Gil Thurston Archives - Gilbert Thurston

Annual Things I’m Thankful For (2015 Edition)

November 26, 2015 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Don’t do as much blogging as I used to but every year since 2007, I have done this list of things I’m thankful for so not stopping now!

1. Jesus– Surprise, Surprise…the now 9 time champion! What else can I say but that He is everything to me and I’m continually amazed that not only has He forgiven me but He uses me to accomplish His will here on the earth sometimes in the most unusual ways. I don’t deserve anything from Him yet He keeps blessing me. I know some of you reading this think that Christianity is restrictive, but it’s actually the opposite…the freedom to know you’re exactly where God wants you to be is such an awesome feeling and it’s something only Jesus can provide. I liken it to traffic laws…they aren’t there to restrict you but to keep you safe. Because of them you have more freedom not less because there is order to things. God and His Word are the same way. The more you get to know Him the more you realize He always has your best intentions at heart whenever He says to do something or not to do it.

2. Lisa– This year we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary and I know it sounds like a cliche but our marriage just keeps getting better and better! Words can’t even begin to describe how awesome she is and everyday I thank God that I won the wife lottery because I definitely don’t deserve her. Can’t wait to see what the next 20 years brings!

3. My Health– As many of you know I contracted some sort of bacteria/virus this summer while in Costa Rica which had me basically lying in bed extremely sick for a month. So I’m thankful I have my health back but I’m even more appreciative of those that have chronic illness, etc. I only had a month of illness and the mental side was as bad as the physical side. So for those of you who suffer all the time, I can somewhat empathize and want you to know I’m praying for you. Everyday now even with my minor aches and pains of getting older, I realize what a gift my somewhat normal health is.

4. New Building– Last year at Thanksgiving we thought it was just a matter of time until we closed on our new church building. Little did we know that it would take an entire year to finally close…which we did 17 days ago! The Church is people not a building but a building will definitely help. Can’t wait to see how God is going to use this new tool on our tool belt.

5. The People of ExponentialChurch.tv– Our church celebrated it’s 5th birthday this year and through those years literally hundreds of people have walked through the doors and been a part. Some were there just a week, some months, others for years. Each and everyone is loved and appreciated but I’m especially thankful for those we have right now. They have stuck through the good and the bad times and are currently a part of God being on the move in our midst. Their generosity of time and money is inspiring and I can’t wait to see what the next 5 years will bring as we continue to communicate through our words and actions that You Matter to God and You Matter to me.

6. My Mom and Dad– They are a part of #5 above…which is kind of funny. When I pastored a church 20 minutes from their home, they would show up 1-2 times per year. The when I pastored a church 30 minutes from their home, they started showing up 3-4 times per year. Now that I’m an hour plus away, they show up every week! What an honor to be able to be your parent’s pastor. But even more so, what dedication on their part to come up not just on Sunday’s but sometimes multiple times during the week to serve the people of Harrisburg in various ways. I’m so thankful that we get to work side by side in the most important task in the world…showing other people the love of Jesus.

7. Family on Both Sides– Lisa and I are fortunate to have relatives that we actually really like. I can’t think of a single relative that we ever dread having to be around. While we don’t get to see everyone as much as what we’d always like, things like Facebook help to keep tabs on everyone and stay invested in some way in their lives. I love the times we are able to get together and the fun we have!

8. DrewPeacoq8– In the real world better known as John Gonzalez. 3+ years ago John was the first of my 3 poker coaches that I hired. Immediately we hit it off and as the years have progressed he has gone from coach to friend to as of a few weeks ago a brother in Christ. Almost daily, whether it be phone, text, chat, email etc we are in communication with one another and increasingly it’s less and less about the game we both love and about life and living life to it’s fullest. He truly has become one of my best friends…in fact, Lisa and I are leaving tonight after family stuff to head to North Carolina to spend a few days with John and Brandy. Can’t wait to hang!

9. Poker in General– It’s amazing all the ways a card game has impacted my life. First, I still find it extremely relaxing as a way to unwind after a day of church stuff. Second, it has allowed me to expand my ministry reach. Whether it’s helping local players through various personal issues or the opportunities I’m getting nationally and globally to share the good news of Jesus, it’s so cool to be able to make an impact for the Kingdom of God in an area that so desperately needs it but yet many Christians would steer clear of. Third is from a financial stand point. This year especially I have been crushing tournaments which has allowed us to not have to depend on Lisa for any income, which in turn is allowing her to pursue some of her own dreams and goals. Last, it is an avenue to keep my naturally competitive juices flowing. Not only from tourney to tourney, but also each week when the new global rankings come out it’s fun to see how I stack up. As of this week, I’m the #1 online player in PA, #16 in the United States and #1110 in the world.

