gilbert thurston Archives - Page 26 of 33

Inside Today’s Experiences

June 28, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Wrapped up the One Prayer series today with an awesome message from Perry Noble.
I really enjoyed this series again this year…not only does it give me a break but also getting to hear from so many great communicators is inspiring.
Set-up this morning was easy, but we were having power consumption issues throughout the building so lights were flickering that shouldn’t have.
I got the lift out and went up to reset some power buttons which helped a little.
Thought the band did a really great job today.
The 9:45 crowd was really into the message…
It’s amazing being able to sit out in the crowd and see and feel the difference between the two crowds.
At 9:45 I almost forgot to take the offering…ok I did forget but the ushers bailed me out.
As I said, after 5 weeks of not preaching, I’m a bit rusty even to do something as simple as doing announcements.
Loved Perry’s challenge to “run up the score”.
Basically we’re trying to “win” forgetting that Jesus has already won for us…the game is out of reach…now run up the score.
Met some great folks from other churches in our denomination…great to have them with us.
Disappointed that attendance is down for the summer but even with the “summer slump” we just completed our highest attended quarter ever!
Next week we begin a new series called “TXT” in which I’ll be sharing how to be transformed by God’s Word.
Also got some cool announcements coming up in the coming weeks…stay tuned…the best is yet to come!

Random Thoughts on a Friday

June 26, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Haven’t done a random thoughts for awhile so let’s see where this goes…
Why oh why on my day off did I wake up at 6am wide-awake?
Couldn’t believe the news yesterday about Michael Jackson.
- Thriller was the first album I ever bought.
- Too bad he got really weird because he was an amazingly talented man.
- However, no matter how talented you are, death is coming for all of us and it will sometimes come unexpectedly.
- The moral…you’ve got to be prepared for eternity and the best way to do that is to begin a relationship with Jesus.
I’m getting back into the swing of things after vacation.
Working on two huge projects right now…1 is exciting…the other is overwhelming…both will be great when they’re completed.
Vacation highlights were:
- Spening time with Lisa 24/7.
- Celebrating our 14th anniversary.
- Our dinner at Phillips Seafood in Atlantic City overlooking the beach and ocean.
- Not checking e-mail the entire 2 weeks and truly being able to relax.
- Walking with Lisa hand-in-hand up and down the boardwalk with no cares (ok dodging seagulls but other than that) or agenda.
- Treating my parents to a couple days away in the Pocono’s with us.
- Hiking to Bushkill Falls…beautiful!
- Hacking around a par-3 approach course with my dad.
- Celebrating my birthday.
- Getting a sweet authentic Alexander Ovechkin Caps jersey from Andy and Gayle.
- Getting to hang out with my friends.
We’ve got some pretty cool stuff coming up for July and August in the Experiences that we’re pretty excited about.
This week is the last week of the One Prayer series…Perry Noble…can’t wait!
Then I’m back preaching again…really excited about what God is going to do in the next series.

Inside Today’s Experiences

June 21, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Great to be back after two weeks away.
Nice to be able to ease back into things thanks to our One Prayer series.
It’s amazing that modern technology allows us to participate with thousands of other churches in a joint series.
Great to hear everyone laughing and participating as Steven Furtick preached the message.
Everything ran pretty smoothly today which is also a nice way to get back into things.
9:15 was pretty full, while 10:45 was down again…I hate summer.
Thought the band did a great job today.
Loved Furtick’s message…it really gave good perspective on how big God is and how small our problems are.
Again I really enjoy this series…hope you are as much as I am.
To all the dad’s out there…Happy Father’s Day!

Inside Today’s Experience (Vacation Edition)

June 14, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Again heard through texts and seeing people in person at lunch that you guys had a good day today.

Hope you got a lot out of Francis Chan’s messgae…love that guy.

When I was in Orlando a few months back I got to meet him. (pictured above).

The best part of that day though was the hilarious intro he got.

As for us…today we visited King Street Church, right here in Chambersburg.

King Street is the area’s largest church but until today I had not had the opportunity to visit them.

Unfortuantely I didn’t read their web-site well enough and we ended up at their blended service instead of the contemporary one.

However, that was by far the best blended service I’ve ever seen.

Their 50+ member choir rocked it out.

I guess the thing I liked best about them wasn’t neccisarily their song selection or singing ability but the “attitude” in which they sang.

They were having fun and you could tell they really believed what they were singing.

They had a guest speaker so I wasn’t able to gauge that aspect of their services, although the guest speaker gave a good message on compassion.

One funny thing happened…the lady sitting next to me stole mu bulletin. Don’t think she did it intentionally but I was partially sitting on it so you’d have thought she’d have at least asked.

One other cool thing was seeing that Ryan Payne was playing acoustic guitar, in the background, for King Street’s worship team.

Ryan’s band is really growing and has quite a following and I expect one day they will be signed by a major Christian label. Neat to see hi humble himself to serve.

Reminds me of what Brian Houston, pastor of Hillsong Church, said about Darlene Zschech when she was becoming famous…”She has never forgotten that she’s to still serve in her home church”.

After the service was over I got to meet the Senior Pastor, John Beukema. Seems like a nice guy and I’m proud that we get to partner with King Street and so many other great churches in our area to reach people for Christ.

I’ve said it before an I’ll say it again…It’s not about United or CFCOG, it’s about Jesus and the Church which He died for. I’m glad we have other great churches in our area…we’re not in competition, but partners together.

We meet with Lisa’s sister and her family for lunch at Red Robin. The 4 of them plus Lisa and I all share birthday’s within about a 40 day period…4 of us within 11 days…so this turned out to be our birthday meal.

Funny thing was Lisa and Gayle were texting each other while we were there. I look up and over in the corner were the whole Krull family having lunch. In other words Lisa and Gayle were in the same restaurant texting each other and didn’t even know it.

Of course we had some fun sending her texts about things she was doing and wearing…finally she caught on and realized we were there.

Time for a nap and then our normal Sunday night crew will be getting together.

Vacation is almost done…enjoyed it and for the most part I’m refreshed…can’t wait to see everyone next week!

Inside Today’s Experience (Vacation Edition)

June 7, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

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.