- Weird day…
- For the first time since we launched, I wasn’t speaking so my energy level was a lot lower.
- Also, for the first time it rained on a Sunday so putting out signs this morning was not a lot of fun.
- Just for fun I downloaded a pedometer app for my phone to see how much I walk on a Sunday morning.
- The answer for today was 0.9 miles.
- A lot of that is on the stairs…see church planting is good for your physical health.
- Mental health…mmm not so much.
- I also took the extra time today to shoot a bunch of pictures and video so hopefully I can put together some promo videos soon.
- It’s amazing how much you can shoot and most of it’s not good at all…blurry, bad lighting, bad facial expression, etc.
- Got some good stuff though that hopefully I can use.
- I also used the opportunity to serve in and observe some areas that I normally don’t get to.
- Spent a lot of time out in the parking lot being a greeter.
- They liked me out there because they said the weather was better when I was there.
- I also got to spend time in our ECTV Kids Theater and observe Chelsea and her crew leading the kids.
- Awesome! The kids environment is a lot of fun and the kids where really into it.
- Also, got to sit in for some of Chad’s message…let me just say those theater seats are incredible…how do people stay awake during my messages?
- Chad did a great job talking about how to handle unrealistic expectations many have during the holidays.
- So great to have him and the entire Chute family be a part of ExponentialChurch.tv.
- I got a sneak peek at his message earlier this week and he said, “Oh don’t worry when I bust the picture frame with the hammer, it will only create a crack in the glass”.
- Uh…no it shattered! Great sound though and very dramatic. Sounds good on the recording as well!
- It was nice to have a break, but I can’t wait for next week’s message on how to deal with family pressures and tension.
- Since my week was different this past week, part of my time was spent re-doing the web-site.
- It still was more geared towards the launch and I wanted to start getting it switched over.
- Still need to add a section that talks about our ministries and I want to have a section that highlights stories of life-change, but I didn’t have time for all that this week.
- Also, some sections still need more content, but you’ll get the basic gist.
- In any case, check out the changes, let me know if you see any mistakes, or broken links, and make suggestions of how we can serve you and others better through the site.
- Have a great week!
Review of Preview Experience on 9/12/10
- Been awhile since I’ve been able to do an Inside Today’s Experience blog post and it shows since I’m not almost 36 hours late getting this posted.
- What a weekend…exciting and tiring all at the same time.
- My Dad and Andy traveled out to Troy, Michigan Thursday night into Friday morning, picked up a lot our equipment and then turned right around and drove home.
- Saturday morning everyone gathered at the theater at 7am to unpack and test equipment for the first time.
- We still have a lot of stuff on back order so we were improvising on some things but all in all it went well and we felt confident going into Sunday.
- Before I go further, let me throw in a couple of relevant points.
- Our team is amazing. They have been putting in dozens of hours each week and I’ve hardly heard any complaining at all. Let me say it again…they are amazing and surely God is going to reward them for all the hard work they’ve been doing.
- Other churches are just as amazing. So far over 30 churches now are helping support us in some way. I’ll do a blog post in the future to recognize them all and share some inspiring stories of what can happen when the capital “C” church truly cares about lost people and realizes we’re all on the same team. This past weekend and future weekends wouldn’t be possible without great leaders who are sacrificing time, money, equipment and people to help us.
- One example of the last point is that we went from no lights at all just 2 weeks ago, to two churches donating entire lighting rigs and others financially contributing so we could buy even more , which “just happened” to be on sale for 50% off when we went in to buy them).
- Problem was we couldn’t get everything to work together lighting wise on Saturday morning so Andy I worked at his house until 9pm in his garage and front yard setting up a fake stage.
- Oh the adventures he and I have had together over the past 17 years. Next to God and Lisa, I couldn’t ask for a better friend and partner to do ministry and life together with! And Gayle’s not so bad herself :)
- I slept like a baby and then we were all at the theaters again at 7am, but this time to do it for real.
- Everything went fairly smooth with set-up except we couldn’t get some of our signage assembled the right way and even though Andy and I had the lights working, we didn’t have time to write any light scenes so we went with a solid blue look the entire Experience.
- Not bad though…our goal was to by the end of the weekend be at about 80% efficiency and effectiveness…think we did at least that.
- In addition to our team we were joined by volunteers from 5 other churches. Thanks to everyone who came on a short-term missions trip to the deep, dark jungles of Harrisburg to help reach out.
- Again we have some bugs that needs to be worked out but I thought overall our lobby presentation and signage, our kids areas and main adult worship spaces looked amazing.
