Gilbert Thurston

Random Thoughts About Life, Ministry and Whatever Else Happens to be on my Mind

Random Thoughts

by Leave a Comment

On this “Whatever Wednesday” I thought I’d once again just give some random thoughts that are going through my mind.

  • I hurt my knee at some point in the last few days but I’m not sure how…can barely bend it.
  • Getting old sucks.
  • On a positive note, it’s a good reason not to go out and shovel snow!
  • My heater for my Koi Pond burnt out so I’ve been having to go out and chip ice ever few hours until the new one arrives.
  • I have 2 key meetings today regarding ECTV.
  • One is about a potential new location for us and the other is about some strategy stuff.  Please pray both go well.
  • Can’t believe how much interest yesterday’s post about the Richard Sherman controversy got.
  • Just to be clear…the point of the post wasn’t to condone his behavior…the point was how quickly American’s reacted to his reaction and how we must be careful of that or we end up becoming guilty of the same kind of rants he displayed.
  • Lisa made fudge yesterday for the snow day….mmmm good!
  • I spent a good chunk of yesterday preparing the 2013 giving statements that we are required to give to anyone who financially supported us last year.
  • So thankful for the hundreds of people who gave so our little church plant can try to make a difference here in Harrisburg and beyond.
  • Especially thankful for those who don’t even attend our church but so believe in our mission of “Helping people taking life-changing next steps in their journey towards God” that they give to support us.
  • Here is a link if you’d like to join them in partnering with us.
  • Yesterday I ordered 3 books for the price of two.   They are “The Creative Habit”, The Willpower Instinct” and “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs”.
  • Almost all books anymore I do on Audible.
  • Ok, just had to take a break to go out and shovel snow…Lisa decided to head into work so  I needed to clear her a path and uncover her car.
  • Not sure what is up with my knee but it hurts something fierce.
  • And with that…my mind isn’t thinking of anything else…so I’m out.

Inside Today’s Experience

by Leave a Comment

  • 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!

The Secret I Learned to Making Money Many Years Ago

by Leave a Comment

Friday’s are my day off from the church so I thought I’d give you a money making tip today as I’m relaxing and enjoying time just thinking.  It will take you a couple of minutes to read but I guarantee it could change your financial future, so it’s well worth the investment of time.  In addition towards the end of the post I’ll tell you about a FREE way to make extra income right now.  Now I know you’re tempted to skip ahead but this will all make more sense if you take the 2-3 minutes to read up to it.

As you might know before I went into full-time ministry I owned  two businesses.  Both did well, but one did much better than the other financially.  Why?

  • Is it because one had better ownership than the other?  No…again I owned both.
  • Was it because I worked harder at one than the other?  No…I devoted about equal time.
  • Was it because one had a much better product or service to offer than the other?  That’s debatable because they were so vastly different, but if you know me and my commitment to excellence and only offering the best, then no again.

So what was the difference?  That’s easy…one I got paid primarily through linear income, the other primarily through residual income.  What’s that mean you ask…well keep reading to find out.

Linear income is how most people make money.  You trade a block of time or a product or service for a block of money.  You put in 40 hours at the office, they in turn give you a paycheck.  You sell your product, you get a commission.  Pretty simple.  Problem is there is a cap on your income.  If you want more money you have a few options:

  • Get a new higher paying job.  Hey good luck with that in this economy.
  • Get a raise at your current job.  More likely to happen than the previous one but probably isn’t the kind of windfall you’re looking for.
  • Work more hours or sell more widgets  The problem here is, even this has a cap to it…there are only so many hours in a day to work or be out selling your goods or services.  Even if your worked 24 hours per day, 365 days per year that is still a cap on your income and besides who wants to work all the time.

Linear income is what my first business was all about.  The more I was able to sell my service to people, the more I made.  What I finally learned though through much study and research is that smart people while they may have some sort of linear income (I do, the church pays me a block of money for my block of time), primarily rely on residual income. My second business had a mix of linear and residual income and it allowed me to make 4X’s per year what my other business did even though I was working the same amount of time.  What that allowed me to do was become generous in helping others and ultimately it afforded me more time to studying God’s Word which is what eventually had a major impact on me being called into full-time vocational ministry.  While I no longer own either of my previous two businesses, because of the time they would take away from serving the church full-time, Lisa and I still do rely on residual income for our giving and retirement goals.

