- I like to think of myself as someone who depends on God’s Spirit, but today I didn’t have an option but.
- Last night just before midnight as I was looking over my notes for today’s message, I heard Lisa yell for me to come to the basement right away.
- Our bedroom is down there and unfortunately water was seeping up through the carpeting.
- We did what we could to make sure nothing was damaged and finally went to bed around 1am.
- The problem was it wasn’t to bed since our new house has two offices for us but no spare bed room.
- So I ended up on the sofa and she ended up on the love seat in my office.
- Of course I couldn’t’ sleep well for various reasons and only ended up with 2 hours sleep.
- How I ended up functioning properly is beyond me.
- How this turned out to be my favorite worship Experience since we launched 6 months ago has to do with the Holy Spirit and the awesome team that we’ve assembled.
- We were doing a lot things differently today so our warm-up time went super long, so big thanks to Chad for filling in at the last minute to lead the team meeting and prayer time. By the way their basement flooded last night as well…ughhh.
- The band as always did an awesome job leading worship.
- After the greeting time we took a brief moment to prayer for the Fox family.
- Their son JT passed away this past week at the age of 32. He was 1 of the 71 people who have made a profession of faith since we launched in October.
- Just goes to show we never know how much time we have on this earth and why evangelism is so important.
- Today was the wrap-up to our “Winning” series where we’ve been learning how to take filter pop culture through God’s Word so it helps us bridge the gap between God and the people in our culture.
- Here’s a video showing how some are applying last week’s message.
- After having looked at a popular movie and TV show the past two weeks, today we did a song that has been near the top of the rock charts for nearly 7 months now…”Waiting on the End” by Linkin Park.
- It was cool having our drummer Steve do some of the vocals…reminded me of how Phil Collins used to sing and play drums at the same time.
- I used this song as a jump off to the thing that is most valuable to God…people.
- The key thought was…”Everybody that I have ever laid my eyes on is somebody for whom Jesus died”.
- It of course helped to reinforce one of our core values at ExponentialChurch.tv….”Lost people matter to God and therefore they must matter to me”.
- I can’t describe it but I knew something special was happening even as I was sharing the message…you’ll just have to listen for yourself.
- The band came right out of my message with one of my favorite songs…”Tears of the Saints”.
- This went right into communion and then back into everyone singing along to the bridge and chorus of “Tears of the Saints”.
- I was a mess by this point and was somewhat relived when I got back on stage to see that most of the crowd was a mess as well.
- God showed up big time and spoke to our hearts about how important people are and the urgency for reaching as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
- To be honest I wasn’t sure how to transition at that point to offering so I just stood there like a deer in headlights for awhile and then had the people applaud for all that God has done and is yet to do.
- During the announcement time I then announced not only what we’re doing next week for Easter (a message called, “Marked”…which I think will be at least as powerful as today) but also our next series starting May 1st.
- It’s called iLife and as a part of the series we’re giving away 4 FREE iPads!
- We had 2500 invite cards/tickets made up that look like iPads and our people can give them away to as many people as they want.
- It was awesome seeing people walking out of the theater with huge stacks in their hands.
- After the awesome Experience today I dreaded coming home.
- Thanks to Larry and Melissa Evans for letting me borrow their shop vac.
- I vacuumed for 6 hours this afternoon…not fun but necessary.
- Hopefully now I can enjoy a relaxing evening and get some much needed sleep.
- This week I’ve got two funerals to attend (including an out of town one), I’ve got to wrap up last minute details for Easter and prepare for the following Sunday as well since I leave early next week for Florida.
- It sounds like an impossible week but as God proved today if I’ll rely on Him, He’ll give me all the strength I need.
Inside Today’s Experience
- Weird that I’ve been waking up on my own the last few weeks around 6am but today when the alarm went off at 6:15, I was dead.
- Human nature I guess.
- Was excited because Chad was preaching today so it gave me a chance to participate.