10. You– If you’ve read all the way through this then chances are you’re someone close to me and I just want to say thank you for your love, encouragement, friendship and support. No matter what area of life I know you from, my life is better because you’re in it…here’s to many more years of doing life together! Happy Thanksgiving!

Inside Today’s Experience

December 11, 2011 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Great day!
Had to start the morning out scrapping the ice of the windshield and wearing my beanie…definitely the coldest Sunday morning we’ve had so far this “winter”.
Had to use the quotes because I know some of you would correct me and say it’s not yet winter…ok but did you really expect me to say it was the crispest fall morning so far. Yeah right.
Oh wait I did just say it…
OK here’s the deal…it was cold this morning.
Anytime we start a new series it’s always an adventure since we have no way to have tested the new stage design up until that time.
With this one Bill built 4 “candy cane” looking contraptions with multiple color Christmas lights strung between them.
What’s cool is we can control each color independently…which is harder than it sounds.
In fact it required 8 extra extension cords since you can’t put them into a power strip and then to the lighting control…each one needs to run separate.
All that to say…we had to send Gayle out on an extension cord run since we were short a few.
Amazingly we were short even with taking 6 of our normal lights out of the equation altogether.
We’ll add them in over the coming weeks.
So set-up and practice were longer than normal this morning.
Another factor was that Steve our drummer missed practice on Thursday night…something about getting engaged or something. 🙂
Congrats Steve & Kelsey!
In any case, the band did a great job pulling it altogether.
However, the crowed energy was down today…not sure why.
Again using a however…on this day last year we had one of our worst days we’ve ever had…so today was light years better.
Chad did a great job preaching the first message in the Party series.
His message was about getting an invitation and not being left out.
You can listen to it here.
Since he preached that allowed me a chance to walk around a see some other things I normally don’t get to.
I twice stopped by and watched Chelsea and the kids in the theater next door.
Awesome to see them worshiping, having fun and learning about Jesus.
Also spent some time in the nursery/toddler area where one of our normal toddlers was crying hysterically.
I tried picking her up and holding her but to no avail.
So I put her down and quietly slipped away before anyone noticed I had left. 🙂
It’s always good to have days like today where I can walk around evaluating things without the “pressure” of knowing I have to preach.
Got some things we need to work on but for the most part we’re light years ahead of where I thought we’d be at this point in our now slightly over 1 year of existence.
God has and is so good to us!
Lisa has been out-of-town all week-long so afterward my mom, dad, sister and I went to lunch together.
To the best of our recollection it was the first time in about 20 years since it was just the 4 of us together to eat.
Not sure why but I took a longer nap this afternoon than a typical Sunday.
That shouldn’t have been…I didn’t really do anything today.
Lisa flies back tomorrow…can’t wait to see her!
Next week we’ll continue the Party series with a message I’m doing called, “Bust a Move”.
Once you’re at the party, it does you no good to stand against the wall…time to get out on the dance floor.
What’s that have to do with the Bible and your life?
You’ll have to join us to find out.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for Saturday, December 24 & 31 at 10am which will take the place of our normal Sunday morning Worship Experiences.

Thanksgiving 2011

November 24, 2011 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Hard to believe but this is now my 5th year doing these posts ( 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). As always here are the things I’m thankful for in this past year.

