl and Scott gone and me being out of my element it meant that a lot of preparation had to be done for all 3 services beforehand and by people not used to doing it. All in all it went very well.
- The 8:15 crowd especially was glad I dressed up for them.
- We had 2 professions of faith over in the sanctuary today…yeah God.
- I’m really proud of the sanctuary team. One of the take aways from our strategic planning meeting back in March was that the flow needed to be better in the sanctuary and it certainly was better than I’ve ever seen it. Great job by Scott getting everything ready and for the team that executed it.
- Back over at United, I had very little to do to get ready this morning…great job by our team picking up the slack so I was very relaxed.
- We had one light acting goofy today which was a little nerve wracking because I couldn’t remember if that one was used as a spot for any of the songs…luckily it wasn’t.
- I loved the message by Ed. He was hard on his home congregation but it is something all of us can learn from….hey WAKE UP.
- Best line…Eutychus fell out of the window….You’d of cussed to if that happened to you.
- I listened this afternoon to a rough cut of the special the girls did after the message….even in a rough cut it was awesome…way to go team!
- Hey speaking of…Dave can really tear it up on the lead guitar….great to have him be a part of the team.
- Big thank you to Galen for doing the announcements…even if he was speechless. Hey that video for the new series certainly does have curiosity up now doesn’t it?
- It had been awhile since I had to preach twice on the same day. I had forgotten how much “personality” each message gets. In other words, the Spirit leads me to say different things in both that are geared specifically for those that are in attendance….not sure if that makes sense but it’s neat to know the Spirit is speaking exactly what He wants.
- For having gotten up early and preaching twice, I actually feel better than most Sunday afternoons…may not need a nap.
- Tonight our small group will get together to eat dinner and hang out.
Unplugged Conference Re-cap
- I really enjoyed the Unplugged Conference.
- The tagline was less conference and more conversation. Because of that they limited the attendance to only 50 people.
- It really reminded me in some ways of my days working for Purpose Driven. I always enjoyed speaking to the big crowds that would show up, but 1 or 2 times per year there would be a smaller crowd and by the end you felt like you knew everyone…this was very similar.
- In fact, by the time it was done, I think everyone had a chance to not only spend some time with everyone else, but also time with our two presentors.
- Mark Batterson and Jud Wilhite are two of the greatest leaders in Christianity today and they briefly shared over the two days the 5 biggest challenges that leaders face (Having the Right Motives, Creating and Communicating Vision, Still Having a Personal Life, Being an Effective Leader, Being Creative), before opening it up to Q&A after each session.
- Here’s my top 5 quotes from each:
- Mark:
- Our plans sometimes have to fail in order for God’s plans to succeed.
- God doesn’t reward what we do but the motives behind why we did them.
- Too many times we do ministry out of memory instead of creativity.
- Every “…ology” is a branch of theology because it’s studying what God has created.
- Don’t just be a consumer of culture, ask yourself how God is speaking through it.
- Bonus Deep Thought: Everything says everything about everything.
- Jud:
- Our churches are either battleships manned by people ready to fight the enemy or they are cruiseships where it’s all about my comfort and please feed me.
- Success is the greatest enemy you have of future success.
- You can have either growth or control but you can’t have both.
- Fall in love with the journey, not the summit.
- One problem with the church is that everyone thinks that they are an expert but yet they have never actually led one.
- Bonus Deep Thought: There is no there, there.
- Mark:
- As you can see from the picture, I had a great seat to take it all in.
- The conference itself was held in the basement of the coffee-shop that National Community Church owns.
- The walk back and forth to the hotel was a bear in the heat…especially when I had to lug my laptop and suitcase.
- The coolest part of the conference was on Thursday night when they took us down to the National Mall for a picnic and a Cornhole Tournament. My team got eliminated in the first round…that’s alright it just meant more food was available.
- Afterwards a few of the guys I know and I walked all the way back to the coffee-shop…whew I was soaked, but we arrived just in time to be able to spend about 1 1/2 hours with some of the team from National Community Church.
