Random Thoughts Archives - Page 4 of 4

Other Weekend Thoughts

March 2, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Friday didn’t turn out to be much of a day off, but I did get to spend Friday evening with my niece Taylor (pictured with me above) snowtubing at Whitetail.

This was the second weekend in a row I had done this and it was amazing the difference.

The week before it had been really cold and icy…this past Friday it was warm, rainy and the course was slushy.

Made for slower runs but we had a good time none the less.

They were having a problem with the conveyor belt that transports you to the top of the mountain…it kept stopping all of the sudden which means people go flying.

At one point a little kid maybe about 6 years old was in front of me riding up the mountian when it stopped and he went flying off onto the stationary ramp beside the belt.

The problem was the belt started again but he still had his arm attached to his tube which was riding up the belt.

So as I go riding by either I have to jump his tire or do something else…I did something else.

I reached down and with one hand picked him up by the back of his jacket and plopped him back down on the belt…I felt like Superman.

Then while still riding…I undid his arm from the tube and picked it up so he wasn’t tangled in it anymore.

Poor kid was so tramautized by the whole thing that he leaned forward and threw up all over the belt.

As we get to the top of the mountain I’m trying to warn the operator to avoid the puke but he for some reason didn’t see it until the last minute and jumped out of the way just in the nick of time.

Other than that…a pretty fun night hanging out with Taylor…and of course what night would be complete without stopping for ice cream on the way home!

Saturday involved a lot more work and then heading up to the church for our first ever Connection Event.

It went great…lots of newer people to the church got to mingle and get to know one another and by the time this weekend was complete, 3 new small groups had been formed out of the evenings festivities.

A great big thank you for a job well done to Dan and Jan Krull and Josh Schlotterbeck for getting everything coordinated and planned.

Next time we have one of these I’d strongly recommend attending…it was a lot of fun.

Yesterday after church Lisa and I made a commitment to do nothing at all…but yet do it together. Very relaxing!!!

Got caught up on shows like American Idol…too bad Nick/Normal Gentle went home…he was hilarious. Love Ryan’s line…”I think that’s the first time anyone got to 2nd base with our logo.”

Today is sermon prep day…working on messages for the You Asked For It series.

The votes are in and you have decided that I should preach on…..

Come on did you really think it would be that easy…stay tuned for details in the days and weeks ahead.

Random Thoughts on a Thursday

February 26, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

The above pic is Andy and I at the Caps game on Tuesday night right before it started.

As you can see we had awesome seats!

The bad part was the Caps lost the game 4-2 to the Flyers.

Wow being that close to the ice gave a much better perspective for the size of the players and the speed of the game.

Because of how low we were, when the play was at the far end of the arena we had trouble seeing through the glass clearly so we had to switch back and forth from watching live action on the Jumbo-Tron to watching live action right in front of us.

A few times I forgot and just kept watching the Jumbo-Tron.

It’s amazing how conditioned we are as humans to watch our content on a screen.

This is why I’m excited about some of the things we’ll be able to do via video in United in the future.

Funniest thing that night was the lady sitting next to me. She introduced herself as a Flyers fan, but not an obnoxious one.

At one point in the game she turns to me and says, “Well you don’t have to cuss about it”.

I assured her that I hadn’t said any swear words. She insisted that I did and then repeated back to me what she thought I had said.

I told her it’s been about 15 years since I said anything like that.

She says, “No way, you’re a liar”. To which I lean over and say, “Seriously I don’t…I’m a pastor”.

She was blown away…first with embarassment. She said she felt like she needed to go to confessional…not sure why people always assume pastors are Catholic.

Then she’s tellling all her friends how cool it is that a pastor is 1. At a hockey game. 2. Has such good seats. 3. Is wearing Caps gear (guess she thought I was missing one of those little white collar thingies). 4. Is yelling for the home team.

I was able to tell her we cheer louder at United than we do at games though…she thought that was cool.

Wish I would have had the new United Promo Video loaded on my phone…that would have really shocked her.

Overall been an interesting week so far…

Got to share my faith with a Buddahist yesterday…that was cool

Last night I taught Earl’s class for him and as always had a good time hanging out with the senior saints of the church.

Last night I talked with them about being culturally relevant…at one point I threw out the name Brittany Spears…blank stares back. Then Kayne West…blank stares. Ummm…..ummmm….Perry Como…eyes lit up. :)

Should be a great weekend as we launch our brief 2-part series “What If”.

Make sure to invite someone to come out!

Friday Thoughts

February 13, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Turns out that not only did I lose a lot of sleep on Wednesday night, but we lost a bunch of our shutters as well.

Late Thursday morning I started finding them and kept chasing after them for quite a distance.

By the time I had collected them all, I had 7-8 under my arms, but I had to walk into the wind.

I might as well have been an airplane…for every 3 steps forward, I got blown back 2.

Now I’ve got to file insurance claims and all that good stuff…great…like I don’t have anything else to do.