Jesus- Well who else did you expect at #1? As every year passes, I realize more and more how ugly, sinful and broken I am inside. Yet Jesus loved me enough not to just be my friend, but to die for me so that my relationship to Him could be even greater. I don’t deserve a love like that and so my only acceptable response is to offer a life of sacrifice back to Him.
Lisa- Again who were you expecting? Before each of my bi-monthly calls with my church planting coach (thankful for Vince’s friendship as well), I have to fill out a form reporting on various areas of my life and ministry. One of the questions is, “How is your marriage”? Recently during a time when I was feeling a bit down and depressed, I wrote for this question, “No matter what else is going on, this is the one area that I can count on to be great”. Trust me, Lisa has far more to do with that than I do. Every year I can’t imagine our marriage getting any better but yet it does…wow I’m such a lucky man that God gave me such a Godly wife. Her passion, hunger for growth and servant spirit are truly an inspiration to me.
My immediate family- I’ve seen my mom, dad, sister and niece as much in the past year as I probably did in the 10 years prior to that. The irony is I had to move further away from them for it to happen. Regardless, one of the highlights of my week is knowing that I’ll get to see them on Sunday mornings. I’ll see them again today and tomorrow and I’m sure there will be times that we pick-on each other but underneath it all is a love and a bond with and for one another that can not be broken no matter how many miles the highway may now separate us.
My cousins- This year has also given me a few times to reconnect with my cousins that I grew up with. Life and circumstances have kept us a part for many years but I’m looking forward to hopefully more opportunities to hang-out and reconnect.
My long-term friends- Andy, Gayle, Bill and Nicole. It’s been an interesting year and not at all how I had envisioned it but yet these 4 at multiple times and in many ways continue to be there for and with me. Words can’t describe how grateful I am for the 10+ years they’ve put up with me.
My new friends I’m developing- Some of these are at church but many of them are from the community. As I mentioned in our current series, one of the problems many pastors have is waking up one day and realizing you don’t have any significant relationships with people who are far from God. So this year I have been intentionally going out and building new friendships. Not only have I been having fun meeting new people and hanging out, but a few I can see as becoming close friends. Most significantly I can already see the difference I’ve been able to make in people’s lives.
My staff- Chad, Bill and Chelsea. To be quite honest, I’m in way over my head with this whole church planting thing, but these 3 make me look a lot better than I am. I’m so grateful God has brought us together as a team and can’t wait to see how God will use us to further His Kingdom. It’s an honor to be able to lead them and I pray I do it well.
That ExponentialChurch.tv survived it’s first year- I wish this were hyperbole but it’s not. Most church plants die within their first 3 years. We’ve got one of those under our belts but we’re not out of the woods quite yet. However, as I already mentioned we have a great staff that’s sold out to seeing God’s Kingdom advance. More importantly we have many others who serve week end and week out because they realize that life is not about them but in helping people far from God come back into a relationship with Him and then grow to become more like Him. Thanks to all for an incredible year where we’ve now seen over 120 people come into a relationship with Jesus…but remember…the best is yet to come!
Lisa’s business/God’s blessing- In order to start ExponentialChurch.tv, we had to sacrifice a lot to move here to Harrisburg. One such sacrifice was I voluntarily took a 23% reduction in salary. This meant the possibility that Lisa might have had to get a job (which would have been a huge sacrifice on her part because of health issues). However, despite it all we continued to tithe and trust that you can’t out give God. Sure enough He began to bless her business ,which for years had pretty much always made the same amount of money. All of the sudden…through no real effort of her own, she has been swamped with work which has allowed her to stay at home!
Chuck Frank- Chuck is a long-time friend and more recently became the Director of Church Planting for the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God General Conference (catchy isn’t it). It was Chuck’s email that spurred on the vision I had for Exponential originally. Over the past year he and his team have been incredibly helpful and generous in numerous ways in helping us launch. Chuck is a great cheerleader for planting and evangelism and his support this past year has been invaluable.
Technology- It can be both a blessing and a curse but for the most part I am very thankful for all that technology allows us to do. Especially this past year I am grateful for two tools that make my life so much easier. The first is www.audible.com. Audio books have been around along time, but now with the ability to download them to my smart phone and then play back through blue-tooth on my car stereo, life is so much easier. Literally I turn my car into a mobile classroom and can usually get through 3-4 books per month just during my normal driving time. The second tool I’m thankful for is the Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In Tool. One of the audio books I listened to this past year was Getting Things Done by David Allen. His system is tremendous and when I found out there was an add-in for Outlook, it was an easy decision to spend the $70+. My life, tasks and schedule have never been more organized and de-cluttered and for that I am very thankful!

Inside Today’s Experience

June 19, 2011 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Really appreciative to have Chad on staff.
We’re still in the midst of trying to get our old house in Chambersburg fixed up after our old tenants left it in bad shape.
Lisa and I are worn out but it made it easier working so hard this weekend knowing Chad was preaching.
It also didn’t help that I woke up at 3am this morning and had trouble falling back asleep.
All that to say when the alarm clock went off this morning I wasn’t really motivated to get up.
We had some new equipment arrive today to replace some stuff that had gone bad so set-up took a bit longer than normal.
What was funny was when the band went to do their warm-up and run-through, we were not getting any sound out in the house.
Checking…checking…checking…ummm wait nobody ever ran the cables.
Not sure exactly how after 8 months something like that happens but it did.
I joked with the team, “Good thing we’re working all these issues out in our preview services so that when we officially launch the church we won’t have any issues”.
The Experience started today with our first original song called, “On the Edge”.
Jeff wrote it in response to the iLife series.
Awesome job by Jeff, Bill and the band working on it the last few weeks.
It was cool watching and listening each Thursday as it took shape.
I was excited to be able to announce our first baptism service will take place on July 31st immediately following the Experience.
I’m hoping many will take the plunge both literally and figuratively and be obedient to Jesus command to be baptized.
Surprised by how few father’s we have that attend.
We still honor you anyway! 🙂
Especially good to have my dad with us…guessing that’s the first time in 18 years that we’ve been able to worship together on Father’s Day.
After last week’s weirdness in having the recording stop unexpectedly, it was a relief to get home today and see that everything worked well today.
You can listen to Chad message here.
He joked about not being good with kids, but he does an incredible job with his own 3…glad he can model that for others.
Lots of good interaction afterward…love seeing how people are coming earlier and staying later to hang with one another.
Speaking of, we’d love to be able to hang with as many of you as possible on July 15th at the Harrisburg Senator’s game.
We bought a block of tickets…you can purchase them for only $7.50 each on our web-site. Hope you can make it!
This is a great event to invite someone to that isn’t quite ready to come with you on a Sunday morning.
It will help them see that followers of Jesus are normal people not some weirdo’s.
Insert your own joke here ___________________.
Came home and took not just 1 but 2 naps.
Finishing up some stuff this afternoon and then start 2 weeks of vacation tomorrow!
Please pray for us that it will be a relaxing time and that we get the housing situation wrapped up between now and then.
I’ll be back preaching on Jul 10th with a new series on Jonah.
Was able to get the majority of it written in the last few weeks…should be exciting and in week 3 we’ll have a very special surprise.