- I tried to up-date the blog a few times, but so many people were competing for a limited amount of bandwith, that most of the time I couldn’t even get connected. The one time I did, when I hit submit, I lost connection and therefore lost the entire post…ahhhhhhhh!
- All in all it was a great time catching up with some old friends and making some new ones. I was able to wrestle with and get counsel on a lot of things I’m dealing with personally and ministry wise so the time and money spent were well worth it!
Urgent Prayer Request
I grew up living next door to two of my cousins and a third who is our age lived in the same town and we’d see him at least once a week. I love those guys like you wouldn’t believe and we’re all grown now but yet still like kids on the inside.
One of them, Deron, was expecting a baby boy to be born in a few months but on Monday little Carson was born two months pre-mature. Of course he’s tiny (3 lbs.) and a respirator helps his breathing. I just found out from my mom that he has taken a turn for the worse. Please keep Carson, Deron and Megan in your prayers as well as the rest of our family.
Random Wednesday Thoughts
Inside Today’s Experience
- Another really busy Sunday but an awesome one!
- I was up earlier than normal because we had to get all of our stuff done an hour early so we could participate in the congregational meeting about adding a new staff position.
- Right about now I’m really missing that extra hour of sleep…I hate mornings.
- All in all not a bad week in the set-up end. There were a few glitches…including some hang-ups getting the video message loaded up but once we worked it all out things ran smoothly from there.
- After practice it was over to the meeting.
- To be honest, I had no idea how this was going to turn out…I was really nervous because I know how bad this position is needed and wanted it to go well.
- I thought all in all the meeting was well presented and there were some great questions.
- Back over at United then, it was another one of those weeks were people just kept flooding in…great attendance day and great energy from the crowd.
- I really enjoyed the worship set…I thought it was a good mix of music and as always the team knocked it out of the park.
- I was serious…the story of Perry Noble and NewSpring Church so inspires me. They’re doing in their small town what I believe God wants us to do…that is turn it upside down for Jesus.
- I told you Perry is wild…”I like big biscuits and I can’t not lie.”…classic.
- Hey speaking of that song…here’s a cool spoof.
- Right before I was to go back on stage on couldn’t remember if the CAYA promo video had been loaded so I sprinted around the hallways and then back.
- I wasn’t planning on sitting during the prayer part but I was winded pretty good.
- Good thing I bought that Wii Fit last week to get in shape!
- It was great being able to honor Stan…I could see in he and Joanne’s eyes that your standing ovation for them was much appreciated.
- At the same time, I believe Vernon will carry on the great ministry that has been started…keep he and Doris in your prayers.
- It was great to be able to announce that the vote to add a Pastor of Creative Arts had been approved. I’m looking forward to seeing who God has planned for us and then getting to partner with them in making an eternal difference.
- Funniest line of the day occurred at the Pastor’s Reception. Two young ladies came an introduced themselves to me and said they’ve been coming the last 2 weeks. I explained that the last 2 weeks have been out of the ordinary and that I usually preach, but just not as good as those guys. She looks at me and says, “It’s OK you’ll get better.”
- I forgot to announce that we were doing a baptism right after the Experience so that you could come out and support those getting baptized. As always it’s a very special moment and then at the end we were able to anoint people with oil and pray for God to heal them…what an awesome experience.
- Afterwards we went to lunch with the entire Krull family at TGI Friday’s. Andy and Gayle’s son Dylan asked me to go with them to Target afterwards so he could pick out a new game for the Wii.
- As we’re standing in Target they brought out 2 new Wii’s to put on the shelf. For those of you who don’t know it, the odds of that happening are about as good as seeing me in a suit…in other words it can happen but it’s rare.
- So Andy bought an additional one for his downstairs game room and I bought another one for sale on EBAY. Looks like I’ll be able to get enough to pay for the Wii Fit I purchased last week for my birthday!
- Tonight is CAYA and it looks like it will be awesome!