- Great ending to the Sun Stand Still series.
- God definitely moved in a lot of people’s live throughout and today was no exception.
- Got to sleep in this morning since we had 2 new guys (Justin Good and Bob Geisel) putting out signs.
- Thanks guys!
- Set-up was radically different than normal since we were missing 4 of our normal people including 3 band members.
- However, all things considered it went rather smoothly.
- The exception was I ended up being the one hanging the “sun” props.
- I actually had a dream about it last night where I fell off the ladder…woke up with my heart beating a million miles per hour.
- So I was a bit gun-shy doing it for real today…especially when I got light-headed at one point and nearly fell off for real.
- Aaron did a great job leading worship again today in Bill’s absence (and no they still haven’t had the baby).
- Also great to have Evan Reichley sitting in on drums.
- He brought his own drum stool which really looked cool…sort of Captain America(ish).
- Chad is doing an awesome job in his new role of coordinating all the people serving on Sunday’s which has taken yet another big stress off of me.
- The Experience itself started out weird with one of the lights going on and off.
- Really quickly grabbed another power strip since that appeared to be the issue but now looking at the picture for this post, I’m not sure it didn’t malfunction again.
- Weird only having a 4 man band but they did a great job.
- I think this was the worst of the messages in the series both from a content and presentation perspective but once again many people afterward were talking about how it impacted them.
- Glad God can take my efforts and use it to change lives!
- The lady I gave the $100 to came up afterward and shared her story…really cool.
- Also it was great to hear that others of you stopped her and gave her even more money!
- To hear why I gave her the money you can listen to it here.
- The main theme of the message was what to do when you start chasing your miracle but opposition starts to come.
- Again you can listen to it and all the messages in this series by clicking here.
- Next week we begin a new series called, “Family: Putting the Pieces Back Together”.
- If you’re interested in knowing how to be a better parent or you know someone that needs some help, then don’t miss this series.
- Tomorrow I’ll post a Facebook invite that you can use in addition to the invite cards we passed out today.
- If you need more invite cards, please let me know and we’ll get them to you.
- Don’t forget the difference passing out just 5 cards per week can make!
- Also don’t forget to participate in March MADness this week and bring your bookmark back with your story written out.
- Have a great week…can’t wait to start the new series with you and hear your stories of how you’re making a difference!
Inside Today’s Experience
- Another great day!
- Saw 8 more people give their lives to Jesus!
- Had a lot of new people doing “First Serves” today.
- So awesome seeing people step up and use their gifts, skills, talents and abilities to serve others.
- Great having church planters, Luke and Sabrina from Raleigh, North Carolina with us this morning observing what was happening and then having lunch with them at the Rock Bass Grill. Holy cow is that some good food.
- Also awesome having Aaron Hoke leading worship for us today.
- Aaron is normally one of our guitarists but with Bill away for a few weeks while he and Meghan welcome a new child into the world, Aaron is stepping up and did great!
- FYI, Meghan was there today along with Bill…she’s now past due by a couple of days…they’re hoping for a Leap Year baby now.
- As I told Bill, “The good thing is you only have to buy birthday presents every 4 years, the bad news is the kid will live with you for 72 years”. :)
- Not a lot else to report for the day…pretty smooth.
- I preached part 2 of the Sun Stand Still series on how to turn your pitiful prayers into powerful ones.
- Based on Facebook comments, it apparently was a good and convicting message.
- You can listen to it here as I taught on how to pray using an acrostic for the word ASK.
- Next week we’ll wrap the series up by looking at what to do when opposition comes to your new life of faith. See you then…hopefully with a friend or two.
Inside Today’s Experience (Christmas Eve Morning Edition)
- What an awesome day!
- We had 15 people make professions of faith in Jesus!
- We also broke our attendance record.
- Not bad for having our Christmas Experience on Saturday instead of Sunday.
- Honestly I had no idea going into this morning whether switching to Saturday morning was a good idea or not.
- For multiple reasons it seemed to be the right decision but I figured it would either be a hit or a complete flop.
- Thanking God this evening that He honored our efforts and that we in turn were able to honor Him through our efforts.
- Just like last year’s Christmas Eve Experience, set-up was a bit stressful because of all that we were trying to pull off.
- So thankful for the entire team. They came in at 7am this morning and we finally finished up getting ready at 9:47.
- Considering I had told everyone last week to be in their seats at 9:50, we were cutting it real close.
- Special thanks to Andy, Mike and Cris for the extra work they accomplished from the tech side. Your hard work paid off…thanks!
- As always the band…Bill, Gayle, Jeff, Mike, Steve and Aaron did a fantastic job.
- They put in a lot of work Thursday night and this morning to get ready and the results were fantastic.
- This week they were also joined for one song by Jake Sellers on drums…he did awesome for his first time with us and considering how young he is…thanks Jake!
- Here’s the opener we did called, “Let There Be“…I put together a video for it and Gayle as usual killed it!
- The other special we did was our rockin version of “O Come O Come Emmanuel“.
- And yes for the 2nd year in a row we used trash cans.
- Who says we’re not traditional? :)
- I actually had an “older” guy stop me in the lobby who was disappointed we didn’t do “The Little Drummer Boy” again.
- Funny thing is he was being serious.
- Again couldn’t be prouder of my team…from the parking lot to the “pew” our people serve with all of their hearts and with excellence!
- My message focused on how King Herod missed out on what should have been so obvious…the birth of God Himself just a few miles away.
