- Hit a major milestone today…100 first time professions of faith in Christ!
- Considering the average church in North America sees 1 profession every 2 years, I think we’re off to a good start! 🙂
- Each person is important…each person is a story.
- 100 down, 424,900 more to go!
- Yep that’s approximately how many people in the Harrisburg metro don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus.
- That makes me sad, but I’m thankful that ExponentialChurch.tv and other great churches in this area are all doing our part to make hell a little less crowded.
- Other than that it was a fairly typical day with 2 exceptions.
- First being the last week before school, attendance was slightly down, but I think morale even more so…just no energy today from the crowd at all…here I always thought parents were happy when their kids went back to school.
- Or at least mine were…not because of me mind you…it was my sister. 🙂
- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….ring, ring…yep that’s how long it took my sister to call after reading this.
- Haha…love you T.
- The other difference today was that I did magic in the lobby before the Experience and then again as an illustration during my message.
- Thus the picture in this post of me with Harry Blackstone Jr (forgot to have some take a pic today).
- I did this because today was week 3 of our “God at the Box Office” series and today we looked at the spiritual lessons that can be learned from the last of the Harry Potter films.
- After having performed professionally for 11 years of my life, it was almost like riding a bike when I did about 15 minutes of stuff in the lobby, despite the fact I haven’t done that long in a long, long, time.
- While it was fun to do it, I’m so thankful that God spoke to me many years ago to not just make a temporary difference with my life but to do something that will last for all of eternity.
- Literally I’ve entertained 10’s of thousands of people through the years but the man today and the 99 before him and the 300+ in Chambersburg and the 100’s before that in other churches and ministries that I’ve had the privilege to lead across the line of faith, is so much better than simply entertaining people.
- The band did a new song today that is growing on me called, “Beautiful Exchange”.
- I always walk up to the front during the last song of the set and it’s cool watching Bill lead from up close.
- Appreciate his passion and authenticity even when the crowd is dead.
- As for today’s message…I talked about spiritual warfare and the unseen battle that is constantly going on between good and evil.
- Not a topic I hit a lot but one that watching the Harry Potter movie was so obvious that I couldn’t ignore it.
- The tricky part as I said at the beginning is finding the balance between people who “see” demons everywhere and then people who don’t believe in anything supernatural.
- Chad afterward said he thought it was balanced so hopefully he was right and not just looking for a raise. 🙂
- Even though the crowd was not energetic today, there were two moments that I heard gasps.
- The first was when I said that Satan wants to R.A.P.E you. Ahh got your attention didn’t I…you’ll have to listen to find out what I mean.
- The second was when I said that the dead don’t come back to haunt us nor become our guardian angel.
- It’s amazing how many people think that grandma is watching over them or in general that people become angels.
- Ummm sorry, but as I said, “Don’t be sad, because angels are real and they’re way more powerful than what grandma ever was”.
- Next week we’ll wrap-up the series with the lessons from “Final Destination 5”.
- Can’t wait to share with you why focusing on eternal things is way more important than just merely the 50-100 years you have here on the earth.
- Thanks to all who brought in backpacks and for the money contributions that came in today as well to buy more.
- As I shared, Office Max is matching us dollar for dollar so it’s not too late to help the still 500+ kids that don’t have the needed supplies that live in Harrisburg.
- Ok, time to go…2 friends are coming in tonight from out of town for dinner and to hang out…have a great week everyone!
Inside Today’s Experience
- Another good day.
- Nothing out of the ordinary today…guess you need those occasionally.
- Set-up went smoothly although our run through went longer than normal.
- So thankful to have an awesome staff…Chad stepped up and lead the team meeting beforehand.
- From what I understand he was a little too enthusiastic that I was going to be preaching a message entitled, “Horrible Bosses”. 🙂
- Nice to see a lot of people back from vacation…I’ve been very please how we’ve been holding up attendance wise this summer.
- Had another person come to faith in Jesus today…that makes 99 since we launched 10 months ago.
- You can listen after the message (about 45 minute mark) to hear my goals for the future.
- The band introduced a new song today plus did a cover of “Uprising” by Muse.
- Here’s a link to the Youtube video of them doing it…the sound quality isn’t great but it will give you a sense of what they did.
- This was the first time that my new team covered a song that my old team in Chambersburg had also done.
- This was great chance to see where we’re at.
- On this particular song, I think Chambersburg did it better, but when I consider we’re only 10 months old as a church, my new team is 100 times further ahead than where we were 10 months into my time in Chambersburg.