- Ok, that’s not true, I still had a bunch of stuff to do but didn’t have the pressure of preaching added on top of it.
- Last night at about 7pm the theater called and said they had scheduled a movie for 11:30am…uuuuhhhh, what?!?!
- We don’t get done until 11:10-11:15 with the Experience and then it’s usually 30-45 minutes to tear everything down and store it.
- The manager said, “Just meet in another theater”.
- Mmmm…it’s not as easy as that but luckily he was able to work things out so they bumped the start time back so we didn’t have to rush.
- However, not that they’re on their summer movie schedule, I’m supposed to call every Wednesday to see if they scheduled an early movie in our theater.
- I’m sharing all that to say…a bunch of my time this morning was looking in some of the other theaters to see about moving into one of them.
- Just about any of the others could work…the major problem is we are in one of the 3-D theaters so I understand why the theater wants as many movies in there as possible.
- Hopefully we can make it through Easter at least and then decide from there what to do.
- Other than that it was a pretty normal day.
- Chad did a great job continuing the Winning series with a message called, “Winning by Giving“.
- He used the Parable of the Talents and the new hit show, “Secret Millionaire” to show how we need to be a good steward of our money and talents.
- To help illustrate this we gave everyone who attended today a sealed envelope with instructions not to open it until Chad told them.
- During his message everyone opened them to find either $5, $10 or $20.
- Great illustration of how we all get different “talents” but yet we’re all equally accountable to God with what we do with it.
- The instructions were this…
- Use what you were given to somehow bless someone who needs it.
- Not just give it to them…but be creative in meeting needs.
- You aren’t allowed to spend the money on yourself.
- You can’t give it back to the church…you’ve got to help someone.
- Finally, be accountable with what you did by reporting it at www.WinningByGiving.com
- I got $5. Starting to brainstorm how I might use it.
- Can’t wait to read the stories of how others use it as well.
- To me the big take away was this…all of us feel some amount of pressure in what to do with the $5, $10, or $20 that ExponentialChurch.tv gave us today. However, all of us get much more from God every 2 weeks or so called a paycheck which we’re just as responsible for.
- All in all a very good day…got a chance to sneak over and see Chelsea and the kids in action as well.
- Love all 3 of my staff members…they do an awesome job!
- Next week we make a big announcement of something that’s coming up…can’t wait to share what we’re going to be doing.
- Also, next weekend we’ll be sharing communion as a part of the lead up to Easter…so far we’ve been sharing it at dinners, events and in Life Groups…first time in the Experience which should be great!
Inside Today’s Experience
- Had a great day…3 more people came into a relationship with Jesus!
- That never gets old…praying we continue to see God move in our midst.
- Nothing out of the ordinary with set-up, although Andy did install a wireless router for us in the building which allowed him to play around with controlling the sound board and in-ear monitors with an iPAD.
- He was like a little kid in a candy store.
- Great to have Chad’s mom and dad visiting with us from Illinois.
- Larry is a pastor also and is doing a great job as an interim turning around a more traditional church.
- Love seeing our various teams filling up the lobby early on Sunday mornings praying with and for each and for that day’s Experience.
- Definitely power in our prayers.
- Our theater seats 462 people and up until today we weren’t as aggressive keeping people from spreading out as what we should have been.
- Not that we didn’t try but people still were going around the barriers and ushers instructing them not to.
- Today I said that needed to stop.
- We also had people scoot more in towards the center.
- Wow what a difference!
- Makes it so much easier for me to preach and I could see a huge difference in Bill’s energy level leading worship and praying.
- I actually mention it in the message that I was so pumped up by Bill’s prayer I almost just said…”Mmmm why don’t you go ahead and preach”.
- By the way, we are going to have him preach this summer…from what I understand he won some awards as a kid for his preaching…cool, can’t wait.