So what is residual income? It simply means you do the work once and you get paid for it over and over again in the future.  I’ll give you an example from one of my favorite comedians of all-time…Jerry Seinfeld.  By the time the last episode of his show aired in 1998, Jerry was making a whopping 1 Million Dollars per episode.  24 episodes that year (time/service) multiplied by 1 million dollars (money) = 24 million dollars in linear income.  Not a bad gig if you can get it!

Here’s the cool part, he is still getting paid for that work.  How?  Residual income.  You see the show is in syndication which means every time there is a re-run on he gets paid a small amount.  I don’t know the exact amount but let’s say it’s $100 per episode, per station.  Now that number pales in comparison to the 1 million per episode that he was previously making right?  Nope…that’s wrong.  I just checked my TV Guide listing for here in Harrisburg and this week alone in our market I can watch 40 different episodes on local channels.   There are 210 major metropolitan areas in the US and let’s say they too are like Harrisburg and offer 40 Seinfeld episodes per week in their market.  40 episodes multiplied by $100 per episode multiplied by 210 markets= $840,000 per week. Now multiply that by 52 weeks and I estimate Seinfeld is making over 40 million dollars per year for work he stopped doing 13 years ago.  Pretty cool huh?  That’s the power of residual income…do the work once but keep getting paid for it!

Now I know some of you are saying, I’m not an actor or singer getting royalties, I can’t make residual income.  You’re right you may not make that kind of money but you can still make residual income.  In fact most of you are right now…yep I’m talking to you.  Do you have any money in a savings account?  If so then you are making some residual income.  Now granted it’s not much but the principle still applies, you made money once for time, services or goods…you put that money into the bank…and now it’s still making you money in a little bit of interest.  The question is are there better ways for average people like you and I to tap into this principle?  Again the answer is yes.

Many of you have heard of GroupOn.  It’s really taken off the past year or so.  It allows people to buy great items at a discount.  The reason this works is because of the power of Facebook and Twitter.  Businesses want to give a discount because they know what they lose in profit margin they will make up in volume.  For example, would you rather sell 10 of your items where you make $10 in profit or 50 of them at $8 in profit?  The latter right!  Again it’s because of social media like Facebook and Twitter that the word gets out faster than through normal means of advertising.  One person heard about GroupOn, they told a friend (usually on Facebook), who told a friend, who told a friend, etc.  Each of these people registered for GroupOn’s deal of the day and now are saving all kinds of money on products they wanted.  Does that make sense?  You’ll listen to and believe a friend’s recommendation  for a product or service much more than you will a paid advertisement.  So Group On has been great if you want to save some money yourself…but it doesn’t have a residual income aspect to it.

That’s where Moolala comes in.  It’s the same as GroupOn but you actually get paid for every time your friends buy something, or their friends, or their friend’s friends, or their friend’s friend’s friends.  Here’s the best part…IT’S ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!! Unlike a lot of programs/home-based businesses out there that you might have heard of where you have enrollment fees and products to buy, you have nothing to lose by registering on the Moolala site.  Here’s how it works:

Moolala everyday sends out a deal of the day coupon just like GroupOn does.  If you buy it, not only do you get the great discount on a product you wanted, but you’ll also receive a 2% cash bonus on the purchase price.  So for example, let’s say you see an item you really want that normally sells for $35 but Moolala is offering it for $20.  Not only do you get the item at a discounted price, but you’ll also get a 2% bonus on that $20.  Now you’re going,  “Big deal Gilbert, they’re going to give me $0.40. What in the world can I do with that?”  Well remember how Seinfeld’s $100 didn’t sound like a lot but it compounded to be worth millions?  Not saying you’ll make millions here but the same principle is about to apply.  You see again anyone that has registered for Moolala under you that makes a purchase you’ll get paid 2% as you will for the people that register under them, and under them and under them.  A total of 10% commissions get paid out on every sale.  You get 2% of that for every purchase you make or anyone within 4 levels deep of you!

