- Not the best of days but anytime you’ve got people giving their lives to Jesus, there’s not much you can complain about.
- We had a brief power outage this morning during set-up time which delayed things a bit and then we had a cable connector go bad on my mic which meant Andy had to do some early morning solidering work.
- We had two of our teens running projection and lights today and both did a great job. Well done Ben and Dustin!
- As always the worship team did an excellent job…both crowds seemed to really be into the music today!
- I re-did the message on Monday, which I’m glad I did…still not one of my best but I think the point was clear…don’t be just a consumer, become a contributor.
- I’m glad this series is over…not because I didn’t like it, but because I’m really excited about the Maverick series which starts next week.
- I got to see a little bit of the stage design changeover that the team was doing this afternoon and it’s going to be awesome!
- During the 1st Experience announcement time I kept getting tongue tied. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to say, “the dictionary definition” or the “definition in the dictionary says”. My mind couldn’t figure it out so I kept saying, “the defionary”.
- The more I tried to get it right the harder it got…finally I just gave up.
- I met a great couple after the first Experience, who just moved here from Hawaii, who get what we’re all about.
- They loved United and realized it’s not about making them happy but reaching out to those who are far from God.
- I attribute this great attitude to their former pastor when they lived in Virginia Beach.
- He’s a friend of mine by the name of Vince Antonucci. Vince is passionate about reaching out to his community and just took a big step of faith by leaving his church to start a brand new one on the Las Vegas Strip.
- Thanks Vince for such an awesome job of teaching and modeling for people that it’s not about what we want, but it’s all about sharing the good news of Jesus with others.
- Speaking of…make sure you invite lots of people for the new Maverick series…I think people will be surprised by the fresh look at Jesus we’ll be taking.
- Be there…be there early…and don’t forget to sit up front!
- I’ll be posting the final Reality Check video later in the week…great job by Brian and Aaron in making these happen!
- Ok time for a quick nap before heading back over to the church for our annual congregational meeting…come on out to hear the exciting things we have in store for 2010!
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Mixed emotions about today.
- It was a fun and impactful weekend, but with the holiday, attendance was way down.
- Pretty hard to get pumped up, especially during the second Experience.
- However, still got to keep the perspective of even on our “off” weeks, God is still doing something amazing amongst us so we an never take that for granted.
- After being away last week, it was nice to be back preaching again.
- I’m so excited about what God is going to do in people’s lives…can’t wait for next week!
- Love the stage set Brian designed for the series…very clever!
- I just realized that for the first time in weeks, I didn’t have to wear a costume to church!
- While REWIND was fun, glad to be back to “normal”.
- Although I have been having some difficulty with my mic (thanks Brian 🙂 and Andy between Experiences decided to tape it to my head…I’m sure pictures of that will show up eventually online.
- I bit the inside of my lip pretty hard between Experiences as well…ouch that hurt.
- I liked the new song the team introduced today…and the way they introduced it, with Brian teaching you guys what to do.
- We came up with the idea this morning during warm-ups. Wish you could have seen that. Brian and Gayle were like Abbott and Costello doing “Who’s on First”…hilarious.
- The special music song “Unveil” was weird…at the end of it at the first Experience the crowd roared…at the second they sat there in complete silence.
- In any case, it’s a great theme song for the series and we’ll give you chances to sing along in future weeks.
- I felt good about the message…think if we’ll all apply the tips I’ll be sharing, we’ll all hear clearly from God about what His will for our lives is.
- Can you tell I’m writing this after a long nap…I’m all over the place.
- Time to go…dinner with friends!
Inside Today’s Experiences
- From the outside looking in, today looked pretty good, but behind the scenes, it was a rough day.
- Pretty fitting though considering that I was preaching about how to go through tough times and grow from it. 🙂
- Despite a lot of technical difficulties, it was still a fun day.
- I’m sort of sad that we’re done with the medley’s…they were all a lot of fun!
- Don’t know how many people picked up on the Milli Vanilli lip synching gag…oh well at least we amused ourselves.
- Brian and Adam’s dancing was about as good as mine….haha!
- I thought then that the whole team really pulled it together for Loser.
- Brian did a great job of remembering an incredibly confusing song, Adam played the slide on the guitar to perfection and Andy gave Brian some neat effects for the rapping portions.
- At the 9:45 I was really flustered by everything that had happened in the morning and then my mic was causing some weird feedback which never happens.
- I was disappointed, but I’ve had quite a few people tell me that the message really spoke to them.
- At 11:15 then I was able to bring it with a bit more passion.
