For those of you who may not know…each Sunday afternoon/evening I give some behind the scenes thoughts on that day’s worship Experience.  It’s a chance to look back on the highs and lows of the day from my perspective and hopefully gives people some insight into what it takes to pull off a typical Sunday morning.  With that said…here’s the first official one for ExponentialChurch.tv

• What a great day!
• 8 people during today’s Experience stepped across the line of faith and asked Jesus for His forgiveness and leadership in their lives!
• The moment people started responding to the Gospel I remembered clearly why we worked so hard this summer getting ready for this day.
• Ok, now that you know the end of the story…let’s start back at the beginning of the day.
• I’m not a morning person so a 6am start is not much fun…after a quick shower I was out the door into what was still a cold, dark night.
• Mike Sellers and I met at the trailer to get our directional signage and headed out to start setting it up all along Valley Road.  I said to Mike, “Could you have imagined just a few months ago when we met for the first time at lunch that you’d be a part of something like this”?  We both said it’s been quite a summer and couldn’t wait to see what God was about to do.  Mike is just one of many people I didn’t know until the last few months, who have stepped up in major ways to help make today a reality.  It’s these types of people that are the real hero’s of the Christian faith.  Ordinary people, who volunteer countless hours at churches all over the world to make an extraordinary difference.
• As we were pulling back in, I heard a van full of people beeping at us.  As I looked I realized it was a group of people from my old church.  But who could it be?  Imagine my surprise when I found out it was the entire band and tech team from the United Worship Experience which is the group I used to lead.  11 of them drove an hour up the road to pray with us, only to then turn right around and drive an hour back to lead 2 worship Experiences of their own this morning.  I was crying then and I’m crying again now just thinking about it.  I love that team and it was so hard to leave them, but I know we’re all doing what God has called us to do.  Great to know how much they still love and support me.  Special thanks to Brian for your leadership…God has great plans for you my friend…keep serving and leading!
• Ok now it was on to the hard work of set-up…but here’s the thing…I already have a great team here as well!  By the time I was done with the group from United and walked around…much was already set-up.
• As compared with yesterday morning when we went into the theaters for another run-through, everything today with the exception of one thing set-up smoothly.
• At 9 I pulled everyone together in the Cafe for a final team meeting to remind everyone of our vision for the day.  So cool to see everyone sitting there and realizing how God can use us to make a difference for Him.
• One of the first guests to walk through the door was an older lady who spotted me and came up excitedly to introduce herself.  She said she had read about us in the newspaper and that although she is 70 years old she was there to “rock like a young person”.
• Obviously one of the fears you have in starting a new endeavor like this is, “Is anybody actually going to show up?”  So it felt great to see people coming streaming through the doors.  Some were there as well wishers but many were there because they had heard about us through one of the many ways we got the word out.
• Our “Exponential”, God-sized goal was to see 400 people on launch day.  We didn’t meet that…only had about half that number but it was a great start and again the most important number to me is the 8 people who woke up this morning hell-bound but now have begun a relationship with Jesus!
• CBS21 came and did a feature about us which I just watched in the 6PM edition.  I’ll try to get a link or post it sometime soon.  The funniest part is my wife Lisa in the background walking through, not realizing she’s on camera…then realizing she is…and having a look on her face of “OOOOOOOO”.  UPDATE:  Here’s the transcript…video to come later.  UPDATE:  Here’s the video.
• Once the actual Experience started, we had some minor glitches that are very fixable, but for the most part things went smoothly considering everything that can go wrong when you’re as technology dependent as we are.
• Could tell the worship team was a bit nervous but that will ease as they get used to the environment and all the emotions of launch day are behind.
• With that said though, they still did an amazing job…and from my vantage point, many people were really into the music.  Great job by Bill and the team.
• One thing that I know caught people by surprise was that we covered Maroon 5’s new hit song, “Misery” right before the message.  The reason we do things like this is simple. Studies have shown that music is one of the top influencers on how people think, act and feel.   Our goal is to take popular music which people are listening to anyway and put a new association in people’s minds.  In the case of Misery, instead of people just listening to it and thinking, “Oh this is a good song”, we want them to associate the lyrics which are about unforgiveness back to today’s message which was about forgiveness.  In other words, we want people to now when they hear that song think about what they heard today and hopefully apply it to their lives.  This is no different than what the Apostle Paul did in Acts 17 when he quoted two different popular poets of his day.  Instead of ignoring pop culture or trying to fight the people involved in it, he instead chooses to redeem it.  That’s what we attempt to do.  Now to be honest I forgot a small portion of the message that would have tied the song in stronger to the message so that’s why I included a bit of it later in the call for commitment…hopefully though this helps further clarify one of our core values which is, “To be culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure”.
• For the most part I was pleased with the message and felt like God’s Word was clearly presented.  Afterward I had a few conversations with people that were pleased that in such a contemporary Experience, God’s Word wasn’t watered down and a clear explanation of our sinfulness and need for forgiveness was presented without downplaying not just our need for forgiveness but also the necessity of repentance.
• Again I heard that what Chelsea is doing in children’s ministry is awesome…wish I were a kid!
• Awesome to see and hear so many people pumped up afterward and can’t wait to do it all again next week!