- Doing this a day later than normal.
- Not a whole lot to report from yesterday.
- Nothing too good or too bad happened.
- Which to me is a negative thing because I never want to get comfortable with a Sunday just being “average” and “we did our thing”.
- That’s where the negative side of religion can begin to creep in…doing the same things over and over without thought as to why.
- Now don’t get me wrong…we had some incredible things happen yesterday…3 more people prayed and asked for Jesus for His forgiveness and leadership in their lives!
- That alone makes for a great day!
- The only thing out of the ordinary was I did some filming in preparation for our 1 year birthday party coming up during the October 16th Experience.
- Don’t forget to mark your calendars for that. It’s going to be an incredible morning looking back at our 1st year and kicking off the “Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them” series.
- Oh wait there was one other out of the ordinary thing yesterday…the Cafe was serving soft pretzels…they looked really good.
- Had a decent sized crowd but nothing like the previous weekend…energy levels were way down as well…going to blame the weather…ughhh I hate cold weather.
- For those that might have missed it, I continued the Unveil series by sharing how we shouldn’t read God’s Word looking just for promises but rather for principles.
- You can listen to it here…many shared with me afterward that they enjoyed my opening story that further illustrates how much of an idiot I can sometimes be.
- Oh yeah…one last thing that happened…my best friends Andy and Gayle bought me a gift and gave it to me yesterday that I absolutely HATE.
- Yep you read that right…and they knew I’d hate it before they even gave it to me.
- They could have given me a satanic cat, wearing a Steelers jersey that sings country music and I’d have liked it better.
- And you know what…
- …I still love them both anyway.
- It’s great having friends that can joke with one another, know how to push each others buttons in a loving way and most of all will follow you to Harrisburg, PA to plant a church if you ask them.
- Thanks Krull family for your sacrifice…happy 1 year anniversary in Harrisburg….now I must go plot my revenge. :)
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.
Inside Today’s Experience (vacation edition)
- First, I know this is a day late, but I’m on vacation, give me a break!
- Second, I wasn’t at ExponentialChurch.tv on Sunday so I don’t have much to comment on other than from what I hear you had a good day.
- Missed everyone in Harrisburg…but with an off Sunday Lisa and I decided to visit our former church in Chambersburg.
- The day actually started out in WV after having spent the night at our friends, Bill and Nicole’s, house. Had a great time catching up with them.
- Still holding out hope that they will one day join Lisa, Andy, Gayle and myself here in Harrisburg.
- Any way, back to CFCOG…it was great seeing so many people and of course getting the “What are you doing here” questions.
- It’s funny how many people think that pastors never get to get away or are nervous to get away.
- First, Lisa and I make it a priority to vacation ever year and second, we have such a great staff and team that I wasn’t worried at all.
- I was actually surprised how many people got emotional seeing me there. It is nice to be missed, but I know that God has us right where He wants us and I know that things have continued well since I’ve been gone and God has even bigger things in store for CFCOG.
- Many years ago I realized that no one person is bigger than a church if it’s on mission.
- We decided to go to the early United Worship Experience (the two Experiences I led when I was there) but was disappointed that my replacement Kevin was also on vacation.
- Instead it was a recap of the VBS like activities that had happened over the previous week.
- Sounds like Kristy and her team had a tremendous week and 22 kids prayed to receive Jesus!
- I really liked this alternate way of doing VBS and if and when we’re ready to do something at ECTV, this style is something I’ll definitely recommend to Chelsea.
- As for the music and tech for the day, lots has changed.
- Some things I liked, others not so much but I’m glad they are still as passionate as ever to lead people in worship of Jesus!
- To file under Murphy’s Law, all 3 projection screens went dead for 3 of the 4 songs they did.
- However, Brian did a great job of reminding people that we didn’t come to worship technology but Jesus.
- The crowd seemed to know most of the songs because I could hear people singing…so that was cool that people still could sing along.
- I can hear an older person now going, “We never lost the lyrics in a hymnal”. :)
- The other surprise was getting to hear Chrissy Miller speak as a part of the sermon.
- For someone who doesn’t get an opportunity to do much public speaking, she did a phenomenal job…very poised and articulate.
- After a quick 15 minute break, we ended up going over to the sanctuary for the Encounter service.
- Other than music it was basically the same presentation as in United.
- Considering they were using the same people to do all 5 services, they did a great job of shuttling people back and forth and the appropriate times.
- I also got to thinking this means that Earl preached the same sermon (albeit abbreviated) 5 times in the span of about 2 1/2 hours.
- That’s hardcore…just one sermon is a taxing thing physically and emotionally but to do 5 that close together earns him an iron man award for the day.
- It was interesting as well seeing the same thing but in two different venues (multi-purpose room & sanctuary).
- Never realized how much more color “pops” in the sanctuary than it does in the MPR.
- Also, I’m going to have to get on Earl about starting to wear some make-up to cut down on the glisten when they have close-ups of him on IMAG.
- Bet that conversation is going to go over well. :) Earl + make-up= sign of the End of Times.
- The highlight of Encounter for me was seeing Karl lead worship.
- He is one of the coolest young guys you’d want to meet and has such a heart for Jesus. Add on top of that the incredible talent he has and it made for a very cool moment seeing him shine as Jesus shone through him.
- Afterward Kris and Jenny Shifler were kind enough to host a picnic for the old United team.
- It was great catching up with everyone, eating, joking, reminiscing and playing corn hole.
- After that we stopped by my sister and brother-in-laws house for yet another picnic.
- By the time we got there we were stuffed and wore out but we had a good time eating crabs, hanging out and again playing corn-hole.
- Sunday was a great way to wrap-up the first week of vacation…looking forward to 1 more week of relaxing and then it’s back to an all out assault on depopulating hell.
Inside Today’s Experience
- 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
- 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!