Inside Today's Experience - Gilbert Thurston

Had another great day!
First it never hurts when you get an extra hour of sleep…although as I type this at 5pm it’s already pretty dark outside so I’d rather have stayed on daylight savings time.
Is it spring yet?
Actually the weather today wasn’t bad.
We started a new series today called, Just Walk Across the Room”…which meant the morning started with getting a new stage set up and running.
Bill did a tremendous job and put tons of time into creating the 2 huge signs you see in this post.
It’s hard to tell from the pics but the letters light up and then of course we can light the boards any color we want.
The letters are also raised so it creates a cool drop shadow effect.
Again the pics don’t do this justice…really cool all the effects that can be created.
Next week we’ll be using the boards for something special that will make them very personal to every single person in attendance.
So it’s about to get a lot cooler.
Despite figuring out how to set up the new set, set-up itself went smoothly…in fact the band had enough time after the warm-up and run through to work on some stuff for next week since they will be out performing this Thursday night and won’t be able to do their normal rehearsal.
I always love getting to briefly talk with the entire serving team at 9:20 and then having everyone pray for each other and for the day.
It was great to see another big crowd today.
It’s been weird over this past year to have really wild swings in attendance from week to week.
So a pretty steady day was a welcome sight…especially since both days were some of the highest ever.
Today as the kick-off to the series, I shared the vision of ExponentialChurch.tv.
IMPORTANT: If you’re a regular attender of Exponential and didn’t hear today’s message, it’s very important that you take the time to listen either online or download it for an MP3 player.
In the message you’ll learn how to make sure you are “in the right business” and I give a very impactful iillustration to demonstrate how much work we have left to do to reach the 425000 people in the metro area that don’t yet know Jesus.
God has allowed us to do some pretty awesome things this past year but much more is still expected…Jesus said that when much has been given, much will be required.
Again it’s important that you listen so you know how together we can partner to make an eternal difference.
One way as I mentioned is to “Automate the Important”.
Vision doesn’t come cheap and to be honest the church is really struggling financially right now to survive.
I don’t for one minute think that it’s God’s will for us to fail.
So if you are a regular attender of Exponential then I encourage you to begin tithing online and set it up so that your tithe automatically gets debited either monthly, bi-monthly (that’s what I do) or weekly.
If you’re someone from outside our church yet you believe in what we’re doing I encourage you to give as well whether it be a one-time gift or some sort of ongoing automated contribution.
Again to be honest, I’m tired of talking about money but the mission and vision are too important.
I honestly believe that the best is yet to come and as I prayed at the end…I’m not so sure God wasn’t laughing at me today because I dream too small.
God is a great God, He has given us a great mission and with Him all things are possible…let’s keep thinking exponentially and trust Him to “do exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ever hope or imagine”.
After the message and during the announcement time, I was surprised to see Larry Evans and Lorraine Weaver make their way down to the stage and interrupt.
I normally hate any surprises like that but in this case I’ll forgive them since they wanted to honor myself and the rest of the staff with a gift in honor of Pastor Appreciation Month.
Thanks to all for the cards and gifts.
As I said…we’re all a team and while God has given me a unique role to play, I/we can’t do it without you…We are the church and again the best is yet to come!

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