- Of course the application was not to miss out on Jesus in the midst of the busyness of the Christmas season.
- You can listen to the entire message here.
- Or you can watch the Experience from start…to almost finish here. (Note: it is uploading as of 6:30pm. It should be live by 9-10pm).
- Unfortunately the camera battery died a few minutes before we ended.
- What you miss in the video is me leading the 15 through a prayer to receive Jesus and then everyone standing to sing along to the remainder of “It is Well”.
- Yep…that’s right the hymn…done as a hymn not Exponential style.
- A couple of brief announcements followed and then we closed with the “Party” song which you can see the band perform from last week’s Experience.
- FYI…on of the announcements I gave was the results of our Contagious Christmas Challenge…you/we gave enough that we were able to help 50 needy families have a Christmas that wouldn’t have otherwise! Way to go Exponential!
- Again it was an incredible day…what’s weird is coming home and the NFL was on anyway…feels just like a Sunday except it wasn’t.
- So glad we decided to worship and celebrate today!
- In fact…we’re going to do it again next Saturday at 10am to avoid New Years Day.
- Hope to see you then for the conclusion of the “Party” series.
- As I announced it’s called “The After Party” and will be a recap of every series we did in 2011.
- Going to be an awesome time looking back on God’s faithfulness.
Inside Today’s Experience
- Today was exactly what we had hoped it would be.
- We wanted to capture the momentum of Easter and have the week after be just as big or bigger.
- So to kick-off our iLife series we gave away 4 FREE iPads.
- It worked great…we by far had our highest attended day ever other than launch day.
- Best of all, 3 more people prayed to begin a relationship with Jesus!
- That makes 83 now in the 6 months we’ve been meeting!
- So proud of my team and all they do from parking lot to seat to help prepare people’s hearts for the preaching of God’s Word each week.
- Set-up and everything was a bit different today because Bill (our worship pastor) was away for the weekend.
- This meant everyone pitching in to do the things he normally does which of course meant longer time and a couple of “where the heck does this plug in” moments.
- Bill did though create the new stage set that has all the iLife icons…pretty cool.
- Huge thanks to Aaron Hoke for stepping up and leading the band this weekend…he did a tremendous job.
- It was also great to see JD Ridenour who came up to check out our tech stuff for help with his new job he’s taken with LifeHouse Church East in Hagerstown, MD.
- JD’s pastor (Patrick Grach) and I were both in Orlando this week and had lunch together this past Thursday. Grateful to Patrick for his encouragement and the team LifeHouse sent to us when we did our Preview Experiences back before launch.
- Speaking of Orlando…being gone all week with Chad at the Exponential Church Conference meant my normal routine was disturbed this week.
- Even though I wrote today’s message long ago, my normal routine has me working with it throughout the week so that by the time Sunday rolls around its completely a part of me.
- This week was different though and I thought it came through in my delivery…not my best effort but I think the point was still made…
- …we live on the edge so often emotionally, financially, relationally, in our schedules and we’re in danger of disaster.
- You can listen here to see what God has to say about that.
- It was weird that during my illustration where I stood up on the arms of the theater seats I actually felt really comfortable…sort of ruined my point…although I think everyone got what I was saying.
- Congrats to those who won iPads…and thanks to all those who invited so many people come out and be a part of today’s Experience.
- This week I’m away again…this time at our denomination’s annual conference.
- I’ll be speaking briefly Monday and then I’m teaching two workshops on Tuesday…please keep me in prayer.
- Also, our band has been asked to provide the music for Monday night’s activities, so keep them in prayer as well as they get off early from work, travel to the site, set-up, play, tear down then return home.
- Next Sunday we’ll continue the iLife series by looking at how to build margin into your schedule so you do and become all that God has for you!
Inside Today’s Experience
- Nothing out the ordinary today…oh unless you consider our special guest!
- That’s right…I had the opportunity for an exclusive sit down interview with Charlie Sheen.
- You can watch my interview with him here.
- We did this to help us kick off our “Winning” series.
- The series is looking at how God speaks to us through pop culture.
- Today I talked about whether or not followers of Jesus should be involved with pop music, movies and tv shows.
- The number one response I heard afterward was people thanking me for sharing my personal journey with this topic and then showing scripturally why I’m where I’m at today.
- You can listen to today’s message here.
- Here’s a link to the book I referenced…Pop Goes the Church.
- From a technical standpoint, everything went very smooth today.
- Love the attitude and hard work that our team puts in every week!
- Especially grateful today for Jeff Case and Aaron Hoke for playing through pain.
- Jeff tore rib cartilage and Aaron has a bad cold…both soldiered on though…thanks guys!
- Attendance has been down the last few weeks which quite honestly is discouraging.
- But no one said that church planting would be easy so we’re just continuing to do the things we know God is calling us to and allowing Him to determine our fruitfulness.
- Lots of other great ministry and outreach is being done throughout the week so we’re keeping our heads up and kicking the devils butt anyway!
- It was awesome having our friends Chris and Amanda Short visiting today from out of town.
- We did the Japanese buffet with them afterward along with the Krull’s…mmmm sushi!!!
- Tonight I’m traveling down to Chambersburg to my old church for a special worship concert they’re doing. It’ll be great to catch up with even more friends.
- Next week we’ll continue the “Winning” series by looking at how to overcome temptation. The cultural jumping off point will be the movie “Hall Pass”.
- Have a great week…don’t forget to invite someone to come along with you…Easter is coming soon and it would be great to get our momentum back before then.