Now how are you going to recruit people?  Simple…put the link for people to register under you on your Facebook and Twitter status up-dates, then encourage them to do the same.   Again it’s FREE and you have nothing to lose by trying!

Now let me give you an example of how this could work to put extra money in your pocket this year:

  • Do you think if you posted about Moolala on Facebook and Twitter that at least 10 of your friends would register?  I think they would, after all it’s FREE…I had 10 within the first two weeks and I only posted twice.
  • Do you think you could encourage each them to get 10 of their friends to register as well?  If you did it why can’t they?
  • Now encourage them to help those people to do the same and the same one level deeper.
  • Again this is the power of Facebook and Twitter…think about all the stupid stuff that gets passed along virally on status up-dates and how quickly that spreads…this is your chance to make some money on what people are already doing naturally.
  • In the above example that would give you at total of 11,111 people you’d be eligible to make money off of from their purchases.
  • Now let’s assume that each person only averaged one $20 purchase per year. (I just bought something for $10 the other day…it was a book/CD set I really wanted and Moolala had it cheaper than the normal $30 if I ordered it directly from the publisher)
  • That would be an extra $4400 in your pocket.
  • What would you do with an extra 4 grand per year?
  • Again that example is assuming you stopped at recruiting 10 people as does every one below you four levels deep.
  • It also assumes that people only buy $20 per year on average.  The other day a vacation trip to the Rocky Mountains was listed for $599.  It would only take one person buying that to increase your averages.

So back to our discussion on residual income.  You do the work once…recruit people to sign-up, but yet you’ll continue to get paid on their purchases for as long as Moolala is around.  With my busy schedule at the church I don’t have time for more traditional businesses but this was a no brainer for me when I first heard about it…and especially since it’s just starting and you and I can be at the front end before it really takes off like GroupOn has.  Remember the sooner you sign-up the more likely it is that your friends and their friends haven’t and thus are eligible to register under you.

Let me end by saying, money is not the be all end all of life.  There are much more important and eternal things to be concerned about.  As my friend Scott says, “True wealth is all the things that money can’t buy and death can’t take away”.  However money is a tool that God can use to help you make a difference in this world.  So with that in mind, I want to make as much as I can so that I can invest in the lives of others.  I truly believe Moolala is going to take off just like GroupOn did and will allow Lisa and I to continue serving others better.  So whether you’re looking to pay the bills, get out of debt or give more away, why not give Moolala a try?

Mind Your Own Business Bonus Questions

by Leave a Comment

Yesterday we wrapped up the Mind Your Own Business series where we looked at God’s plan for your finances.  Many of you have reported how impactful this series has already been and I look forward to more stories in the coming months.  Please email me as God blesses you so we can know what’s happening.  The purpose of this post though is to answer some questions that this series has sparked in some of you.  Most of them have to do with week 3’s message about tithes and giving.  So let’s get right to it…

