Inside Today's Experience's Archives - Page 10 of 13

Inside Today’s Experience (Vacation Edition)

June 14, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Again heard through texts and seeing people in person at lunch that you guys had a good day today.

Hope you got a lot out of Francis Chan’s messgae…love that guy.

When I was in Orlando a few months back I got to meet him. (pictured above).

The best part of that day though was the hilarious intro he got.

As for us…today we visited King Street Church, right here in Chambersburg.

King Street is the area’s largest church but until today I had not had the opportunity to visit them.

Unfortuantely I didn’t read their web-site well enough and we ended up at their blended service instead of the contemporary one.

However, that was by far the best blended service I’ve ever seen.

Their 50+ member choir rocked it out.

I guess the thing I liked best about them wasn’t neccisarily their song selection or singing ability but the “attitude” in which they sang.

They were having fun and you could tell they really believed what they were singing.

They had a guest speaker so I wasn’t able to gauge that aspect of their services, although the guest speaker gave a good message on compassion.

One funny thing happened…the lady sitting next to me stole mu bulletin. Don’t think she did it intentionally but I was partially sitting on it so you’d have thought she’d have at least asked.

One other cool thing was seeing that Ryan Payne was playing acoustic guitar, in the background, for King Street’s worship team.

Ryan’s band is really growing and has quite a following and I expect one day they will be signed by a major Christian label. Neat to see hi humble himself to serve.

Reminds me of what Brian Houston, pastor of Hillsong Church, said about Darlene Zschech when she was becoming famous…”She has never forgotten that she’s to still serve in her home church”.

After the service was over I got to meet the Senior Pastor, John Beukema. Seems like a nice guy and I’m proud that we get to partner with King Street and so many other great churches in our area to reach people for Christ.

I’ve said it before an I’ll say it again…It’s not about United or CFCOG, it’s about Jesus and the Church which He died for. I’m glad we have other great churches in our area…we’re not in competition, but partners together.

We meet with Lisa’s sister and her family for lunch at Red Robin. The 4 of them plus Lisa and I all share birthday’s within about a 40 day period…4 of us within 11 days…so this turned out to be our birthday meal.

Funny thing was Lisa and Gayle were texting each other while we were there. I look up and over in the corner were the whole Krull family having lunch. In other words Lisa and Gayle were in the same restaurant texting each other and didn’t even know it.

Of course we had some fun sending her texts about things she was doing and wearing…finally she caught on and realized we were there.

Time for a nap and then our normal Sunday night crew will be getting together.

Vacation is almost done…enjoyed it and for the most part I’m refreshed…can’t wait to see everyone next week!

Inside Today’s Experience (Vacation Edition)

June 7, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Talked with Brian earlier and heard you guys had great Experiences today.

Sounds like everyone reallly enjoyed Craig’s message.

Lisa and I on our way from Atlantic City to the Pocono’s attended Bethany Baptist Church.

They are the 40th fastest growing church in the US and are lead by Bishop David Evans.

His service is seen on TBN from 10-10:30 on Sunday mornings.

No you can’t skip United to watch some week…that’s what they made DVR’s for.

This is a predominately African-American church and one thing I was afraid of was that we wouldn’t be dressy enough.

Sure enough as we pull in, everyone is dressed to the hilt…except for a few people…so we ventured in.

One of the first things we noticed was that all of the ushers were dressed in white tuxedo’s with white gloves.

Wish I could say they were friendly but they weren’t.

You sat where they told you…no exceptions.

Even people that came in late…and by the way…this was a 2 hour and 15 minute service, were squeezed into a pew with others.

You absolutely were not allowed into a closed off section until every pew was full.

I went and checked out their video production studio and met the lady who was running the production for the day.

She and the rest of the TV crew are all paid outsiders.

The service started with the MC leading 5 minutes of clappping….seriously that’s all there was.

Something I found interesting was that there were ZERO songs in which the congregation was asked to sing.

In other words…you sat and watched the entire time.

Now don’t get me wrong…the congregation, which was typical of an African American congregation talked back to the people on the platofrm ALL the TIME.

I like that…wish you guys responded more during the music and message.

After a few songs there was a presentation of kids who are going off to college.

Something I liked was they have a full-time staff person who does nothing but work with kids in the church to help direct them to college.

After another song or two…came the video announcements.

I love video announcements…you can say so much more with them and in a shorter amount of time.

Problem was they had about 7 minutes worth AND THEN…came another 10 minutes of verbal announcements.

This was followed by a skit which was pretty funny except that the sound crew really botched the mircophones.

There were at least 7-10 actors and they had no clue who was on what mic.

Makes me so glad for two things at United…Number 1 that I’m such a sticklier for excellence and number two that we have a team that has caught that vision and week in and week out fulfills one of our core values…”Excellence Honors God and Inspires People”.

Another song and then…

The message.

I enjoyed David’s message on how our assignment is to leave a legacy for the next generation.

