Gilbert Thurston

Random Thoughts About Life, Ministry and Whatever Else Happens to be on my Mind

Random Friday Thoughts

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  • Enjoying my day off…just woke up from a nap.  :)
  • Last night’s practice for this weekend was awesome…I’m a combination of excited and nervous!
  • You’ll have to be there to see why.
  • This is about as edgy as I think we’ll ever be, but I truly believe that God has directed all of this to create an Experience that not only will you never forget, but will also get you truly re-thinking sex.
  • Speaking of excited, Andy and I got our tickets for Monday night’s Caps vs. Penguins play-off game. 
  • Alexander the Great vs. Cindy (oopps I mean Sidney) the Sissy   haha
  • Yesterday was Dianna Best, our children’s director’s, birthday.
  • The staff went out to a great liitle Italian place in downtown Chambersburg to celebrate.
  • For 44 days Dianna is a year older than me…ha!
  • In all seriousness, Dianna does an awesome job with “little people church”…please don’t forget to thank her for all she and her team does next time you see her.
  • Tonight CAYA is hanging out with a stop at Brusters in the mix.
  • If you’re in the 18-29 range stop by Brusters at 7PM to hang with them.
  • Going to try out Twitter for a week or so to see if I like it.
  • Got another busy week coming up where I’ll have to get 2 weeks worth of stuff done…definetely looking forward to vacation!
  • If you haven’t yet invited someone to United for this weekend…stop what your doing and do it now…you won’t regret it.

    • Other Weekend Thoughts…and Beyond

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  • Had a great Easter week.
  • Thursday night’s service was quite full and Aaron’s use of architectural projection on the sanctuary walls was quite impressive.
  • I had prepared the message for that evening earlier in the week and had run through it a few times but was going to have notes on stage with me.  About 1/2 hour beforehand, Aaron convinced me I should have it memorized…talk about a cram session, but I got it done with God’s help.
  • Friday I enjoyed my day off and just vegged while Lisa went to CAYA’s Good Friday service.  Heard it went very well.
  • Saturday I was up early to go in to help with the Easter Family Fun Fest.
  • The rain was a bit discouraging, but kids and their parents just kept flooding into the buidling.
  • I ended up floating around helping where needed…the football toss game will never be the same after Andy and I got a hold of it…but for the most part I hung out in my office answering the phone with “yes we’re still having the event..it’s just been moved indoors”.
  • Around 11:30am I was asked to run to the grocery store to buy 100 more hotdogs and rolls.
  • I had no longer gotten back and they asked me to go buy 200 more of each.
  • By the time it was all said and done, they had prepared for about 600 but ended up with over 1000 people altogether!
  • I got yelled at by the clerk at the grocery store for taking all of thier stock of hotdogs and rolls.
  • He kept telling me that we needed to pre-order such large amounts.  I kept explaining that we had prepared for 600 but now we needed to feed 1000, but for some reason that wasn’t computing for him.
  • As Andy said when I got back, “It’s not like you were stealing them…you still paid for them”.
  • With all those people on Saturday, I’m not sure why I’m still so shocked about the record crowds we had yesterday.
  • If I’m being really honest I thought United would have 450-470 and I was praying for 500.
  • So to have 550 was amazing.
  • The two sanctuary services combined for about 560 and the children had right about 200…amazing.
  • This week I’ll be planning a little further ahead than usual becuase I’ll be in Florida all of next week at a conference.
  • Please be praying that we can get everything done that needs to happen.
  • Also don’t forget that this Saturday at 3PM & 7PM in the multi-purpose room is a free community-wide date night where we’ll be showing the movie Fireproof.

    • Random Friday Thoughts

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    • For a supposed day off…I’m certainly doing a lot of work.  :(
    • No one’s fault but my own though.
    • Technology is both a blessing and a curse.
    • Been having a chance recently to catch-up with some old friends…nice to re-make some connections and be reminded of great memories.
    • I’m getting excited about this weekend…the topic is one you don’t hear a lot about in churches, but is something Jesus assumed that we’d all do.
    • Don’t know that it will be the most downloaded message ever, but my job is to preach the Word…what you do with it from that point is between you and God.
    • I’m also getting excited about some of our up-coming series.
    • This weekend you will find out about one that’s coming in a few months and I think you’re going to be stoked!
    • Have a feeling it will be our most popular series ever…
    • Got you wondering now don’t I…you’ll have to show up this weekend to find out what it is.
    • CAYA (our young adult ministry) is having dinner tonight at the Mill’s house.  Always great to eat some of Kim’s home-cooking and I understand that Cindy Long (of Cindy’s Sweets fame) is providing her apple pie.
    • If you want to know what food will taste like in heaven, have any of her desserts…however the apple pie is my favorite…might just have to start with that to make sure I get a piece.
    • Finished up my reading through the New Testament in 30 days at the beginning of the week. 
    • I was officially 2 days behind, but as the old saying goes, “It’s better to get the Bible all the way through you than for you to get all the way through the Bible”.
    • Now I still believe that we need to read the bible cover-to-cover (after all it’s hard to say you believe in something if you’ve never read it) but rushing through reading just for the sake of saying you’ve done it is never a good thing.
    • I’d rather you read one verse per day and apply it to your life than read a few chapters everyday and forget about it the moment you sit your bible down.
    • Speaking of reading, I’m almost done reading Tribes by Seth Godin.
    • He talks about how all great movements and organziations start with someone challenging the staus quo and saying hey there has to be a better way to do this than just the way it’s always been done.
    • Hmmm…sound like anyone you know?
    • Ok, things seem to have settled down a bit…off to enjoy my day off…the big question is what do I do…read, play a game, take a nap, run some errands…