  1. Should I tithe on the net or gross of my paycheck? A friend of mine once joked, “Well which one do you want God to bless you on?”  In all seriousness, God wants His part first.  In other words, before Uncle Sam gets his cut, God wants the 10% that belongs to Him.  So the answer is you tithe on the gross.
  2. “Gilbert you said to tithe weekly but I only get paid monthly.  What should I do?” Great question and I misspoke when I said Lisa and I have never missed a week of tithing.  What I should have said was we’ve never missed a paycheck.  So you should tithe anytime you get paid whether that’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.
  3. Should I tithe on every source of income or just on my paycheck? The answer is everything.  Again the premise behind this series was that you are to be a manager of all the stuff God has entrusted to you.  That includes more than just money you get from your job.  So if you get a bonus, inheritance, cash gift, etc, you should tithe on that as well because it’s all a part of the resources God is entrusting to you.
  4. “I’m self-employed and don’t really take a paycheck.  How much should I tithe”? That’s a tricky one that I dealt with when I was self-employed as well.  My first suggestion would be to start paying yourself a paycheck.  This will help in not only the tithe portion but also in applying all the other principles we looked at in the series for getting out of debt, staying out of debt and saving for the future.  However, sometimes that can’t work so you need to just be as honest with God as possible about what is truly 10% of your income.  Remember the tithe is more about where your heart is at than it is about money.  There are a lot of legitimate, legal  things you can do as a self-employed person to lower your tax burden and show very little income.  However, just like the gross or net question above, God wants His portion before you factor in taxes.  Let me try to give an example.  Let’s say you have a product that you sell for $1000 and it costs you $600.  When you sell it, you don’t tithe on $1000, but instead the $400 profit you made.  Again the mistake many make is that when you add in business expenses, it’s possible to show on your taxes that you only made $200 profit.  Now this example was very simplistic and I’m already seeing exceptions in it myself but again you’ve just got to be honest with God and come up with a true number not one your fudging.
  5. “I have been giving to charities.  Should I stop giving to them in order to tithe to the church?”  Well that depends on your financial situation.  However if you can only do one, then God says first you tithe.  Anything beyond the tithe is called an offering and can be given in any way that you want….charities, another ministry, your churches building fund or mission fund, etc.  My prayer is that all of us will apply the principles from this series so we can give both tithes and offerings.
  6. “Gilbert you said that when people tithe God promises to bless you.  Is that just financially or in other ways as well?” Again this was an area that I should have clarified in the message.  In fact, I had it in my notes but forgot to say it.  God does promise to bless but it’s not strictly you give $1 and He’ll give you $5 back.  Many of the greatest blessings you can’t put a price tag on.  Many blessings are also things we may not even sense or appreciate in the moment.  Now that’s not to say God can’t or won’t bless you financially, but it goes far beyond just money.
  7. “I’m in debt up to my eyeballs and can just barely afford to pay my bills each month.  Should I tithe?” This is another tricky question because by saying yes it would appear that I’m condoning you getting into further debt or getting behind on your bills.  However, this is where faith comes in.  Do you really believe that God is who He says He is?Do you really believe God when He says you can trust Him with the tithe and that if you do He will open up the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing on you that you will not have enough room to contain it?  You see why I kept saying throughout the series that how you handle money says more about your faith in God and who or what you really trust in than anything else?  So if you really believe and trust in God then yes go ahead and tithe.  Remember as I said in the week 3 message, “90% of your income with God’s blessing is greater than 100% of it with God’s curse on it”.

Hope these additional answers we’re beneficial.  Let me know what other questions you might have.  Be blessed and trust in the Almighty God more than you do the almighty dollar!

Willow Creek Leadership Summit Part 2

by Leave a Comment

Yesterday I shared with you my thoughts from Day 1 of Willow Creek’s annual Leadership Summit.  I realized after I posted that I actually stopped too soon with the notes so here are the remaining two Day 1 speakers plus my Day 2 thoughts.  Again these are not the full notes just some personal reflections on the speakers and what was said.

Dr. Peter Zhao Xiao- He is one of China’s leading economists and he recently became a follower of Christ!  He shared through an interpreter the state of Christianity in China and how it’s only promising to get better!

Andy Stanley- Because the previous session went long because of the interpretation, Andy had to rush through his talk.  Too bad, because as always he had a vast amount of wisdom to share.  Basically he gave a talk on how as leaders we need to differentiate between problems to solve and tensions that need to be managed. As an example, there will always be debates in a church between evangelism and  discipleship.  Some will say we’re doing too much to win the lost and need to focus more on helping people grow and mature.  Others would argue…we’re going to deep and the message has become inaccessible to those far from God.   This is a tension to manage, not a problem to solve.  Now that one may seem obvious, but there are other ones that aren’t as obvious and again Andy said that there are some problems that you never want to solve or you will create worse problems.

Jeff Manion- Another guy I had brief knowledge of but yet had never heard speak.  His talk and newest book are entitled, The Land Between.  Essentially he talked about Israel’s time wandering in the desert.  Behind them was slavery in Egypt and in front of them was the Promised Land, but it was the land between where God did his greatest work in them.  Jeff’s point was we will all go through the desert at points in our life which are ripe for complaints, meltdowns and God to discipline us…however it’s also a place where God provides and transformational growth in us best happens.

