- First things first…Happy Mother’s Day!
- Especially to my mom…I love you!
- Mom is actually in Jamaica on vacation so this is the first time I’ve not been able to talk to her on a Mother’s Day.
- So thankful that her, dad, my sister and niece have been traveling each week to be a part of ExponentialChurch.tv.
- They were all away today though along with quite a few others so we were a bit short-staffed.
- In addition, I didn’t want to have any of the moms have to miss the Experience so that meant Chad, my wife Lisa, Tania and a couple of teens were in charge of nursery and toddlers.
- When Chad’s wife, Tammie, found out she decided maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for her to be there as well.
- Thanks Tammie for all you do!
- Set-up was a bit weird today…for whatever reason, we made a couple of silly mistakes.
- One took quite awhile to figure out…we had to re-route some cables and then…
- …we realized we didn’t have the power turned on.
- Another one involved some things not getting plugged in…
- In any case, that’s why we build in plenty of margin to our morning so that we can catch these things, resolve them and still have plenty of time to relax before the actual Experience starts.
- As for the Experience itself, it was cool to be able to do some child dedications on Mother’s Day.
- Congrats to Lorraine Weaver and her twins, Shawn and Annette.
- The worship time was certainly emotional.
- The Krull family (parents, kids and grandkids) who all made the move with us to get the church started, unexpectedly lost Jan’s dad (Andy’s grandad) yesterday.
- Andy’s wife Gayle who is on the worship team did her best to hold it together as she lead “How He Loves”, but understandably was not able to.
- Thought it was a very authentic moment…as good as the team is, it’s just a good for people to see that the band is real people as well.
- Truthfully, I didn’t feel comfortable with this week’s message.
- I was gone for most of the week at our denomination’s annual regional conference, which meant my normal routine was disrupted.
- I went over the message twice as many times as usual trying to make up for it, but felt really unprepared.
- Oh me of little faith! Like always God was able to give me just the right words.
- Was it the best message ever…no…but it was what God wanted to people to hear.
- I love how even now we’re already hearing how much of a difference this series is making!
- Good news is we’ve still got 4 more weeks left in it so that means plenty more life-change!
- Don’t forget that everyone as a church this week will be reading through the book of James.
- Loved Chad’s idea of how to make our Mother’s Day gift a missional opportunity.
- Basically we gave all the ladies baby bottles filled with candy.
- Next week we’re asking them to bring the bottles back filled with coins or even cash.
- All the money will then be given to the local crisis pregnancy center to help a mom or mom’s who are at risk.
- Overall, a really good day…the momentum we tried to create from Easter and last week’s iPad give-away was sustained, mom’s were honored, babies were dedicated and most importantly God’s Word was proclaimed and transforming!
- After 3 consecutive weird weeks and lots of travel, I’m looking forward to something a bit more normal.
- Monday afternoon and night the staff will be doing some strategic planning for the remainder of 2011. Please keep us in prayer.
- Next Sunday we’ll continue the iLife series by looking at God’s app for handling money.
- If you have financial stress or know someone who does, you’re going to want to make sure you and they are with us.
Inside Today’s Experience
- Good day.
- Decent attendance considering that the first Sunday of the New Year was so close to the actual new year.
- Technically things went well today…
- Well ok, the movie music starting during my sermon was not cool, but that wasn’t our fault.
- Turns out when I edited it out of the message it was only about 50 seconds, but wow that seemed like a long time.
- Bill did a great job creating the new set for the “I Believe” in You series.
- He said that any future lettering he does though on his jig-saw will not be in a serif font. :)
- We also needed to use a borrowed projector since ours is still in repair after the Christmas Eve accident.
- Didn’t really appreciate how good our projector is until seeing another one on the screen today.
- Great to have Mike Walker visiting. Mike is the pastor of the Bowmansdale Church of God and no kidding is one of the smartest people I know.
- I got to know Mike because for 20+ years he was the guy who headed up the Commission which determines who becomes a Church of God pastor and who doesn’t in our region.
- Let’s just say I’m glad that’s over with and that Mike and I are now friends who both have an affinity for Duke’s Restaurant and don’t hesitate to eat there whenever we can.
- Man I was pumped up about today’s message. Really talked about vision and having people in your corner and being an influence in others lives.
