Gilbert Thurston

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

Inside Today’s Experiences

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  • What an ugly day…I think I hate rain as much as I do the snow and cold.
  • From a set-up and technical stand point it was a pretty good morning…nice and relaxing.
  • That helped because of some last minute changes we had made.
  • One of our core values at United is to be culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure.
  • To be honest for this week’s Experience we were flirting with the line…but I felt confident that in it’s proper context the creative elements were going to making some lasting impressions that would ultimately advance the Kingdom.
  • Friday night we decided to pull two things much to my disappointment…
  • So I went from an excited nervous to just plain nervous because it meant trying to go back and make the message make sense.
  • At 9:15 I just wasn’t in to it so I apologize to that crowd.
  • By 10:45 it was a little better and so that’s what we posted if you 9:15’ers want to hear a better version.
  • I’m trusting though that God still spoke to people even through the confusion.
  • Other than that, I felt it was a great day…
  • …the band did great and the crowds (especially 10:45) was lively.
  • Met some great people today…I love the wide variety of people that God is bringing to us.
  • Next week is nothing but Q&A so if you have any questions about marriage, dating, relationships or sex, text us at 301-991-5746 or e-mail me at gilbert@unitedworshipexperience.org
  • Time now for my nap…I need it…then off to friends house.
  • This week will be really busy becuase I’ll be travellling next Monday-Friday so I’ve got to get 2 weeks worth of stuff done this week.
  • One highlight though will be tomorrow night’s trip to DC with Andy for the Caps and Penguins play-off game.

    • Inside Today’s Experiences

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    Co-habitation Ceremony

  • Another fun day!
  • I’m really enjoying this series.
  • Wow something happened to the air conditioner so it was HOT!
  • Of all days that I needed a jacket as a prop!
  • Oh well it was worth it!
  • I could tell a lot of people thought it was the real deal…suprise, surprise, surprise.
  • Many thanks to Dan and Sherri Bogle as real life married couple for playing the part.
  • An even bigger thanks to Sherri’s dad for showing up to walk her down the aisle.
  • It’s amazing how humor like the “co-habitation ceremony” can drive home the point.
  • Wow look how short I am as compared to Dan and Sherri in the picture….eeeshhh.
  • The 10:45 was really into things today…
  • I first noticed it during the worship time and then during the message you guys were responding great.
  • Keep it up…I love when you give verbal feedback like that!
  • Had a lot of guests at the reception today…so great to meet so many new people and hear their stories.
  • With the weather getting nicer, United t-shirts are back in high demand.  To get yours, click here.
  • Had a great afternoon and evening…the Caps won their game and we had ribs with friends tonight for dinner.
  • I’ve got a busy week coming up…I’ll hopefully fill you in tomorrow.

    • Inside Today’s Experiences

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    • Another great day but I’m whooped.
    • Typing this on my phone sitting at the airport getting ready to catch a flight to Orlando.
    • Great start to the new series.
    • 9 more people came into a relationship with Christ today!
    • That never gets old.
    • Wasn’t planning on doing a call for salvation today and I didn’t at 9:15, but I really felt a strong prompting from the Spirit to give one at 10:45.
    • Glad I did!
    • Loved the satan video…I’ll get Aaron to shrink it down then we’ll post it online.
    • Maybe you can catch it on Facebook in the meantime.
    • Had our best non-holiday attendance ever.
    • Glad we kept the momentum going.
    • It was great to have some family members in attendance…some of them for the very first time.
    • Also the Executive Director for our entire denomination stuck his head in the door for a couple of minutes…that’s cool.
    • Great crowd participation today…especially during the message…love it when you guys talk back.
    • I’ll try to keep you up-dated from the road this week during the conference…have a great week.

    Inside Today’s Experiences

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  • Wow!
  • What a great Easter day!
  • 14 more people accepted Christ today…that never gets old!
  • United and the church as a whole didn’t just break our attendance records…they were shattered. 
  • In total 1314 men, women, boys and girls attended today!
  • 17 total 1st time professions in the entire church!
  • I am totally spent.
  • Not sure I’ve ever preached that hard before…my back is killing me.
  • The band did phenominal today…especially liked the opening instrumental piece with the thought provoking video.
  • Was really proud of the FIT and ushers as well. 
  • They all did a great job of accomodating so many extra people.
  • Really great to see the ushers helping people find empty seats…which were few and far between.
  • Also really proud of our tech team…they did a near flawless job pullling of some pretty technical stuff today.
  • I loved the staging that Aaron and the creative team came up with…the trees to match the graphic and the LED strips were aweome.
  • Big thanks to Dan and Sherrie Bogle and Jason Kibbe for working so hard to make the stage design happen.
  • Loved getting to meet so many new people today…
  • …even better loved the stories of life change I was already hearing!
  • Hung out with relatives this afternoon and now I’m at a friend’s house hanging with some of my peeps (Easter pun fully intended).
  • I know I say this all the time, but I can’t wait for next week. 
  • The new series called Re:Married on marriage, relationships, dating and sex is going to be great.
  • Don’t forget to invite someone!
  • We’ll post the invite video we showed today later in the week for you to use.  UPDATED:  (Here is the link)
  • Have a great week everyone…hope you enjoyed celebrating Jesus resurrection as much as I did!

    • Inside Today’s Experiences

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  • Today was a lot of fun!
  • I really enjoyed this series and apparently so did you.
  • This series was our highest attended one ever.
  • I felt like a Methodist pastor today preaching for only 15 minutes :)
  • I enjoyed being able to take more than one text question at each Experience.
  • Altogether I was able to answer 12 text questions. 
  • For a list of what the questions were and to hear my answers, click here for the Podcast.
  • We had a few tech problems during set-up today, but all-around things ran pretty smoothly.
  • Aaron and the creative team are doing a great job of stage designs and they already tore down the stage after today’s Experiences and began the work for Easter.
  • It’s going to be awesome!
  • Again I can’t reiterate enough…please invite as many people as you can to come with you next week.
  • I truly believe that God wants to do something huge, but it will take everyone doing their part.
  • Alright have a great week…see you next Sunday if not before!