- Guess what I’m getting at is I’ve been very privileged to serve alongside very gifted people in both places…truly it’s a team effort and everything I’ve been able to accomplish couldn’t have been done with out all of them.
- Thanks guys and gals!
- My message today was based of the hit summer comedy, “Horrible Bosses”.
- You wouldn’t think it, but the bible actually has a lot to say about how to be the best employee or boss we can be.
- Listen to my message here to get my take on authority, submission and obedience.
- Next week we’ll look at Harry Potter…should be exciting and very insightful as we look at the battle between good and evil.
Inside Today’s Experience
- What an awesome day!
- Had another profession of faith and then afterward we had 13 baptisms!
- The challenge as a portable church is how to do things like communion and baptism in an environment that’s not really conducive for things like that.
- For baptism it meant setting up a swimming pool out back.
- Chad, his boys and Andre set it up last night at 10:30pm and began the long process of filling it up.
- The fire department was supposed to do it but they stopped after someone complained their water made them sick. 🙂
- We were concerned whether the pool was going to collapse but it held up fine.
- As for the day itself set-up went well, nothing out of the ordinary.
- During run-through time I gave everyone instructions on how , who and when we’d start tearing down so we could get out to the baptism and have the theater ready for movies to begin.
- Glad we did that because when it came time later in the morning, everything ran like clockwork.
- For some reason energy was down today in the Experience but the band as usual did a great job leading.
- Today was the last in the Jonah series…you can listen to what I consider the shocking conclusion here.
- Amazing how we so often want forgiveness for ourselves but judgment for others.
- The plan was for the band to come forward during the prayer time and get ready to start tearing down once I started doing announcements.
- Instead they started during the prayer itself…
- Wow was that hard…
- I’m trying to lead a very Holy moment and dodging people left and right who are literally taking the floor out right from under me.
- Still God is amazing and despite everything, we still had a young lady come into a relationship with Jesus!
- By the time I was done with announcements, the only thing left to tear down was sound and projection…amazing how quickly they did everything.
- I dismissed everyone to exit out the back door and I ran off to get changed and put the closing touches on things I needed to do before exiting the theater.
- Here’s a link to photos from the baptism.
- Huge thanks to my brother-in-law Brian for traveling in from out of town to take these…also to my nephew Jordan for shooting some video…can’t wait to see what he puts together.
- Check other people’s walls on Facebook for more photos…I’ve seen them starting to be posted.
- Got to admit I got choked up a number of times during the baptisms…one of my favorite things to do in ministry.
- What an honor to be a part of such a special moment in each of these people’s lives.
- Special mention for Dylan Krull…I remember him being born and dedicated and so many other milestones in his young life…now to get to baptize him is so awesome.
- Big thanks to Bill & Meghan Butler for building changing rooms in the trailer so people didn’t have to go home wet.
- Although I was amazed how warm the water was so I didn’t mind staying wet.
- As the guys started collapsing the pool they let too much go at first and it ran down the sidewalk and right into another theater!!!
- Luckily nothing was going on in that one yet and we were able to go in and clean it up…oops.
- Other than that it was a tremendously successful day.
- Best part was I ended up leaving the theater basically at the same time I normally do!
- Next week we begin the “God at the Box Office” series by looking at the spiritual lessons from the newest Transformers movie.
- Please share our commercial for the series with as many people as possible and keep handing out the tickets.
- The commercial can be found here on YouTube or here on Facebook.
- Can’t wait…I love doing series like these!
Inside Today’s Experience (Vacation Edition)
- Big thanks to Chad for finishing up the Thrive series as Lisa and I wrapped up vacation.
- One thing we like to do at the end of vacation is get back in town and visit a local church.
- Today we chose Christian Life Assembly across the river in Camp Hill.
- I know a couple of people who attend there including the lady who does the processing for all of our mailers.
- I had been there previously during my Purpose Driven days for a technology conference and was very impressed by their team and facility.
- Again today I was really impressed…as I’ve said before and is one of our core values, “It takes all types of churches to reach all types of people”.
- With that said, I was slightly disappointed that their contemporary service wasn’t more contemporary than what it was.
- That’s not their fault…I just sort of assumed it would be and also we can blame the broad range that now falls within the terminology of “contemporary worship services”.
- Their web-site says that the 11am service is contemporary music and casual dress.
- When we got out of the car with jeans and t-shirts on, I immediately knew we were way under-dressed.
