- Wow that was too much fun as we kicked off our Party series.
- I love it when things just sort of click and everything comes together.
- Even better two more people became followers of Christ today!
- The morning started out normally but something happened to my right contact during the set-up time. I couldn’t see…so I had to call Lisa to bring me a fresh set.
- Missy Kibbe did a great job of getting the refreshments set up and welcoming the early crowd to the party.
- By the time Brian got the party song started, the energy was already high.
- We’ve been wanting to do that song for a few years now and it finally made sense to do it.
- Loved seeing everyone singing, dancing, shouting, pumping their fists in the air…awesome!
- Brian and his team created an incredible stage design.
- When during the middle of Party all the lights finally came up…you could see the wow look on people’s faces.
- When it came time for the band to cover Trans Siberian Orchestra’s, Carol of the Bells, I was super nervous.
- They worked for hours on Thursday night just on that song.
- In case you couldn’t see it, Adam and Andrew were both getting quite the finger workout.
- Basically if you can pull off something like that you can do anything…both of them stepped up big time and did an awesome job.
- Thanks also to the rest of the team for their parts as well…especially Gayle who played what is meant for 4 keyboards on one by dividing our keyboard into basically two. Her left hand was playing one instrument her right hand the other.
- If you’ve ever been to or seen Trans Siberian, you know the crazy light shows that accompany their music. I thought considering our budget is a good million or two less than theirs, Brian did an awesome job creating a light show to match.
- I told the 11:15 crowd how rowdy the early crowd was and gave them a chance to outshout the early group…man I couldn’t believe the lungs you people have. :)
- I was pleased with both messages and pray that it will have a lasting impact on people.
- I also found out afterwards that over $6000 more dollars came in today to benefit needy families in our area. Thanks for stepping up to the challenge that both Earl and myself gave this past week.
- Again this year we should be able to help approximately40 families who wouldn’t have a Christmas except for our help.
- Already looking forward to next week…going to keep the Party going!
Inside Today’s Experiences
- I’m useless without my wife.
- What’s that have to do with today…
- She had her wisdom teeth taken out Wednesday and has been having trouble sleeping so she slept in the guest room last night so I could get a good night’s sleep.
- She’s the one who is normally in charge of the alarm clock and even though I set it and double check it last night…I still messed up.
- Imagine my surprise when she wakes me up this morning at 8:30 and says, “Aren’t you supposed to be at church now?”
- Oops…luckily the team is proficient enough to function without me during set up and our morning run-through.
- Except that someone forgot to unlock the back stage door (which I normally do) so when I went to go on stage during the 1st Experience, I was again greatly surprised to be locked out.
- Other than that it was a really good day.
- The team and both crowds were really energetic, which makes preaching so much easier then.
- Have already had about a dozen people stop me to say how convicting today’s message was.
- Andrea absolutely tore it up on the song “Battlefield”…great job!
- I think everyone had fun with the word S’mikheh.
- Aaron heard me preach a similar message to this one 3+ years ago where I talked about S’mikheh and he still says it from time to time.
- Two of the ladies back in the tech area this morning thought that it was funny that I wear stage make-up on Sunday’s.
- Hey it’s not like I’m Adam Lambert or anything, but a little foundation to smooth the skin and cut down on the glare never hurt anyone. :)
- Please pray for our bass guitarist Brett. He never showed up today and we’re hoping he just overslept since he works late on Saturday night’s. Or since we had practice on Saturday instead of Thursday because of Thanksgiving, it’s also possible that he thinks today is Friday. In any case we’re worried about him since we still haven’t been able to reach him.
- All in all I really enjoyed this series…Brian designed an awesome stage…we got to hear from Doug for the first time…many more people came into a relationship with Jesus…lives were changed…all because Jesus is a Maverick unlike any other.
- Tonight is Hanging of the Greens or HotG as we like to call it. Only time I get to hear I’m hot. :)
- Have a great week. Be sure to invite a lot of people as we kick-off the PARTY series next week.