Terri Kelly- She is the CEO of W.L. Gore, most famous for their line of GORE-TEX products.  She was interviewed by Jim Mellado, the President of the Willow Creek Association and quite frankly I could have listened to her being interviewed all day.  Gore’s philosophy since it’s founding is to have situational hierarchy. In other words, whoever is best fit to lead for each project becomes the leader.  They also as a company work in pods of people where you pitch your ideas to your teammates and then together you work on the best ideas.  Basically you are free to work on whatever project you want that will expand the company and each year raises and bonuses are determined by your fellow peers.  At Gore it’s all about team and they feel the more people who feel like they are in leadership the better they will be.  Trust me, I’m not doing justice to their philosophy in this paragraph…research it for yourself and you’ll discover why year after year they get voted one of America’s top companies to work for.

Daniel Pink- He is a former White House speech writer and his new book, Drive is about what motivates us to do the things we do.  This was another great talk on how companies and organizations have traditionally tried to motivate (reward/punishment:  entice with carrot or beat with stick) versus how we should.  The three key factors in proper motivation are offering autonomy, the chance to master their skill/craft (and get positive feedback) and having a sense of purpose (what I’m doing matters and it’s so much bigger than me).

Blake Mycoskie- First let’s get a couple things out of the way.  One…this was the most emotional talk/interview…the room got a bit dusty at times.  Two…this is a very good looking man.  I’m secure enough in my manhood to say it…this guy is hot.  Ok, we interrupt this creepy part to return you to your regular blog, already in progress.  Blake was a contestant on the Amazing Race and later while on a trip to South America was heartbroken to see so many kids without shoes.  Instead of saying, “Oh that’s too bad”, he instead came home and decided to do something about it.  He started TOMS shoes which is a for profit shoe business that for every pair sold, will then donate a free pair to a child who is without.  To date they have given over 850,000 pairs of shoes away!   Blake said, “If you focus on giving, then people will always tell your story”.  What a great lesson for churches…if we give, then our churches will always be full because people will tell the story of what we’re doing and will want to be a part.

Jack Welch- This guy is one of my business hero’s.  For 41 years he worked for GE, culminating with him becoming CEO and turning them around when it looked like they were about to go out of business in the 80’s.  If you hang out long enough with me, you will hear Jack Welch philosophies that I have applied to the church, life and ministry.  It was funny watching Bill Hybels interview him and try to keep Jack from using bad language.  Jack did a great job though of censoring himself…more on that later as to why that may be.  Two things stood out from this excellent interview.  First was Jack saying, “It’s not the loud mouths that are a problem, it’s the hallway whisperers.  You’ve got to stop the meetings after the meetings where the whispers happen.  These people should have had the courage to speak up in the meeting. If you don’t stop them they will poison your organization”.  Second, was Bill talking live after the pre-recorded interview with Jack was done.  He shared how Jack has begun attending a church and he believes is close to becoming a follower of Christ.  Bill’s encouragement was to never give up on someone no matter how far from God it may seem they are.

Bill Hybels- Bill then gave some parting thoughts before introducing the final speaker.  First, read as a discipline…you may not always want to, but you’ve got to.  Second, get around other leaders who are better than you and learn all that you can.  Next, make sure you intentionally place yourself in places where leadership is taught.  Finally, keep leading strong no matter what the cost.

TD Jakes- If you’ve ever heard TD Jakes in his element, you know he is a master communicator.  On this day though I think he had two things going against him.  First, he seemed to not be feeling well.  Second, the crowd was too white.  He feeds off the emotion/energy/talk-back that African American’s are more known for in encouraging a pastor.  With that said though…even on an off day, TD Jakes can preach better than 99.9% of today’s pastors, yours truly included.  He had lots of great tidbits but my favorite was this, “If you only bring people on your team who are like you, they will COMPETE with you, not COMPLETE you.