- We started out today’s Experience with “Last Name” by Carrie Underwood. It was a great song to lead into today’s topic of temptation.
- As always Gayle did an awesome job.
- We used a click track to fill in some extra parts and we almost had a huge mistake at the beginning but our team kept their composure and didn’t miss a beat…literally.
- Great worship set today…the team rocked it out.
- Today’s message was based off of the movie “Hall Pass” and I gave 4 tips for handling temptation.
- I don’t recommend seeing the movie, but what we’re trying to do in the series is show how to take pop music, movies and TV, filter it through God’s Word, see how God is speaking and then use it as bridge to talk to those in our community that don’t yet know Jesus.
- I even showed a video of ways that I’m tempted and what I wish I could do about it…well everything but the end that is.
- Afterwards I had someone tell me that after last week’s Charlie Sheen interview and today’s video, maybe I should consider acting.
- Mmmm…not sure if that was a compliment that my acting is good or a complaint that my preaching is bad so I’d better do something else. :)
- Here’s the link for today’s message, Winning Over Temptation for those of you interested in listening and making that determination for yourself.
- I was so pumped up after the message, I basically preached another message after the message. It’s on the recording as well if you want to hear it.
- With all that I almost forgot to take the offering…glad Chad was doing announcements and said something.
- Mmm…let’s pretend that I did forget…here’s the link for our online giving. God wants us to sow our seed (money) into good soil (fruitful ministries).
- 71 people have begun a relationship with Jesus since we started 5 months ago…can’t think of much better soil than that so your generosity is appreciated and will be used to further the Gospel.
- Had a great afternoon…lunch at Olive Garden, sports on TV and of course my afternoon nap.
- Have a busy week ahead…hope your planning on making a difference like I am!
Inside Today’s Experience
- Before getting to today let me quickly thank Chad, Bill, Chelsea and our entire team for doing an awesome job last week while I was away.
- Someone asked me if I was nervous not being at Exponential, considering we’re only a couple of months old. My answer was no because of the incredible team we’ve assembled. While I may have a more visible role than others, I’m just one small component of the team and life goes on without me.
- Was really excited about today…we sent out 60000 mailers advertising the new series called “One” which is about marriage, dating, relationships and sex.
- The phone was blowing up all week long as people called to get more info.
- One thing we learned for the future is to be even clearer that we’re a church. I’m not saying this to brag since I designed it, but many were so impressed with the mailer that they thought it was a seminar or conference on marriage instead of a church service.
- Many called to ask how much it cost to get in. I kept saying nothing and even on the phone had a hard time convincing people that we are a church.
- The other thing that confuses people is meeting in a movie theater…I quite a few conversations about yes you can have church in a movie theater.
- Even with all that, we had tons of first time guests today and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
- Wish so many of our regulars wouldn’t have been absent because it would have been interesting to see how full the theater could have gotten.
- In any case, we had a good sized crowd.
- The day started out early this morning with ice covering everything and I almost took a spill or two getting into my car.
- Set-up went well today even with adding more lighting.
- Slowly but surely we’re starting to get the staging looking better and more like what I’d like.
- Great job by Bill in creating shadow boxes to make the LED strips look even better than they are naturally.
- The band as always did a great job leading worship and I thought they did a really good job covering “Grenade” by Bruno Mars.
- Because of going away, I didn’t have time to create the bumper for the “One” series so I had Brad Miller from my old church in Chambersburg do it for me. He did a great job…if you need video work done, he does a great job and at a reasonable price. Check out his web-site for more info.
- Man I was pumped up for today’s message called, “Finding the One“.
- Had lots of fun presenting it, including an interview with Satan on whether or not single people are losers.
- Big thanks to my former worship pastor Brian Miller (brother of Brad from above) for playing the role. Does it a little too well if you ask me. :)
- Best part of the day was that 5 more people made decisions to become followers of Jesus!
- Man that never…ever…gets old!
