- Sorry I haven’t gotten to these the last two weeks.
- Great day today as we started my final series as the pastor of the United Worship Experience.
- Had 7 more people make 1st time professions of faith…as I said at the end of the message…”Don’t ever let that get old”.
- We started the “What’s Hot Now” series by taking a look at what spiritual meaning can be taken out of One Republic’s hit song, All the Right Moves.
- As usual the band did and awesome job with not just the worship stuff but doing a cover of this as well.
- Brian was excited because in addition to the drums we also used a drum machine to get some other cool effects.
- Great energy in both crowds today…think the 2nd Experience crowed actually was a bit rowdier than the 1st Experience crowd which is unusual…great job everyone…love that excitement.
- I had fun preaching today’s message..already getting lots of positive feedback…or maybe it’s just that I told everyone to tell me it was a great message.
- If that doesn’t make sense, you’ll have to listen for the context.
- Funniest thing that many might not have been able to see was the band dancing off stage to Imma Be which is the song in the bumper video Aaron created.
- Fun that is until Thom knocked over a light getting his groove on during the 2nd Experience. :)
- Can’t wait until next week as we do some cool things as we look at Twitter.
- Don’t forget to sign-up this week.
- Remember as long as you have an account and can text from you phone you’ll be easily able to participate.
- Just go to the Twitter account settings page and add your cell to turn on this feature.
- Ok time for a nap…have a great week.
Not Your Own
My car died this week and now Lisa’s car is in the shop for it’s annual inspection and won’t be back until tomorrow. Today Brian let me drive his car to go get lunch and then Earl offered me the use of his car for tonight once we realized Lisa’s car would be in the shop overnight. I noticed in driving both of their cars today that I’m a much better and safer driver in their vehicles. Why? Simple…they’re not mine and I want to take as good of care of them as possible. This got me thinking about scripture…
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God”. Hhmmmm these verses are saying that in the same way I don’t own Earl’s car and I’m trying to take good care of it, our bodies are not our own either. So the question is how are you doing taking care of God’s possession (your body) that He entrusted you with?
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Just now getting home after a full day of church and family activities.
- Amazed by today’s Experiences…so awesome.
- Won’t have the final count until tomorrow but we know of at least 12 people who made decisions to follow Jesus today!
- Makes all the hard work and spiritual warfare I mentioned earlier this week worth it!
- Big props to the entire team for working nearly around the clock to make all the elements today so successful.
- Special thanks to Brian and Thom for the two huge 20 foot truss crosses.
- Leave it to United…if we’re going to have crosses they will be big and they will have all kinds of cool things they do.
- Basically loved everything about today…
- Brian had an idea to do a live countdown with video and light show and it definitely had the crowd pumped more so than the normal countdowns.
- Thought the roof was going to blow off the place during the first two songs at the 9:45 Experience. Man you guys were loud and rowdy…just the way we like it. :)
- Good laugh playing the Here Comes Peter Cottontail song during the fill out connection card time…hilarious.
- Loved the Desperate People song…it started the whole tear down the walls theme if you were listening to the lyrics carefully.
- The Slam Poet definitely kicked things into another gear. Jesse Fisher is the guy who did it and he is amazing. I included it on the beginning of the message recording if you’re interested in hearing him do his thing.
- About 6 weeks ago as the guys pitched me the idea of doing a series called Absolution, all I could think of was someone going into a confessional booth and the wall that separates them. This led to me having the idea to make Easter all about walls.
- A few weeks back as I was ready to write the message, the idea then came to put a wall on stage that I could put graffiti on represent my sin. Then last week I had the idea to tear down the wall and then Thursday night as we were practicing it, God spoke to me that we needed a cross to be the only thing left standing.
- Brian had the idea to do the song Tear Down the Walls a few weeks back and the rest as they say is history…from what I’ve heard it was one of the most memorable and touching moments we’ve ever created.
- I know it was for me. Seeing my sins written on that wall and then getting to tear it down was very emotional. At the first Experience I couldn’t help but break down and cry. At the 2nd Experience I got more physical with the wall and took out my frustration on the wall like it was Satan himself.
- Long story short…between both Experiences, kicking, punching and tearing down a wall, has left me hands and arms scraped and cut up.
- But I don’t regret a moment up it…in the moment I didn’t feel a thing.
- As I reflected on that this afternoon, it made me think of Jesus. It was because of His great love for us that He endured the pain of the cross.