Speaking of airplanes, I was a bit shaken up by the crash this morning in Buffalo.

I have flown into that airport at least 8-10 times, sometimes under icy conditions like they had today.

I’m quite thankful that in the hundreds of flights I’ve been on, only 1 ever had some sort of emergency.

Speaking of emergencies…attention guys reading this blog…tomorrow is Valentine’s Day…if you don’t want to be killed, make sure you’re doing something nice for your sweetie.

Had a great time speaking last night at the prison…about a dozen guys showed up and I shared with them the message from the Pursuit series on Overcoming Adversity. They really got into it and 2 guys got saved!

Ok…one final shout out asking you to please, please, please, invite someone to come with you this weekend. I believe this is going to be a very freeing message for so many and lives can truly be changed.

Also don’t forget that at 10am we will be doing baptisms in the sanctuary…this means the 9:15 United will be dismissed early and those that normally come at 10:45 should show up early.

Random Thoughts on a Thursday

February 12, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Anyone else have trouble sleeping last night with all the high winds blowing through?

To put things into perspective…my mom when I was a kid could vacuum my room in the morning and I’d still be sound asleep.

So last night to be woken up by the winds making the house shake was rare for me.

Lisa and I kept moving to various rooms to find one that was quietier.

Finally I just put ear plugs in and went right off to sleep.

It’s 10:15 and she’s still in bed…don’t think she was so lucky.

The last few days have been great having Lamont in town to speak with us each night.

He’s the real deal and we were blessed to be able to have him here.

He asked me to call him last night at midnight to make sure he was still awake on his drive back home.

He sounded alert and was within 2 hours of seeing his “mother-in-laws favorite daughter”.

You know how almost all famous actors want to be singers and singers want to be in the movies? Well it’s like that sometimes for us as pastors…

I love Lamont’s style and quite honestly I’m jealous of it, but God keeps reminding me that He created me in a unique way and I just need to be the best Gilbert I can be…

So don’t expect this week as we wrap-up our Pursuit series to hear how Benaiah was big, bad, bold and brave. Or how in the midst of our situation he is an inspiration for our continuation.

Actually, I’m really excited about this final message in the series…invite someone to come with you as we’ll discover what it means to say Jesus came to free the fool that lives inside of you.

And we’ve got a free gift for everyone this week that I think you’ll find sort of cool.

No this isn’t Oprah…you’re not getting a car…sorry.

I’m speaking at the prison tonight so please be praying for that…I’m going to share with them some of Benaiah’s story and how we can never allow what’s wrong with us to keep us from worshipping what’s right with God.

I got quite a few more e-mails yesterday with potential questions for the “You Asked For It” series.

Remember if you have a question that you’ve always wondered about and you’d like to hear me preach a message on it, send them to me at gilbert@unitedworshipexperience.org. Or we’ll be collecting them again this week on inserts if you wish to remain anonymous. From there we will collect the top 8 or so then have you vote on which 4 make the final cut.

Random Friday Thoughts

February 6, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

For a supposed day off…I’m certainly doing a lot of work. :(
No one’s fault but my own though.
Technology is both a blessing and a curse.
Been having a chance recently to catch-up with some old friends…nice to re-make some connections and be reminded of great memories.
I’m getting excited about this weekend…the topic is one you don’t hear a lot about in churches, but is something Jesus assumed that we’d all do.
Don’t know that it will be the most downloaded message ever, but my job is to preach the Word…what you do with it from that point is between you and God.
I’m also getting excited about some of our up-coming series.
This weekend you will find out about one that’s coming in a few months and I think you’re going to be stoked!
Have a feeling it will be our most popular series ever…
Got you wondering now don’t I…you’ll have to show up this weekend to find out what it is.
CAYA (our young adult ministry) is having dinner tonight at the Mill’s house. Always great to eat some of Kim’s home-cooking and I understand that Cindy Long (of Cindy’s Sweets fame) is providing her apple pie.
If you want to know what food will taste like in heaven, have any of her desserts…however the apple pie is my favorite…might just have to start with that to make sure I get a piece.
Finished up my reading through the New Testament in 30 days at the beginning of the week.
I was officially 2 days behind, but as the old saying goes, “It’s better to get the Bible all the way through you than for you to get all the way through the Bible”.
Now I still believe that we need to read the bible cover-to-cover (after all it’s hard to say you believe in something if you’ve never read it) but rushing through reading just for the sake of saying you’ve done it is never a good thing.
I’d rather you read one verse per day and apply it to your life than read a few chapters everyday and forget about it the moment you sit your bible down.
Speaking of reading, I’m almost done reading Tribes by Seth Godin.
He talks about how all great movements and organziations start with someone challenging the staus quo and saying hey there has to be a better way to do this than just the way it’s always been done.
Hmmm…sound like anyone you know?
Ok, things seem to have settled down a bit…off to enjoy my day off…the big question is what do I do…read, play a game, take a nap, run some errands…