- If you know someone who is struggling with their love relationships, whether married or not, download today’s message for them to listen to and then do whatever you need to do to have them attend with you next week.
- Next week we’ll take a look at how God says you can improve your love relationship…if you thought this week is good…
- Now getting ready for “The Ultimate Tailgate Party”. For those that don’t know, we’re partnering with the Boys and Girls Club of Harrisburg to throw a Super Bowl Party for an estimated 200-300 kids and their families.
- We’ve got 46 people volunteering to serve! Thanks Exponential for BEING the Church in the community. That’s what it’s all about!
Inside Today’s Experience
- Pretty good day.
- Started out in the dark with all the wind and cold getting our big signs out. We have 3 of them that are called Wind Master signs.
- Ummm…today they were mastered…2 of the 3 actually sheared off it was so windy.
- Set up went pretty smoothly and we had another batch of new people serving so that’s always exciting.
- Last week my preaching bible never made it home so I spent quite a bit of time looking for it. Finally found it in the lost and found at the theater.
- Was glad to find it but it made me again realize how fortunate we are as Americans. Many people around the world would do anything for a Bible. Here, not only do I have a bible, but actually multiple ones, one of which only gets used for sermon delivery.
- Maybe we’ll do a bible collection this year as a part of our You Matter Ministry this year.
- Really proud of our entire team…from set-up to actual execution of everything that needs to be done on a Sunday, things are going great.
- That includes the band who had another great day.
- It’s weird…even though I’m not a parent, I looked forward to today’s message about raising up the next generation more so than I have any in a long time.
- I’m praying that people, especially parents, will take seriously the new goal I gave them for raising up a generation of world-changers.
- Perhaps I was also excited because I knew my little buddy, Chase Bricker was going to being helping me in the sermon.
- If you want to hear the story of how at age 3 (he’s now 6) he became a Mighty Man of God, fast forward to about the 14 minute mark in the message.
- His parent’s Galen and Jill said that he’s been so excited since he found out a couple of weeks ago that he was going to get to help with the message.
- They said this morning he was up earlier than normal and even was volunteering to have his hair done, teeth brushed, etc because he couldn’t wait to make the drive up.
- He also told his mom that she wasn’t allowed to have her morning cup of coffee because he didn’t want to be late and on the hour long drive up from Chambersburg, he kept telling his dad to pass cars so they could make sure they got there.
- The entire Bricker family were short-term missionaries with us for the first 3 months to help get us launched and Chase multiple times said that he wanted to be our drummer. I knew that would be the perfect way to end his time on stage with me…and again who knows what that may spark in him.
- Big thanks to Steve Kurtz (our drummer) for spending some time answering Chase’s questions this morning and for also giving him his very own set of drum sticks.
- Chase was told that they best way to practice was on a pillow which I’m sure Galen and Jill will appreciate.
- Chase wanted his own drum set though and thought his sister’s room would be the perfect place to set it up.
- Anyway I was pleased with the message even if I did run longer than normal.
- I hope everyone saw that investing in the lives of kids doesn’t take a seminary education or great bible knowledge.
- It’s just taking the time to speak words of encouragement and being there for them.
- So please consider doing a first serve in the ECTV Kids Ministry. Again as I said…”It’s not a baby-sitting job, but rather a chance to invest in the next generation”.
- If you’re interested in trying it for one week, email our Director of Children’s Ministry, Chelsea Miller chelsea@ExponentialChurch.tv
- Also as I mentioned one of the best ways to make sure your kids have some other people speaking into their lives is by joining a Life Group. For more info on that email our Pastor of Community and Connection, Chad Chute chad@ExponentialChurch.tv
- If you’re interested in the Parent’s Dinner we’re having, click here for more info and to register online. This is an event you’re not going to want to miss.
- The New Year is off to a great start…so many things are going on that excite me about our future.
- Check back here and on our Facebook page for other info about events you’ll want to be a part of.