A few of my favorite lines:

“You had no trouble asking people to follow you when you weren’t a Christian but now that you are, you’re ashamed and are afraid to talk about Jesus”.
“Don’t try to have the biggest and best house YOU can…make sure that you’re children’s HOUSES are bigger and better than your own”.
“You should work because it’s what God created you to do, not because you need the money”.

The end of the message featured another thing typical in an African American church…the organ player playing a little diddy after every phrase that is spoken.

This of course got the crowd into a frenzy and about a dozen people gave their lives to Jesus at the end.

Hmmmm….what else…oh yeah…they took 3 offerings. Missions…Building…and the normal tithes and offerings.

All in all it was an interesting experience.

Inside Today’s Experiences

May 31, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Really fun day.

Not having to preach but yet still attend was great.

Hectic morning getting everything set-up because of all the elements in the Experience but we got it done.

The worship team knocked it out of the park on both the worships songs and also with the specials…great job everyone!

Really proud of Josh…can’t wait to see what God has in store for him in the future.

Selfishly I hope it’s something with us, but my prayer is that God’s will be done.

He brought a great message for the close of the Hostage series.

Go get your crew!

My only real responsibility today was to do the announcements and not mess up Brian’s surprise.

For those that were in the 9:15 you got to experience something really cool.

Brian Miller who was my intern two summers ago and to this day is sort of my right hand man, FINALLY got up the nerve to propose to his long-term girlfriend Chrissy Weaver.

We were able to set it up perfectly so that even Chrissy’s parents who live a few hours away were able to be there without arousing any suspicion.

I typically don’t get nervous but I was for the whole set-up and getting Chrissy on to the stage without giving it away.

It was awesome watching her as the lightbulb came on to what was happening.

When she turned around (picture above) and Brian was down on one knee there on the stage it was awesome.

I looked out and everyone was crying…which was hard for me to see because I was bawling.

Brian and Chrissy mean so much to Lisa and I…we couldn’t be proudier of “our kids”.

So 10:45 crowd you really missed out…

Hey speaking of…for the first time ever the 9:15 crowd was larger than the 10:45…that’s really cool!

Well as soon as I post this, I’m offically on vacation!

I’ll miss you guys, but I’m definetely ready for a break.

Next week Craig Groeshcel (Lifechurch.tv) one of the greatest pastors and communicators in the country will be speaking to the United crowd as we begin the One Prayer series with the message, God is Love.

I may check in from time to time to blog about what’s happening on vacation, but don’t count on it.

If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call (717-263-9523) or e-mail (office@mycfcog.org) the church office.

See you in a few!

Inside Today’s Experiences

May 24, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Another good day!

Disappointed with attendance though…guess people think that a holiday weekend means God is on vacation as well. :)

Really proud of Alex for coming in and drumming for us even though he didn’t get home from his trip until 3:30 this morning.

Considering he only had 4 hours of sleep, he did awesome.

Everything else from a technical standpoint went well…couldn’t have asked for a smoother day.

Really enjoyed the band’s version of “Came to the Rescue”.

After last week’s message and response, it felt a bit anti-climatic preaching today, but all in all I was pleased and hopefully we further cemented the fact we can live free.

Spekaing of…I met an active duty Marine after the 9:15 who was visiting and he was really appreciative that we took a few moments out of the Experience to recognize not just those who have given there lives but our current troops as well.

For the first time in awhile we were early getting done.

In fact we were so early, the guest reception wasn’t even ready by the time I got there…now that’s early.

Looking forward to hearing Josh’s message next week as we wrap up the Hostage series…make sure you invite someone.

As I said in the message, one of the best things you can do is be a part of a small group…tonight our full group will be together…love my peeps!

Inside Today’s Experiences

May 17, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

What a great day.

God’s Spirit was definetely present and lives were changed big time.

Having been away all week I wasn’t able to get something together to help cement the message in people’s minds so I thought yesterday that perhaps a good old fashioned altar call might be appropriate.

WOW…between the 2 Experiences we had about 150 people come forward.

At 9:15 especially it was amazing to see 2 and sometimes 3 rows deep of people the entire length of the stage.

The opening video of me being held hostage can be watched here.

That video was emotionally and physically demanding, but well worth it…perhaps the best we’ve ever done.

Two funny things from this morning…

One of the projectors must have gotten hit by a basketball this week (ok that’s not funny at all) and so we needed to get it adjusted.
The lift though was not charged up and so we had to patiently put Andy up in the air a few feet at a time.
I thought once we got him half way up we should have unplugged it and left him there.
My thinking was what better way to illustrate someone being held hostage.
The other funny thing was I ran out of water right before I went on stage for the 10:45.
I reached in our backstage fridge, but the bottle was completely frozen.
Now with less than 2 minutes before I’m to go on stage…and extremely thirsty…I had to figure out something…
…so I quickly stuck it in the microwave, not knowing what would happen.
Luckily it didn’t explode and I got just enough out of it to take care of my thirst.
It’s about 3:00PM as I write this and it still got a big block of ice in it.

All in all I’m pleased with today…

…it was a very emotional and draining day though so I’m physically hurting big time.

Time for a nap and then off with friend’s for dinner and cards.