- Certainly a few cuts on my arms pale in comparison to what He endured so I’m not going to complain.
- Ok funny story. Thursday night we did a full walk through of Sunday morning like we normally do. When it came time to tear down the wall, Andrea said, “This isn’t going to be dangerous is it”? I assured her no, but then as I began to destroy it, the prototype that had been built completely feel apart, framework and all. It went toppling towards Andrea…she dodged out of the way…and it barely missed crashing into the keyboard. The guys then set out to build the mother of all walls…which they did…that frame today wasn’t going anywhere!
- Also funny is that in the first Experience as I was tearing the wall apart, I wasn’t thinking about how forceful I throwing pieces of drywall. Imagine my surprise when I turn around and there are pieces lying at the feet of people in the front rows. Oops.
- So much to say about today and so many people to thank…what an incredible day.
- Overall we had 1211 people in attendance today at all services and Experiences…so awesome to see everyone invite like crazy to make sure as many people as possible could hear the good news about Jesus.
- Hopefully later this week I can post some other stuff about today, but for now I’m whupped and ready for some sleep. Thanks again for celebrating Easter with us…have a great week!
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Honestly I wasn’t all that excited about today until I actually got in.
- As a part of the transition, I’m coming in a little later than normal which is nice…I like…no I love sleep!
- Brian and the team are doing a great job…I’m leaving you in great hands.
- Nice size crowd at the early Experience…2nd one is still down in size, although there was great energy at the 2nd today. Loved it.
- Have really enjoyed the music the last two weeks…nice selection of some older and newer stuff, along with faster and slower.
- Loved Andrea on the new song…great job!
- Had quite a few out of town guests with us today that are friends of mine.
- Had another big group from Harrisburg down checking us out and eagerly awaiting our arrival this fall.
- Had another church planter in attendance who I met in San Diego last month. He’ll be planting in Reading this fall. Great to reconnect and meet some of his friends he brought along. Including a young man from Indonesia who is in the US for a year. He couldn’t stop smiling he was so excited about everything!
- Had a couple attending who used to attend the church I pastored at in Maryland. Love them…we were in a small group together for about 2 years and they are a great couple.
- Today’s message came out alright I guess. Always amazes me that in the moment God always takes stuff and makes it better. Wasn’t really liking it until after I gave it in the first Experience.
- When I was sharing stuff with the creative team a few months ago about this series, they said I always got excited whenever I said Littlefaithers so that why we called the series that. To hear what that name means, you’ll have to listen to today’s message.
- I am looking forward to next week…will be sharing a cool story from the bible about a man who allowed worry to overcome him until God knocked some sense into him.
- Gave some tours of the building today and then took some of the Harrisburg crew out to Moe’s. Mmmmm…good.
- Time for a nap as soon as the MD game is over and then back to church tonight for the informational meeting.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- First I love that we don’t change clocks until after the Experiences.
- So nice to get a regular nights sleep.
- Except that I woke up early anyway.
- Because of some unexpected events this past week we weren’t able to do a normal run through on Thursday night so I was bit nervous that everything would be working/look right today.
- Luckily since I’m preaching a series on worry right now, it wasn’t as worried as I might have normally been. :)
- Loved all the music today…good blend of high energy stuff and passionate worship.
- Andrea and Gayle also did awesome with Scars by Allison Iraheta.
- Heard her perform it on Idol the other week and knew it would fit well.
- Love the new stage set that Brian came up with.
- Looks completely different than anything we’ve done before.
- Crowds were sparse today…hope the rain didn’t keep people away.
- Had a lot of fun sharing today’s message.
- As I said, The bible is not hard to understand”.
- Just keep reminding yourself that since God loves me more than a bird, I don’t have to worry.
- Fun singing “Don’t Worry Be Happy” with everyone.
- Forgot how bad I really sing, until I listened back to it on the recording.
- We had a breaker keep blowing during the 2nd Experience putting half the stage in the dark.
- ARRGGGGG!!!!
- Hate that stuff.
- Had a group of 6 people from Harrisburg visiting today to get a feel for what’s to come this fall when we move there.
- I have mixed emotions…sad to be leaving but excited as well to be meeting with people who will be a part of the next phase of our lives.
- If you haven’t seen it yet, we started a Facebook page for the new church which I’d love for you to join.
- Wow I’m tired…time for a nap.