- Great to have Dan Krull come up and share his story of influence.
- Again as Dan’s story illustrated, you never know who it is that you’re influencing so don’t give up.
- Hoping everyone will make their goal for 2011 to be able to say like Paul at the end of the year, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ”.
- Had 1 more person today pray to receive Jesus offer of forgiveness and leadership.
- Mike and I went to get the signs afterward…wow what a nice day out…and when we got back there was a cop setting next to our trailer.
- Turned out it was Aaron Hoke’s brother-in-law checking to make sure our trailer is secure.
- It is and thanks to the theater allowing us to do most of our storage inside, we don’t have to worry about the trailer storing any valuables.
- Got home to find out our furnace is not working…time to bundle up and snuggle tight with the hottie I mentioned in today’s message.
Inside Today’s Experience
- Wow…blown away by today!
- First and most importantly, 9 more people prayed to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins and be the leader of their lives!
- That’s now 17 people that have crossed the line of faith in just 2 weeks that we’ve been in existence.
- To put that in perspective, the average church in America has 1 conversion every 2 years…God is definitely moving in our midst!
- Most church plants see a decrease in attendance of 50% on week 2 because all the people that were there week 1 to wish you well are not there any longer.
- Today we only had a 30% decrease and most exciting was we only had a handful of well wishers this week which means most who were there are seriously checking us out to see if they want to be a part of what God is doing in and through ExponentialChurch.tv.
- So awesome to see and hear of people walking into the Experience very skeptical and walking out excited to be a part of a church for people who don’t like church.
- Not sure I’ve seen so many tears of excitement and joy as I’ve seen these past two weeks as people are experiencing God in new and fresh ways.
- From the logistical side of things we’re starting to get a routine for set-up but still have a long way to go.
- One thing we haven’t yet been able to do is a full run through with the band and all the tech in their place and running the various elements that make an Experience happen.
- As a result we’re making a lot of errors that we need to correct ASAP.
- However, all things considered, we’re still night and day ahead of where I’ve ever been before after only two weeks, so I just need to be patient and I’m sure we’ll be at the level of excellence that God wants from us sooner rather than later.
- One of my favorite parts of the two Previews and now 2 weeks of being up and running is the entire team meeting we have at 9am. It’s so neat to have everyone together, give some vision and direction, then pray together that God use us to make a difference.
- Today was especially meaningful because we laid hands on Dan and Jan Krull who left as soon as the Experience was over to head to Buffalo to be with Dan’s mom whom has just days to live. Thankfully she knows Jesus and soon her pain will be over. Please pray for the Krull’s as they travel and spend time with family.
- It was great having some new volunteers with us today who just last week came for the first time, but yet felt called already to be a part of helping.
- We started the Experience with Papa Roach’s song, “Kick in the Teeth”. It was meant to be a performance song but Bill accidentally had everyone stand so that was a bit awkward but it did give me a chance to explain why we use secular music as a part of the Experience.
- The band then kicked into a great worship set, capped off by Gayle’s always awesome version of “How He Loves“.
- I then preached about another spiritual Urban Legend, “You Shouldn’t Judge Other People”.
- The beginning was a lot of fun talking about the ridiculous looks that people had in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Good thing we all look normal today! :)
- I felt good about the message but if I’m being honest I hadn’t planned on asking people to make a decision for Jesus afterward…that was a total God thing in the moment and feeling like I needed to…glad I did…again 9 more people stepped across the line of faith!
- After seeing over 300 people do that very thing at my last church, you’d think it would get old but it doesn’t! Every single person is someone God loves and heaven celebrated when that which was lost was now found. Congratulations to the 9 today…looking forward to helping you grow now in that new relationship!
- If anybody is interested, let me know and I’ll email you the document we get into the hands of every person who prays to become a follower of Jesus. It’s called, “First Steps” and literally helps them know what’s their next step now that they know Jesus.
- All in all a very good day. Can’t wait to do it all over again next week. In the meantime we’ve got a busy week planned including the band playing at a dinner celebrating not only our plant but the 3 others going on in our region as well.
- Time for a nap and then who knows what this evening holds…hopefully not a whole lot.
- Have a great week…don’t forget to invite someone to hear next week’s Urban Legend…”Everything Happens for a Reason”.
Other Weekend Thoughts
