Gilbert Thurston

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

Sacrifice

by Leave a Comment

Jesus said, “I can guarantee this truth: Anyone who gave up his home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or fields because of me and the Good News
will certainly receive a hundred times as much here in this life.”  Mark 10:29-30

The picture you see is of my very good friends Andy and Gayle Krull just moments after walking into their new home in Harrisburg, PA this afternoon for the very first time.  Why do they have a new home?  Why are they living in a strange city?  Because they believe so much in following Jesus wherever He may call and they believe so much in the vision God has given me to start ExponentialChurch.tv that they were willing to leave their old world behind.  House, family, friends, jobs, kids schools, a great church and more…all because to them being a part of a major movement of God is more important than personal comfort.  All because Jesus command to Go is more important to them than any personal sacrifice.

Thanks Andy and Gayle for your sacrifice, you are an inspiration to many for your faithfulness to the cause of Christ!

God Provides!

by 2 Comments

Part of the sacrifice that Lisa and I are making to plant ExponentialChurch.tv is taking a 21% pay decrease.  It won’t be easy but we are already seeing God bring Philippians 4:19 to life.

My car’s transmission went out about 2 months back and we decided to try to survive off of 1 car for as long as we could.  Two Friday’s ago a man from the church e-mailed letting me know that he was selling his car and willing to give a really good deal on it…I’m talking well below what he could have gotten.  That same day, a check arrived in the mail  for $1000 from another person saying they heard we were without a car and they wanted to help us with some of the cost.

Then today I stopped at the bank to deposit my last check from my employment with the Chambersburg First Church of God.  When I went to put the deposit slip in my wallet, I noticed another check in there that I had forgotten about so I told her “Oops I need to make another deposit”.  Then I went to the coin counter machine and poured in some coins that had been accumulating on my desk at home.  I didn’t realize that it prints you out a slip and then you need to take it to the counter for deposit.  So for the third time within a few minutes the same girl waited on me and made yet another deposit on my behalf, this time for $210.72.  I apologized for doing 3 deposits and promised I wouldn’t be back today…I promised there were no more checks…but then I added, unless God wants to bless us with something in the mail today.  When I got home and got the mail, sure enough, we got a check from a class action lawsuit for $327.47.

My point is this…You can’t out-give God.  His promise to us that are faithful in giving back a tithe to Him is that He will open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that we don’t have enough room to contain it.  Lisa and I have tithed all 15 years of our marriage and we have never been in need.  Even during times like this where we’re not sure how we’ll make ends meet, God always figures it out!

Time to Plant

by 1 Comment

Today begins a new chapter in my life.  Yesterday we said good-bye to a church family that we have grown to love the past 3 1/2 years and now it’s time to plant a church in Harrisburg, PA.  Since change is in the air right now, I decided to give the blog a make-over.  It’s got a brand new look and a couple new features.  In addition, the content for the next few months will become more of a running diary of what’s happening as we get ready to launch and some additional thoughts along the way.  Please feel free to leave a comment about what you think of the new design and anything else you’d like to see me post about here on the site.  Have a great rest of your holiday.

Questions Answered Part 5

by 2 Comments

Today I’m wrapping up the most common questions I’ve been getting since announcing that I’ll be leaving United to start a church in Harrisburg.

11.  What’s the name of your new church? ExponentialChurch.tv

12.  Why the .tv on the end? The domain name was already taken for things like .com, .org, .net, etc.  Since .tv is not as common we just tacked it onto the name.  This is actually pretty common.  In fact did you know that Life Church  which has been the organizer of the One Prayer series we’ve done the last two years is actually named LifeChurch.tv?

13.  What’s your vision for the new church? I won’t go into a lot of detail here because I’ll be doing that in the future.  If you’re really interested ask me and I’ll give you a full 20 page document until I post more here.   For now though let me share the following 4-prong aspect to the vision:

  • Weekend Experiences: Pretty much what we’re doing  in United now.  There are over 425,000 people in the Harrisburg area that don’t yet have a relationship with Christ.  So in the same way we’re currently doing church for those that don’t like church, we’ll do it up there but in a much bigger way.
  • Community Outreach: This will in some ways be similar to our current You Matter Ministry.  Monday-Saturday opportunities will be given to go out into the community serving the needs of the people in practical way.
  • Life Skills Center: People will be able to come to the church to get trained in various skills that can then be translated into jobs in the community or service to organizations.  One of those organizations will be ExponentialChurch.tv.  Essentially what we’ll be doing is offering our building to various people in the community who want to teach skills such as voice, instruments, video editing, computer programming, database, carpentry, sewing, etc.  The people they give lessons to will then be offered an opportunity to hone those skills as a volunteer at Exponential.
  • Church Multiplication Center: One of the aspects I miss about working for Purpose Driven is that I got to help tens of thousands of churches all across North America in being more effective in reaching their local communities.  The final phase of Exponential will be in helping churches and new churches to get started.  We will do this by offering 1 year residency programs where potential church planters can come in to get trained in how to not only start a church, but grow a thriving church that is making a huge impact in whatever community they happen to be a part of.  Also, our goal is to plant other churches around the Harrisburg area to make sure that all 425,000 people without Christ get to hear the good news of what Jesus has done for all of us.

That’s a very brief glimpse of what we’ll be doing.  What has been amazing is watching God open door after door confirming this was what He wants us to do.  There is still a lot of work that needs to be done yet, but God has been faithful and I know will provide all the resources and strength that we need.

14.  Couldn’t you have stayed in Chambersburg and done this same thing? Trust me…Earl and I talked about if it were possible.  However, we both quickly realized that a vision like this will require a much larger city than Chambersburg to pull off.  And besides, God made it clear that we were to go to Harrisburg.  So if someone else wants to try this in Chambersburg they can, but as for us, we are called to leave.  As I’ve said all week long…not because we necessarily want to, but because we know that being faithful to God’s voice and His direction often requires discomfort and sacrifice.

That’s it for now, please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any more questions.

Questions Answered Part 4

by Leave a Comment

Today I’m continuing answering questions about my leaving United and starting a church in Harrisburg.  Here’s the most common questions I’ve been getting in person this week that I haven’t already addressed.

6.  When will you be leaving? Probably at the end of May or by the end of June at the latest.  I want to do everything I can to help United and CFCOG in the transition so we’re all leaving the timetable somewhat open.

7.  Will you be moving to Harrisburg or commuting? We will be moving as soon as our house gets sold.  If that means I have to commute back and forth to Chambersburg for a few months then I’m cool with that.  We want to get up there ASAP to start making connections in the community so the faster we sell our house the better.  If you know of someone who may be interested, here is the link for our house.

8.  What’s the real story? Certainly something else must be going on for you to just all of the sudden want to leave. Again I don’t want to leave, but I’m just being obedient to what I know God has clearly asked me to do.  As for any other story, there is none.  Like in any church/job, you occasionally have frustrating moments with people, co-workers, bosses, the job itself, but I didn’t have anything nearly major enough that I was even remotely thinking about leaving.  I was just as surprised that God asked me to leave as you were to hear I was leaving.

9.  Do you have a location in Harrisburg for your new church? Yes and no.  We are looking at a couple of facilities right at the junction of I-81 and I-83.  Please be praying about that for us that God will open the right place for the right price.  One facility we are excited about the possibilities but it will definitely have to be a God thing.

10.  So what is this big vision? Ah yeah that…you’ll have to come back tomorrow to get the details…