- Hard to believe but today is our 1 year birthday as a church.
- What a year it’s been…to see for yourself here’s a recap music video we put together.
- The morning seemed earlier than normal since Chad and I spent the beginning of the week at a church conference out in Vegas and my body hasn’t adjusted back to Eastern Time…so 6:20am felt more like 3:20am…ughhh.
- The adrenaline though of a big day helped to make it better.
- Set-up went well but we had a few things happen that made for a longer than normal pre-Experience time.
- First the band had to practice an additional 4 songs that they were doing for their mini-concert and I had to create 30+ slides quickly for the comedy bit Bill was doing during the welcome time.
- We had tried it during the warm-up without slides but it fell a bit flat…but during the Experience it went well with the addition of the slides…and oh yeah the noise makers certainly helped!
- Today we had balloons and a huge birthday cake (pictured in this post) in the lobby in addition to party music.
- It was really a great atmosphere and something we’ll need to replicate in some way each week.
- One problem we’ve had is getting people from the lobby/cafe area into the Experience on time. This week at the conference I heard an idea and came home and made it happen.
- Essentially I wrote a song that encourages people to get out of the lobby and into the Experience.
- Big thanks to Matt Cassidy for helping me put the music to it and for recording it.
- Best thing is I’m told it actually worked.
- Lisa said at first people were laughing but then realized, “Oh I actually need to get moving” and they did!
- While the lobby was buzzing with energy the band was doing their mini-concert which was really cool.
- We then launched into the Experience with a cover of “Lies of the Beautiful People”.
- It was perhaps the best cover they’ve done…not an easy song yet they killed it!
- Bill followed with his 1 Year Birthday Quiz which went over well…again especially with people blowing noisemakers.
- The band then did a few of their and the crowds favorite worship songs from our first year.
- As always they did a great job…special shout-out to Gayle for coming in and playing/singing despite the fact she’s been really ill all week long.
- As I got up to speak it was great to look out to a big crowd…in fact we had our largest crowd ever!
- I knew I was in trouble though because we were already 10 minutes behind by the time I started speaking…but it all worked out.
- Today we started a new series called, “Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them”. Today’s first message was about how all of us should come with an “As Is” tag. You can listen to it here.
- The balloons from the lobby were brought in and placed on either side of the stage…113 in all…1 for every person that made a decision to become a follower of Jesus in our first year.
- One of them though got loose and went all the way to the ceiling of the theater…so when I referred to it during the Experience I said about the 112 here and the 1 up there.
- I didn’t think about it in the moment but afterwards the step-mom of JT Fox said it made perfect sense to her. Why? Because shortly after becoming a follower of Jesus at Exponential, JT passed away. Wow…only God!
- After the Experience everyone enjoyed the cupcakes provided by Cindy’s Sweets and Treats. Thanks Cindy…awesome as always!
- Afterwards it as great to talk with everyone…especially those who came in from out-of-town (some hours away) just to be with us on this special day.
- Thanks to all our leaders and apprentice leaders who serve so hard and well each week…it’s been a pleasure serving with you this past year…the best is yet to come!
- Next week we’ll continue the series by looking at Jesus plan for people to escape loneliness.
- Also as I mentioned, the greatest struggle we have right now is financially.
- If you believe in the vision of what we’re doing then please support us.
- If you attend Exponential that means a tithe…for others whatever you can give is certainly appreciated.
- In year 2 we want to live up to the Exponential name and see God do exponentially more than what we saw in year 1…thanks in advance for supporting us in that.
Inside Today’s Experience (vacation edition)
- First here is Bill’s message from today. 168-Hour Energy.
- Had a great week in Williamsburg, VA on vacation.
- Kind of weird though since the city was without power for much of the week.
- Thankfully our resort had power all week long.
- Guess you see where priorities are. :)
- Saturday we drove to WV to spend the night with our friends Bill and Nicole.
- Andy and Gayle came down as well and we celebrated Andy’s birthday.
- Really it was just an excuse to eat Gayle’s mom’s cupcakes!
- Today we went to church at New Life Christian Ministries.
- I got saved at New Life, discipled there, went on staff there and eventually became a pastor there.
- They were one of the 30+ churches that supported us as we launched 10 1/2 months ago and they have a part in the now 100 salivations that have taken place. Thanks NLCM.
- It’s been 8+ years since I left staff so there are now far more people there that I don’t know than I do.
- It’s always good though to see some familiar faces.
- Especially good to see the founding and Senior Pastor of New Life, Ken Harris.
- PK next to my wife Lisa has probably been the greatest spiritual influence in my life.
- When it comes to my love for Jesus and His Word, you can look no further than him.
- Through the years our ministry styles have greatly differed but even in that, he helped influence one of our core values which is, “It takes all types of churches to reach all types of people”.
- It was great to be back in their new facility they moved into last year and see the growth they’re experiencing even with it being a holiday weekend.
- Pastor Ken apologized when we walked in that they were doing a retro day music wise.
- However, I liked it because it meant all songs I knew so it was nice to be able to worship without having to look at the screens.
- New Life likes to worship and after 40+ minutes of music and their extended greeting time, PK began his message on persecution.
- As always it was a good message…here are a couple of quotes I wrote down in my notes.
- “People point out the wrong in you so they feel better about the wrong in themselves”.
- “It’s hard to grow a garden but it’s easy to grow weeds”. This was said in the context of it’s easy to do the wrong thing but often hard to do the right thing.
- “One of the best ways you can witness to people is to clean up your dirty mouth”.
- After this quote, PK told a story of how he recently posted a scripture on Facebook (can’t remember which one) about watching your language. He said he put it as a witness to unbelievers but had about a dozen Christians comment saying they were guilty. This doesn’t read funny but it was when he told it. Regardless, hope people take it seriously…and as I’ve said recently myself, abbreviating it Facebook is just as wrong.
- “It’s more important to win someone to Christ than it is to win an argument with them”. That’s good preaching.
- Ok now for the funny part…or at least the part I found funny.
- PK likes to preach…I mean an hour+.
- He himself used to joke that the week after vacation was the worst because he had 2 weeks of talking to get out. :)
- In any case, his outline today was 4 points. Point 3 had 4 subpoints.
- The funny thing was I preached an entire 30+ minute message on just 2 of those sub-points just a 2 weeks ago.
- I kept thinking…”Kenny you’ve got an entire series in just today’s message…save it man, save it”. :)
- Again though our styles are really different and for that I’m grateful. As the old saying goes, “If two people are exactly alike then one of them is not necessary”.
- The really funny part was in my message I actually told a story of his about how he used to get raises at work when nobody else did. Then today he tells the same story. Weird.
- In any case, the message was really practical. New Life’s motto is, “Learning Real Christianity in a Real World”.
- Persecution is definitely a real thing and PK gave some great advice on how to deal with it from a biblical perspective.
- Afterward we stuck around and talked to as many people as we could…until finally getting kicked out.
- So I got kicked out of church today…how about you?
- Wait is that persecution for being friendly? :)
- Double wait…did I just use myself and the word friendly in the same sentence? What is this world coming to?
- Ok seriously, I can’t wait to get back to work this week.
- Next Sunday for 9-11 we’ll be doing a special look at the hope that was found in the tragedy through a film called, “The Cross and the Towers”.
- Invite as many people as you can to take part in this special event unlike anything we’ve ever done.
- I’ve created a Facebook invite for you to share on your wall.
Random Friday Thoughts
- 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…