Aaron, the worship team and creative team have done a great job of making this a very memorable series.
One unexpected side benefit from yesterday’s message has been the number of people who have told me or e-mailed me about giving something else up for the 30 day challenge.
In other words, they don’t drink alochol, but they are giving up chocolate, coffee, caffine, fast food, Mt. Dew, TV, for 30 days to make sure nothing has higher precedence in their lives than Jesus.
I realized yesterday after I sent out Inside Today’s Experience’s that Easter was one year ago yesterday. This means for the second year in a row we broke our attendance record on the 4th Sunday of March.
Friday and Saturday Lisa and I travelled to Cove Valley Camp for a 2-day leadership retreat with about 40 others from the church to pray and discuss about what the next 6, 12 and 24 months may look like in the life of CFCOG.
Let me just say…buckle up tight, the adventure is just now beginning.
God has such incredible things in store for us to do…the key is staying faithful to Him and trusting in Him more than our own wisdom, the economy, the President or anything or anyone else that may tempt us to stray from the vision He has given us.
Was really disappointed to get home and watch my Terps get crushed by Memphis in the tournament. I at least thought they’d keep it close but Memphis shot the ball incredibly well.
This week should be a good one.
Sometimes when we get done on Sunday’s I think…”Oh no only 165 hours until we have to do all this again”, but right now I can’t wait for Sunday to get here…
We’ll be talking about temptation and I believe God is going to set a lot of you free in amazing ways.
As always do whatever it takes short of sin to get someone to the Experience with you.
Had tons of people say how powerful today’s Experiences were.
Really got people thinking about the role alcohol plays in their lives.
Tough message to preach though…no matter what some people weren’t going to be happy…and just in case someone was happy, you throw gluttony into the mix and everyone leaves challenged.
We set another attendance record today largely in part to the 9:15 setting thier own personal attendance record for the 3rd consecutive week.
Way to go everyone…keep inviting people…lives are truly being changed.
Can you believe our band? They killed it today with their version of Carrie Underwood’s song “Last Name”.
Gayle did a phenominal job not just singing but playing the part…and how about Aaron’s guitar solo and Brian on the banjo!
Pretty funny when you think about it…last week Brian was mixing at the turntable and this week he plays the banjo…incredible versatility!
Yes we’ve got something planned next week that your not going to want to miss…make sure you invite someone to come along.
Someone asked me after the 9:15 what is the point in which someone is considered biblically speaking drunk.
My thought is once it affects your motor skills you are drunk. Which means that if you’re getting a buzz your close to the line if not already over it.
So please if your going to drink, do it responsibly…really no reason to have more than two drinks.
However, remember that all of us are taking the 30 day challenge…No alcohol at all for 30 days.
Again just to reiterate for those who may be reading this and you haven’t listened to the message. I don’t drink…haven’t had anything in over 16 years so this message has nothing to do with me and everything to do with teaching what the Bible truly says about alcohol.
The live questions today were once again fun but still a bit nerve wracking.
Answering questions in front of hundreds of people when you have no idea what’s going to come in is full of pressure but I think has been worth it.
The questions today were…
9:15- “Are ghosts real?”
10:45- ” Can Christians get tattoo’s?”
You can listen to both of my answers at the end of the message podcast.
Also on the podcast is the band performing “Last Name”.
Someday’s when we finish I pinch myself because I can’t believe I get to be a part of something this special and do it with a bunch of awesome people.
Today was one of those days!
The only negative thing that happened today was totally my fault and is sort of funny.
They were using my laptop to run lights and at 9:15 my computer crashed during the Exerience becuase it was completely out of memory.
Seriously it was out…no more.
So Andy had to switch to another computer…which put me in the dark for a few minutes.
He told me after the 9:15 what had happened and that he was workign to clean off my hard drive.
Turns out I had over 30GB being used just in my temporary files…ooops.
Guess I’ll know better for next time.
Had lunch with Aaron…a Burn’in Love Burger from Red Robin. Wow that’s spicy!
Time for a nap and then off to visit with friends…have a great week!