- I was sharing with a few people that if we ever do a series like this again, I’m scheduling it for the winter…
- All these wigs and costumes I’ve been wearing are very hot…nothing like wearing flannel today when it’s hot and humid out.
- Had some guests tell me that a greeter at the door asked them if they wanted the “smokey and wild” service or the normal one.
- Interestingly enough with a description like that, they still chose to come to United.
- I forgot to mention at the 11:15 that if you’re interested in helping with set-up or tear-down, we could really use your help. Either put it on a Connection Card or e-mail Tony at thediehls@comcast.net
- I’m excited about this up-coming week for two reasons…
- First, Lisa and I will be on vacation in Florida!
- Second, Josh Schlotterbeck is going to finish out the Rewind series by looking at the song Criminal.
- Josh is an awesome young man of God and I promise you’ll not want to miss out on what God wants to speak to you through him.
- This is going to be big-time salvation message, so if you have friends, neighbors, co-workers or relatives that don’t yet have a relationship with Christ, do whatever it takes to make sure they show up next week.
- The following week then I’ll be back with the start to a new series called, Unveil: Revealing God’s Will For My Life.
- That’s a question everyone wants to know so I’m excited to share with you how to discover God’s will.
- Again there are plenty of invite cards in the back, so invite, invite, invite!
- Since I’ll be on vacation, I probably won’t post much, but check back periodically for vacation up-dates.
Dress Code: Please Do
Note: The Chambersburg Public Opinion is doing an article on how people dress for church. They are interviewing Earl this morning and he asked me to write up something with some of my thoughts. Don’t know if any of this will get used or not, but thought I’d pass along for you to get my 2 cents on the subject.
I always tell people that how they dress is greatly dependent on their primary view of Jesus. If your primary view is that of ruler, King, authority figure, etc., then when you go to his house, you will probably get all dressed up. If however your primary view of Jesus is that of being your best friend, then you’ll probably dress more casual.
For me personally there are two aspects to it…one is personal and the other is professional. From a personal standpoint, if I were to visit with our governor or President I would get dressed up. The reason for that is to be respectful, but mostly I’m doing it for them because that’s what they would expect and possibly require and in some ways I’d be doing it trying to impress. On the other hand, if I go to my best friend Andy or Bill’s house in a suit, they are going to laugh at me. To them it’s not about what I look like, but rather what’s going on inside of me that counts. So for me personally, I don’t get dressed up for church because I choose to see Jesus as my best friend. It was Jesus Himself in Matthew 23 who condemned the “religious leaders” of His day for looking good on the outside, but on the inside being dead. I guess my point is Jesus couldn’t care less what you look like on the outside, it’s what’s going on inside you that He’s most concerned about.
Now from a professional stand point, we have a little joke in United that our dress code is, “Please Do”. One objection that un-churched people often have is, “I don’t have anything to wear so I can’t come to church”. I’ve had quite a few stories from people who said they were able to share, “Well our pastor usually wears jeans and a t-shirt to preach in so as long as you have something like that, you’ll fit right in”. In the same way I’ve had new people tell me how comfortable it made them feel and how much more relatable I was because of the casual environment. The apostle Paul said, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some”. So for me if dressing casually will help remove barriers that might be keeping people from coming into a relationship with Jesus then I’m all for it.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- I did a magic show last night for the kids at church so all the tech stuff was still set-up this morning…so it was an easy morning.
- Nothing out of the ordinary to report…not the best day but not the worst either.
- The band had a lot of fun doing Fall Out Boys, “I Don’t Care”.
- I loved being backstage during both Experiences and hearing the crowd singing “Desert Song”…so cool just to hear all those voices singing to God.
- I’m hoping people are being inspired through this series to take God’s Word more seriously…I know I for one was changed by some of the research I came up with about the history of the Bible.
- It was great having a bunch of teens on the stage at the end of each Experience to pray for them before their big work serving the community this week.
- It was even better keeping the on the stage for the final song.
- You could tell some of them were so excited to be on the stage with all the lights and everything.
- We’ll have to figure out a way to get them back up again to help out some time.
- Andy was picking on me about my shirt, saying it looked country, so he made me a huge belt buckle that he wanted me to wear during the second Experience…yeah right.
- Don’t forget to read Psalm 119 this week…
- …also don’t forget about the class I’m offering on July 25th from 9am-11am where I’ll teach you how to study the bible.
- If you haven’t already signed up, e-mail me at gilbert@unitedworshipexperience.org.
- Nap time now followed by dinner with friends!