Inside Today’s Experience

May 29, 2011 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

I give up!
What I mean by that is…I give up trying to figure out attendance patterns.
Today being Memorial Day weekend, most churches see a dip in attendance.
This week I personally knew of 18 people that said they wouldn’t be with us…who knows how many I didn’t know about.
So my expectation was a really low attendance day…
So of course we end up with our 2nd highest attendance ever…God amazes me.
Best of all we had 5 more people pray today for Jesus forgiveness and leadership!
Funny thing is I didn’t plan on offering a call for commitment today, but I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me at the end to do it any way.
Glad I listened!
As for the rest of the day, we couldn’t have asked for it to be much smoother.
In fact, the band got set-up, had their warm-up and run through and still had so much time that they were actually able to do some Thursday night practice kind of stuff.
Big thanks to Kristie Frownfelter for stepping up and leading the Children’s Ministry today while Chelsea was away on vacation.
I peeked in and it looked like you were doing an awesome job.
Speaking of an awesome job, the pic for this post (sorry it’s so dark) is of our tech team. Andy, Mike, and Cris have 3 computers to run with the assorted programs we use plus then the sound board.
They consistently accomplish the best thing a tech team can do…not be noticed.
If the technology itself or the operators through error draw attention, that means the attention is off of Jesus. So thankful to have a team that knows what they are doing and do it with excellence.
Mike though did do a funny thing this morning when he and I went out to set up signs. We got to an intersection that we put a sign out at. The plan is for me to jump out, reach in the back to get the sign, then Mike takes off and turns around while I’m putting the sign in the appropriate place. This is all done at a busy intersection and it’s best if the light is red when we get there. Today though it was green and so imagine my surprise when I jump out and Mike starts to take off before I’ve been able to get the sign out of the back. Not sure if this is making sense, but it was funny.
This was the 5th part to our iLife series and I’m not sure why but on Thursday I started to get really excited about today’s topic which was gaining professional margin.
Was also nervous a bit though because the one visual illustration I wanted to do involved me juggling. Now I have juggled for years but in order for the illustration to really work it was vital that I not drop any. You’ll have to listen to the message to understand why. Whew…was able to do it!
Always great to be able to look out and seeing a visiting pastor. Today we were excited to have Charlie Hostetter and his wife Linda with us from the Mechanicsburg First Church of God.
Charlie said they wanted to come check us out because they’ve heard so much.
Never really sure how to take that since as much negative is said about us as positive.
They seemed to like it though and we were able to provide Linda with a pair of complimentary ear plugs in case the music got too loud for her.
I know it seems silly but it’s the little things like this (and the mints and hand lotion we provide in the restrooms) that really help create wow experiences for people.
Noticed afterward a lot more people hanging out in the lobby. That’s great that people are getting connected with one another. Technically we need to get out of the theater ASAP, but as long as were not in the way, then I’d love to see these interactions continuing.
Had lunch with my mom and dad today and then Lisa and I went swimming. Our pool is already at a very comfy 82 degrees…tomorrow should help even more.
On a personal note, today marked the one year anniversary since my last day on staff at the Chambersburg First Church of God.
Wow do I miss them tremendously. At the same time though I’m so grateful for the new relationships we’ve made here in Harrisburg as we’re getting ExponentialChurch.tv launched.
I have no doubt we’re exactly where God wants us but it still doesn’t make it easy to be away from so many great friends. Thanks United and CFCOG for 3 awesome years together.
Next week at Exponential we’ll wrap-up the iLife series by discovering how to get moral margin in your life.
I want to talk to 3 groups of people…teens, singles and married couples about how to make sure when it comes to purity (especially sexual purity) you have the margin that God desires.