Inside Today's Experience - Gilbert Thurston

Great day!
Had to start the morning out scrapping the ice of the windshield and wearing my beanie…definitely the coldest Sunday morning we’ve had so far this “winter”.
Had to use the quotes because I know some of you would correct me and say it’s not yet winter…ok but did you really expect me to say it was the crispest fall morning so far. Yeah right.
Oh wait I did just say it…
OK here’s the deal…it was cold this morning.
Anytime we start a new series it’s always an adventure since we have no way to have tested the new stage design up until that time.
With this one Bill built 4 “candy cane” looking contraptions with multiple color Christmas lights strung between them.
What’s cool is we can control each color independently…which is harder than it sounds.
In fact it required 8 extra extension cords since you can’t put them into a power strip and then to the lighting control…each one needs to run separate.
All that to say…we had to send Gayle out on an extension cord run since we were short a few.
Amazingly we were short even with taking 6 of our normal lights out of the equation altogether.
We’ll add them in over the coming weeks.
So set-up and practice were longer than normal this morning.
Another factor was that Steve our drummer missed practice on Thursday night…something about getting engaged or something. :)
Congrats Steve & Kelsey!
In any case, the band did a great job pulling it altogether.
However, the crowed energy was down today…not sure why.
Again using a however…on this day last year we had one of our worst days we’ve ever had…so today was light years better.
Chad did a great job preaching the first message in the Party series.
His message was about getting an invitation and not being left out.
You can listen to it here.
Since he preached that allowed me a chance to walk around a see some other things I normally don’t get to.
I twice stopped by and watched Chelsea and the kids in the theater next door.
Awesome to see them worshiping, having fun and learning about Jesus.
Also spent some time in the nursery/toddler area where one of our normal toddlers was crying hysterically.
I tried picking her up and holding her but to no avail.
So I put her down and quietly slipped away before anyone noticed I had left. :)
It’s always good to have days like today where I can walk around evaluating things without the “pressure” of knowing I have to preach.
Got some things we need to work on but for the most part we’re light years ahead of where I thought we’d be at this point in our now slightly over 1 year of existence.
God has and is so good to us!
Lisa has been out-of-town all week-long so afterward my mom, dad, sister and I went to lunch together.
To the best of our recollection it was the first time in about 20 years since it was just the 4 of us together to eat.
Not sure why but I took a longer nap this afternoon than a typical Sunday.
That shouldn’t have been…I didn’t really do anything today.
Lisa flies back tomorrow…can’t wait to see her!
Next week we’ll continue the Party series with a message I’m doing called, “Bust a Move”.
Once you’re at the party, it does you no good to stand against the wall…time to get out on the dance floor.
What’s that have to do with the Bible and your life?
You’ll have to join us to find out.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for Saturday, December 24 & 31 at 10am which will take the place of our normal Sunday morning Worship Experiences.

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