- Many were still in suits and dresses and those that came “casual” were in khakis and button down shirts.
- The worship team was in suits and skirts and most of the “contemporary songs” were from the late 90’s and early 2000’s down in multiple part harmony.
- Again nothing wrong with any of these things, I just wish there was better terminology.
- Ok with all that said, the service itself was awesome.
- It had a July 4th theme throughout and from the music, to special music to message, it was done with excellence.
- I especially enjoyed the worship pastors leading style and a cover their lead guitarist did of Jimi Hendrix’s version of the National Anthem.
- Ironically that was the most contemporary feeling thing they did even though it was the oldest song, other than “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”.
- There was sort of an awkward moment when a lady came up on stage out of the crowd, grabbed the Christian flag and walked it all the way across the stage and put it in front of the American flag. She could be heard telling the pastor, she wasn’t happy seeing the American flag get honored while the cross took a back seat.
- The Lead Pastor handled it well and was able to tie it into the intro of his message to affirm that yes if it weren’t for the cross and the power of God and the faith of our founding fathers, then our country wouldn’t be nearly as great as it is.
- I really enjoyed his message and it was a good reminder that Israel, not the USA is God’s nation. If God upon the disobedience of Israel removed His blessing and allowed them to become enslaved to others, what makes us think the same won’t happen to the US if we continue down the path we’re on.
- Overall we both really enjoyed our time there and I’d recommend them as your church home if you don’t have one or if ExponentialChurch.tv is not quite your style.
- Excited to get back to work tomorrow…yeah I know it’s a holiday, but Sunday will still come regardless so I’ve got to get stuff done.
- Next Sunday we start a brand new series looking at the life of and book of Jonah.
- Should be a great series and will include some special surprises and events including our very first baptism service on July 31st.
Inside Today’s Experience
- Really appreciative to have Chad on staff.
- We’re still in the midst of trying to get our old house in Chambersburg fixed up after our old tenants left it in bad shape.
- Lisa and I are worn out but it made it easier working so hard this weekend knowing Chad was preaching.
- It also didn’t help that I woke up at 3am this morning and had trouble falling back asleep.
- All that to say when the alarm clock went off this morning I wasn’t really motivated to get up.
- We had some new equipment arrive today to replace some stuff that had gone bad so set-up took a bit longer than normal.
- What was funny was when the band went to do their warm-up and run-through, we were not getting any sound out in the house.
- Checking…checking…checking…ummm wait nobody ever ran the cables.
- Not sure exactly how after 8 months something like that happens but it did.
- I joked with the team, “Good thing we’re working all these issues out in our preview services so that when we officially launch the church we won’t have any issues”.
- The Experience started today with our first original song called, “On the Edge”.
- Jeff wrote it in response to the iLife series.
- Awesome job by Jeff, Bill and the band working on it the last few weeks.
- It was cool watching and listening each Thursday as it took shape.
- I was excited to be able to announce our first baptism service will take place on July 31st immediately following the Experience.
- I’m hoping many will take the plunge both literally and figuratively and be obedient to Jesus command to be baptized.
- Surprised by how few father’s we have that attend.
- We still honor you anyway! 🙂
- Especially good to have my dad with us…guessing that’s the first time in 18 years that we’ve been able to worship together on Father’s Day.
- After last week’s weirdness in having the recording stop unexpectedly, it was a relief to get home today and see that everything worked well today.
- You can listen to Chad message here.
- He joked about not being good with kids, but he does an incredible job with his own 3…glad he can model that for others.
- Lots of good interaction afterward…love seeing how people are coming earlier and staying later to hang with one another.
- Speaking of, we’d love to be able to hang with as many of you as possible on July 15th at the Harrisburg Senator’s game.
- We bought a block of tickets…you can purchase them for only $7.50 each on our web-site. Hope you can make it!
- This is a great event to invite someone to that isn’t quite ready to come with you on a Sunday morning.
- It will help them see that followers of Jesus are normal people not some weirdo’s.
- Insert your own joke here ___________________.
- Came home and took not just 1 but 2 naps.
- Finishing up some stuff this afternoon and then start 2 weeks of vacation tomorrow!
- Please pray for us that it will be a relaxing time and that we get the housing situation wrapped up between now and then.
- I’ll be back preaching on Jul 10th with a new series on Jonah.
- Was able to get the majority of it written in the last few weeks…should be exciting and in week 3 we’ll have a very special surprise.