Gilbert Thurston

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Inside Today’s Experience

November 6, 2011 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

  • 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!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Automate the Important, Bill Butler, ExponentialChurch.tv, gilbert thurston, Just Walk Across the Room series, Larry Evans, Lorraine Weaver, Pastor Appreciation, tithe, vision

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