Gilbert Thurston

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

I Have a Dream

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This Monday we will celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. I referenced him in last week’s message by saying that he wasn’t just articulating his dream by God’s as well.

Well I too have a dream! You can listen to it here.  In it I reference the story of Perry Noble and NewSpring Church down in Anderson SC.  They celebrated their 8th birthday as a church yesterday and I want you to read Perry’s post about all that has happened and be inspired that God wants to do the same kinds of things in our midst…why?…because it’s not just my dream it’s God’s as well. 

NOTE:This post is long so make sure you hit the “Read More” link when you get to the bottom.

Happy Birthday NewSpring

I am sitting here trying to wrap my mind around the past eight years…it’s been an incredible journey. I am both overwhelmed with gratitude AND excitement…gratitude because Jesus is allowing me to be involved…and excitement because Philippians 1:6 and Ephesians 3:20 keep screaming to me, “The best is yet to come!”

  • Thinking about the past eight years I can distinctly remember…
  • Our very first worship service on January 16th of 2000…we opened with the song, “One Of These Days,” by FFH.
  • The next two Sunday mornings we had major ice storms…one completely knocked the power out on the campus of Anderson University–yet we still had church.
  • Our first month we took in a total of $2,100…we were SO broke!!!
  • Knowing that we were supposed to hire Lee and being scared to death because we didn’t have the money…but being even more scared of disobeying God. His first official Sunday was Mother’s Day of 2000…and hiring him was one of the BEST decisions I’ve ever made. (Love you bro!)
  • Going to two services within six months…and “dreaming” that one day we could meet in the 1,100 seat Fine Arts Center on the campus of AU…and “maybe” fill it up for “special occasions.”
  • Moving to the FAC in August of 2001…and going from 188 one week to around 350 the next.
  • Taking up the offering to move to the FAC…we needed $45,000…so I went before our church and preaching a message on giving…and 53 people gave $26,000…which was AWESOME…but we still needed another $20,000…so we went to the bank and borrowed it…and I didn’t sleep for a week!
  • Freaking out when we rented our first office space because it was going to cost a whopping $750 a month…I thought I had bankrupted the church.
  • Getting in the offices and realizing we had NOTHING…no phones, computers–not even a flippin’ stapler! I went in front of the church and put our needs out there…and we had everything we needed in two weeks.
  • August of 2002–going from 504 to 1,600 in six weeks…having to begin two services in a place that we didn’t even expect to fill up once…and being scared to death because I KNEW I was WAY over my head. (I still feel that way.)
  • Adding a third service in 2003…and then a fourth service in 2004…and being blown away and what God was doing…we grew to over 4,000 without a building…we had a box truck and tons of trailers!!!
  • Locating land in 2004 and doing our first capital campaign…we titled it, “Dare You To Move.” Once again, I was scared to death for us to commit to buy land and build a building…but I was more terrified of what would happen if we looked God in the face and told Him that He was too small to make HIS name famous.
  • Nearly dying in 2005…and God reminding me of how unnecessary I was–that the church is HIS…it was on this earth WAY before I got here…and when I pass away one day it will still be here!!!
  • Sitting on the stage of the building in January of 2006, looking out at 2,500 seats and crying because I was scared that no one was going to come once we opened the new facility.
  • Baptizing over 400 people in the fall of 2006.
  • Doing our marriage series entitled, “Lord of the Rings,” in the fall of 2006…and seeing God save marriages!
  • Adding a fourth service in January of 2007.
  • The Illuminate campaign…where we saw nearly 1,000 people come to Christ in one month.
  • The tailgating baptism where we saw over 500 people baptized in one day! (I still dream of the day when we see 3,000 in one day! If it happened in Acts 2:41…it can happen here!)
  • Our church pledging $14.3 million dollars for our Gametime campaign to build a new children’s building, youth building, Greenville campus and local and foreign missions.

I could go on and on…God has done an amazing work…I still can’t believe it…and as I have already said, our best days are yet to come!!!

A Great Day Gets Even Better

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Just found out that today we had two offers come in for our house. There is another showing tomorrow yet and by Friday we should be able to choose one and do a counter proposal.

How awesome is God that during a housing slump with 3 houses right near us, that are comparable to ours, that have been for sale for months now…we have had ours on the market for 3 weeks and now have had 3 offers. It’s not official yet but God is definitely up to something…Chambersburg here we come!

By the way…this doesn’t mean you should stop praying…there are some other issues to work out yet to make the move official but its looking good!

Wow I’m Honored

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One of my favorite churches and one I look to for inspiration and creative ideas all the time is Granger Community Church in South Bend, Indiana. 

Today while I was at lunch I got an e-mail from their Executive Pastor Tim Stevens letting me know that he had selected myself and 9 other pastors from around the country to help review the initial manuscript for his latest book… Pop Goes the Church:  Should the Church Engage Pop Culture.  Above is the preliminary book cover design.  Other than that I’m not allowed to talk about the details of what’s inside since it’s not yet a finished product.  I’m sure though that when it’s all said and done it will be just as good as his other books Simply Strategic Volunteers , Simply Strategic Growth and Simply Strategic Stuff.

What’s Up With All the Smoke?

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I mentioned a few weeks back that I would periodically give answers to common questions that I’m hearing. Last night I heard for the third time, “What’s the purpose of the smoke” during United on Sunday’s. First, it’s actually not smoke it’s a waterbased haze, but that’s besides the point. Second, the purpose is to make air visible. This makes beams of light visible and thus more effective. Without it you would have to actually look at the lights themselves to see movement…with it, you can see the lights reflecting off of it, thus give a better sense of movement, patterns and depth.

Trust me I’ve seen our lights without it and there is a huge difference. Now the problem is we’re still learning when to turn it on to be most effective. This past Sunday we were late getting it on (for a number of reasons) and thus it was more foggy than hazy. Part of the problem is were learning the air flow patterns from our heating and air conditioning systems which at this point seem very unpredictable. As we get a handle on it things will improve.

One last thing that I know sometimes crosses people’s minds and that is…is it safe. The answer to that is yes…again it is just a water-based solution that is heated until it is atomized and vaporized into a fine mist. Think of it sort of like a spray bottle except that we’re pumping out a lot! Hope that helps to explain that better…if you have questions please feel free to contact me and let me know.

As Is Now On-line

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I was able to re-record the As Is message from yesterday for your listening pleasure.

It amazes me how many of you were apparently hitting the refresh button on your computer all morning waiting for it to post.  In just the first 1/2 hour it was on-line, 9 of you downloaded it.  Sorry for the inconvenience…we’re trying to figure out what the glitch is that sometimes corrupts the original.  I don;t mind re-recording but it’s just not the same without a crowd to feed off of, so I hope i don’t have to do this too many more times.