David Evans Archives - Gilbert Thurston

Talked with Brian earlier and heard you guys had great Experiences today.

Sounds like everyone reallly enjoyed Craig’s message.

Lisa and I on our way from Atlantic City to the Pocono’s attended Bethany Baptist Church.

They are the 40th fastest growing church in the US and are lead by Bishop David Evans.

His service is seen on TBN from 10-10:30 on Sunday mornings.

No you can’t skip United to watch some week…that’s what they made DVR’s for.

This is a predominately African-American church and one thing I was afraid of was that we wouldn’t be dressy enough.

Sure enough as we pull in, everyone is dressed to the hilt…except for a few people…so we ventured in.

One of the first things we noticed was that all of the ushers were dressed in white tuxedo’s with white gloves.

Wish I could say they were friendly but they weren’t.

You sat where they told you…no exceptions.

Even people that came in late…and by the way…this was a 2 hour and 15 minute service, were squeezed into a pew with others.

You absolutely were not allowed into a closed off section until every pew was full.

I went and checked out their video production studio and met the lady who was running the production for the day.

She and the rest of the TV crew are all paid outsiders.

The service started with the MC leading 5 minutes of clappping….seriously that’s all there was.

Something I found interesting was that there were ZERO songs in which the congregation was asked to sing.

In other words…you sat and watched the entire time.

Now don’t get me wrong…the congregation, which was typical of an African American congregation talked back to the people on the platofrm ALL the TIME.

I like that…wish you guys responded more during the music and message.

After a few songs there was a presentation of kids who are going off to college.

Something I liked was they have a full-time staff person who does nothing but work with kids in the church to help direct them to college.

After another song or two…came the video announcements.

I love video announcements…you can say so much more with them and in a shorter amount of time.

Problem was they had about 7 minutes worth AND THEN…came another 10 minutes of verbal announcements.

This was followed by a skit which was pretty funny except that the sound crew really botched the mircophones.

There were at least 7-10 actors and they had no clue who was on what mic.

Makes me so glad for two things at United…Number 1 that I’m such a sticklier for excellence and number two that we have a team that has caught that vision and week in and week out fulfills one of our core values…”Excellence Honors God and Inspires People”.

Another song and then…

The message.

I enjoyed David’s message on how our assignment is to leave a legacy for the next generation.

A few of my favorite lines:

“You had no trouble asking people to follow you when you weren’t a Christian but now that you are, you’re ashamed and are afraid to talk about Jesus”.
“Don’t try to have the biggest and best house YOU can…make sure that you’re children’s HOUSES are bigger and better than your own”.
“You should work because it’s what God created you to do, not because you need the money”.

The end of the message featured another thing typical in an African American church…the organ player playing a little diddy after every phrase that is spoken.

This of course got the crowd into a frenzy and about a dozen people gave their lives to Jesus at the end.

Hmmmm….what else…oh yeah…they took 3 offerings. Missions…Building…and the normal tithes and offerings.

All in all it was an interesting experience.