Inside Today’s Experience’s
- We’ll call today a tale of two Experiences.
- The first one was terrible and the second one was much better.
- Having only 50 minutes for the first one so we could get over to the communion service was just not enough time.
- Between only doing one song and then having to do things in a different order, I was all out of sorts by the time the message started.
- I was doing so much to try to rush through that I was all over the place.
- I feel bad for Ben Meyers who had to try to follow along with me on slides…good job Ben for doing the best you could with a bad situation.
- If you attended the first Experience, I again apologize and would encourage you to listen to the online version of the message so you get a better feel for what I intended.
- Hooray for two Experiences…without the ability to go back and do it over again, I’d have beaten myself up all week.
- The other thing that made today weird was I can barely lift my left arm…it even hurt to hold my bible like I normally do, so I just sat at the table the whole time to teach.
- Getting old sucks!
- On a better note, the communion service over in the sanctuary was great…it’s always nice to bring everyone together for something as meaningful as communion.
- A few of you asked about where to find the historical context of some of the things I shared today. I have a pretty intensive computer program that helps spit out a lot of it, but you may also want to consider, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah and also the web-site www.followtherabbi.com.
- Without any guys singing today, it reminded me of when I first arrived at United and we were strictly a chick band…ah the good old days. :)
- Had some friends in today from WV, MD and WA (yep that is far away)…always nice to see peeps.
- Time for a nap and then dinner.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Another great day!
- Had a few minor issues in the set-up time this morning but other than that everything went according to plan.
- We changed up the order today and it was effective…we’ll do more of that in the future.
- Great to add Jenny Shifler to the vocal team…we’ve been on her for awhile to help out and she finally auditioned and made it!
- Speaking of the team, Brian did a great job of leading Uprising by Muse.
- That song is everywhere right now and it fit perfectly with the message.
- We added some additional special lighting effects for the song and it worked awesome.
- To be honest after a really good first Experience or message , I usually have an “oh my we’ve/I’ve got to do it again”.
- Today everything went great at the first but the 2nd was even better…that’s awesome!
- Met a visiting pastor from VA after the 2nd experience. He actually said, “Wow that was quite an experience that you all create”.
- I love that when someone actually calls it an experience. That’s what we try to create each week…an experience with God…sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. Today though was definitely a great day.
- Tomorrow I’m taking a group to Baltimore for a conference…pray for us as we travel and that everyone will come back energized and ready to kick the devil in the butt.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Great day!
- 6 more people gave their lives to Jesus!
- Many more responded to the call to follow Jesus even closer than they are now.
- The day got off to an even earlier start than normal because of some problems we had Thursday night.
- Everyone was tired but by the time the 1st Experience started, the energy was high.
- This carried over to the crowd. Great energy and participation.
- The first Experience also had one of the higher attendances that we’ve had for awhile…the ushers were busy getting more and more chairs out!
- Hopefully this means that all the sickness that’s been going around is starting to subside.
- I had great anticipation going into today about the message.
- I really feel it was one of the best I’ve ever given…if you apply this one then your whole world will change.
- As I said during the message, there actually was a prayer that Rabbi’s prayed when they went to the bathroom…here it is:
Blessed are you, O God, ruler of the world, who created man in wisdom, with numerous orifices and spaces. It is known before you that if one of them should open when it ought to close or close when it should open, we would cease to exist. Blessed are you. - Speaking of…during the 2nd Experience I jumped up onto my stool at one point and all the air left out of it. It made a really funny sound like I had passed gas. Of course the teenagers in the front were giggling…I don’t think anyone else heard it.
- All in all a really great day…loved the music…loved the response to the message.
- Had lunch with the Capital Campaign team members at the house of Scott and Robin Despres.
- They’ve done a great job of organizing the campaign and tonight we have the last big event.
- Have a great week….may you always be covered by the dust of your Rabbi!