- As for the Preview itself, it’s sort of one of those catch-22’s. You want enough guests to show up so you can see if the systems we put in place work, but at the same time you don’t want so many people that with everything not being at 100% you make a negative first impression.
- So with all that said, our total attendance for the day including helpers and kids was 86 people!
- I just realized that for this Preview we actually had more people than the average church in America does (72) for one of their regular services.
- Wow God is good and the best is yet to come!
- If you’re interested in getting a taste of what happened yesterday, here is a link to a simple video I put together with some highlights of the Preview.
- In addition to the 86 people we also had some news media folks who showed up.
- Last week I did an interview with the Patriot Newspaper and they sent out one of their photographers to shoot some shots.
- I would expect the article to come out in the next week or two.
- Also ABC27 News sent a film crew out to take some footage and do an interview.
- Funny thing was we had already started the Experience when one of our team members informed me that they were there and wanted to do an interview but couldn’t wait around until the end.
- So I left during the worship set…did a quick interview and then got back just in time to deliver the message.
- The news clip has run a total of 3 different times and we’re appreciative of the nice feature they did on us. You can watch it here if you haven’t yet seen it.
- Bill and the band did an incredible job and every kid I talked to was excited about what Chelsea had to offer in the ECTV Kid’s Theater. Add in Chad running around making sure behind the scenes stuff was happening and our staff did a tremendous job…in fact I gave them all the day off so they could rest and recuperate after weeks on end of hard work. Great job guys…love partnering with you!
- We’re already getting a lot of positive feedback from the weekend and we can’t wait to do it again on September 26th…although it’s nice to have a week here to “breathe”.
- I preached about how none of us grow up wanting to be the guy who cleans port-o-pots or cleans up road kill yet many times the dreams we had for a life of significance gets shot down. The result is we get into survival mode instead of being the community and world-changers God has called us to be. When we occasionally do get a spark to do something great, is when the naysayers come out and start saying things like, “Well perhaps that will happen…I mean maybe you can do it”. These discouraging words cause us to retreat back into our safe, comfortable lives where our biggest goal is winning the rat race. So the big idea from yesterday was that “God’s promise is always bigger than my perhaps”.
- I truly believe that if Jesus could use 12 ordinary guys to change the world then He can take the people of ExponentialChurch.tv and use us to change Harrisburg and beyond.
- Partnering with other churches and ministries in the city to win it for Christ is not a very popular message as evidenced by the guy who refused to shake my hand on the way out the door.
- Here’s the sad part…I’d almost guarantee he is a part of another church and was there to check out the weird new church in town who doesn’t do things the way his church does. In other words in his mind, the right way. But instead of celebrating that more people will be in heaven one day because of our combined efforts, he instead made it very evident that he was offended. The reason this is so sad is what he doesn’t realize is that it’s attitudes like that actually push people further from Jesus.
- I post this for a reason…ExponentialChurch.tv is not doing church the right way or the only way…just a different way. We desire to be a church for people who don’t like church not just do things because “that’s the way they’ve always been done”.
- Sorry if that sounds like a bit of a rant, but as I said in yesterday’s message, “The church has been called to domination and we’ve become all about conversations about topics that really don’t matter”. Is it any wonder the church in America is on the decline and we are the laughingstock of the world as even they realize how stupid it is for Christians to argue over worship styles?
- Tearing everything down afterward went quicker than I anticipated which is a good thing because when we eventually go to two different Experience times on Sunday mornings it will force us to tear down in only 1/2 hour.
- Even though I was tired, I then went out to lunch with two future church planters who were in town to help and observe everything we were doing.
- Hopefully we showed them more good than bad.
- Great guys and they asked a lot of great questions at lunch.
- After that we hosted our good friends Bill and Nicole Mellott from West Virgina for a couple of hours at the house. They are another couple that we’ve done life deeply together with and we’re still praying that God would somehow make it possible for them to move up here as well.
- After that then we went over to Andy and Gayle’s for dinner with them and the Chute’s. Mmmm grilled chicken kabobs and I even treated myself to a Mellow Yellow which I haven’t had in years.
- It was a long day, but one that I’m extremely excited about and feel the hard work and effort of the entire team will pay-off big time as we move forward!
- Thanks for reading all this…if you’re just checking us out for the first time, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me if you have any questions. Gilbert@ExponentialChurch.tv
First Launch Team Meeting
Last night we had 26 people show up for the first official meeting as we get ready to launch ExponentialChurch.tv in just a few short months. I shared my story and then the stories of both the founders of Microsoft and the forgotten (and poor) 3rd founder of Apple. Surely if these few individuals could change our world, certainly we the founders of Exponential, with the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, can change the world as well was my premises. The key is to rely on God and take some chances.
