Gilbert Thurston

The multi-purpose room floor is done and it’s official…we will have our Experience there this Sunday!  In the meantime, here are a few random thoughts…

• Of all weeks to come to the Experience…this the one.  Of all weeks to invite someone to come with you…this is the one.  I guarantee that you will be blown away.
• I’m super pumped about the Extreme Makeover: You Edition series that we will be launching.  This is going to be life changing in so many ways.
• Don’t forget that we are trusting God for 50 first time professions of faith during this series, so do your part and invite like crazy.  In fact if you have to, make it a game with a fellow United attender to see who can invite the most people that actually show up.
• I have been getting reports all week long of people who are inviting and having great success, so some of you have some catching up to do.
• I’m a mix of emotions and feelings right now.  I’m tired (didn’t get home until 6:30am…2nd time this week that’s happened…earliest was 1:30), nervous (doesn’t happen often, but for big events, I’m usually pretty wound), hungry (no one’s fault but my own…I decided to type this instead of eat0, anxious (not knowing how everything is going to work without having a few practice runs is nerve-wracking), but most of all excited (God wants to and is going to use us to further His Kingdom and I’m just thankful to be a part of the ride).
• We’re going to see Skillet in concert tonight before heading back over to the building to put some finishing touches on things.
• I accidentally crushed Kim’s (senior pastor’s wife) finger yesterday between a filing cabinet and a wall as we were moving the offices.  It actually snapped her wedding ring in 2 and pinched her finger pretty good.  I felt terrible, but everyone was laughing and joking about it within moments aftr it happened…guess Christmas shopping just got a lot easier for Earl.
• A big thanks to all of you who are tirelessly working behind the scenes to make United, not a service, but an Experience.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart…I notice your hard work and so does God…yeah team and yeah God!

For years I was very passionate about every person getting out into the community and sharing their faith. I still beleive we all need to know how to share the Gospel in a simple and compelling way, but I’ve realized that not everyone is as bold or even as good of a communicator as I am. So one of the things I stress all the time is we must become “World Class Inviters”. That’s one of the core values we have at United. It’s still your responsibility to make sure people hear the good news, so why not you and I team up to make this happen. What that simply means is…you invite them and our team will share the gospel in a relevant and compelling way. My friend Mark Batterson put it this way today in his blog…

Last year, 80% of NCCers invited 5+ friends. I honestly feel like people who aren’t inviting friends aren’t using NCC the way it was designed to be used. We’re always trying to remind NCCers that church is a tag-team sport.When an NCCer walks into church they tag our worship team, creative team, and teaching team and say “go for it.” And we do our level best to create an experience every weekend where people can connect with God and grow in faith. When NCCers walk out, we tag them and say “now you go for it.” They have a unique network of friends they can invite to church! Then they come back and tag us and say “go for it.”

So my challenge to you is “go for it!”  What a wonderful oppotunity we have this week with the opening of a brand new facility and the launch of our “Extreme Makeover:You Edition” series.  Remember to reach our God-sized goal of 50 first time professions of faith during these 5 weeks, we will probably need at least 100-150 guests coming into our midst.  That means anywhere from 400-600 personal invites will need to be made.  Don’t say to yourself…”oh someone else will do it”…no you “go for it” and watch as God uses you to accomplish his purposes here on the earth!

If you need additional invite cards this week, contact the church office or click the “Send an E-vite” link to the left of this blog post and send invites out automatically to your family and friends.  What are you waiting on…GO FOR IT!!!