We have 6 blocks parties and 2 preview Experiences planned, as well as some other outreach opportunities, before our October 17th launch so Chad shared how people could get involved. We then practiced how to easily share the story of Exponential with others in the community and we each set goals for how many people we’ll share the story with this up-coming week. All in all it was a great first meeting and people hung around for quite awhile afterward getting to know each other and strategizing with others in how to best accomplish their specific parts of the mission and vision.
Thanks to Jeff and Alana Case for hosting. Next week we’ll be meeting at Chad and Tammy Chute’s house. For more info or directions, shoot me an e-mail at gilbert@ExponentialChurch.tv. Below is a flier I put together with more of what’s happening:
Remove the Queen
This thought isn’t original to me but I want to share it because it’s at the heart of what ExponentialChurch.tv is going to be all about. My passion and expertise is in creating exciting, relevant, life-changing Experiences on Sunday’s. At my last church we saw hundreds make first time professions of faith in Jesus and we did it all in some pretty cool ways. People were not ashamed to invite their friends to church and we saw some pretty awesome life-change occurring.
At Exponential we will be offering just as relevant Experiences but God has also given me the vision to work just as hard “being” the church in the community Monday-Saturday as we do pulling off excellent worship Experiences. In theological circles this is argued as are you an “Attractional Church” (come and see) or are you a “Missional Church” (go and tell). I feel strongly that God is calling us to be both and so that’s one of the reasons that we hired Chad Chute. He’s as passionate about the missional side as I am about the attractional side.
However, I’m still wanting to learn to be more missional myself and the following illustration has helped me in my thinking. If you’ve ever played chess, you quickly realize that the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. Chess masters recommend to new players to remove the Queen when first learning how to play so that you don’t become overly dependent on her and so that you’ll better learn strategy with the other pieces. So how doe this apply churches and what I’ve been thinking about recently? Well imagine if a church didn’t have Sunday morning worship Services/Experiences? In other words what if we learned how to be the church without our most strategic piece? That’s what Chad’s focus will be on but I’m as equally excited about it as well. Primarily I’m excited for what this will mean for the people of Harrisburg, as we stop just “going to church” and we start “being the church”.
Don’t get me wrong, I still believe that without a strong Sunday experience the rest will suffer, but until October 17th we have no Queen. My prayer is that this summer the people of Harrisburg are already starting to feel the impact of who we are and what we’re going to be and that when Sunday morning worship Experiences get added it will just be the icing on the cake. If you’re interested in helping us “be the church”, let us know. We are looking not only for people that want to be a part of Exponential long-term but also people from other churches that want to serve as short-term missionaries for 1-10 days. E-mail either myself or Chad know and we’ll get you started.
God’s Plans Are Not Our Own
The last few months have been crazy as I knew I was leaving a great church in Chambersburg to begin ExponentialChurch.tv in Harrisburg. I was determined to finish well in Chambersburg before I left at the end of May despite the million and one things I had to do for the new church like find a meeting location, hire staff, raise funds, etc. One way I was helping at Chambersburg was by trying to find my replacement. I wasn’t in the decision making process but I was able to spend time with each candidate that came in and offer my opinion.
One such candidate was a pastor from Ohio named Chad Chute. I met privately with he and his wife Tammie for about an hour and then throughout the weekend we had other chances to talk as he was evaluating United and the church was evaluating him. I was really hoping he’d be my replacement, but for a number of legitimate reasons on both ends, it didn’t work out.
When I discovered this, I asked Earl if it was alright for me to approach him about coming on staff with me. Earl said yes and thus began a month long process of hours of phone calls, capped by spending a week together with he and Tammie in Harrisburg doing testing, assessments, interviewing, team meetings, all along with attending a 3 day church planter’s boot camp. What I’m trying to say is we grilled and tested them pretty hard. The result…
Chad, Tammie, Christopher, Michael and Caitlyn are packing up and moving to PA to be a part of the exciting things that God has planned for ExponentialChurch.tv. Chad will be heading up our Community Outreach and Life Skills portion of the vision. He has awesome experience in these things and it’s a huge relief to me to have a partner in ministry that is strong in the areas where I am weak. Please pray for Chad and his family as they transition into the area over the next few weeks and for the work he will be doing.
The lesson for us all out of this story is that God will sometimes take us to places that aren’t really the final destination He has for us in order to introduce us to people that will help us get to where He really wants us to be. So don’t be discouraged when you hear no, you may have needed to hear that no in order to get the yes He has for you.