Gilbert Thurston

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Inside Today’s Experiences

March 7, 2010 by Gilbert 2 Comments

  • Not preaching or speaking at all today so I’m live blogging the second Experience.
  • Just got done baptizing over a dozen people!
  • I’m coming in during the first song…”The Time Has Come”.
  • 3 of the normal team members are gone, but the band still sounds awesome none the less.
  • The 1st Experience was great.  Everything went smoothly…Earl’s message was great and Brian did a very nice job with his remarks.
  • More of that to come later.
  • Just moved to the song, “Yours Forever”.
  • So proud of the growth of Brian these past 3 years.
  • Crowd is still coming in…the joint baptism service went long so people are late arriving.
  • Last I saw Earl he still hadn’t changed clothes…he’s about 1 minute from having to be on stage.
  • Maybe he’ll come out soaking wet.  :)
  • “We are yours forever, our lives won’t be the same…”
  • Shouting and clapping…that would have never happened 3 years ago.
  • Earl on stage doing announcements.
  • Don’t forget that next week we WILL NOT change our clocks until after the Experience is over.
  • Done this for 3 years now and everyone likes it…don’t lose an hours sleep.
  • Don’t forget to let others know.
  • Sign up to help with the Easter Egg Hunt.  Last year we had over 1200 kids show up so we need your help.  E-mail kristy@chambersburgfirstchurchofgod.com
  • Earl asked not to do fist bumps today because he hurt his hand one time.  Poor Earl.
  • Back to music…”We Will Run”.
  • Andrew getting his guitar groove on!
  • Crowd’s a little dead.
  • One last song…”Kingdom Come”.
  • New song…love Brian’s lighting for this one.
  • Just looked to my left and Tim, Jerry and Chris are all busy making the tech happen here in the back.
  • Cressa giving some awesome harmony while Brett’s bass and Thom’s drumming are building…building…building….
  • “Raise your hopeful voices, make a  joyful noise and sing to the King of Glory”.
  • Brian praying…please hold be right back.
  • Earl in jeans and a nice looking shirt…using the table and stool.   We’ll make him contemporary yet!
  • “It’s ok to be disappointed that Gilbert’s leaving.  But that leaves questions.  I want to answer those today”.
  • “I want to tell you a story”
  • July 24th 2004:  The first preview of United.
  • Mike Schooley leading.
  • Earl looked in that day.  One person he saw was Adam Swisher who is still with us today.
  • Mike’s vision was that United be like a bar where people would feel love and excited.
  • “Under Mike’s leadership Chapter One of United had begun”.
  • “At the beginning of 2006 Mike came to us and said God had called him to plant a church in his hometown of Horseheads, NY”.
  • “In the spring of 2006 Mike left.  Chapter One was done”
  • “During that same time God brought Andy and Gayle Krull came to lead worship and up-grade our technology.”
  • “Andy and Gayle said you need to talk to our friend Gilbert Thurston”.
  • “Gilbert came on and things began to really grow”.
  • “Gilbert really stressed excellence and evangelism”
  • Fall 2007:  A second Experience had to be started because of all the growth.
  • “Last week you heard that like Mike, Gilbert is leaving to start a church in Harrisburg so chapter 2 will be coming to a close”.
  • APPLAUSE for me.  Thanks all!
  • “The book is not done…chapter 3 is coming up and I can’t wait to see how God is going to work”!
  • Ephesians 3:20-21
  • “Mike laid the foundation, Gilbert added on, but the best is yet to come”.
  • “Tuesday of this week an ad went out…so far over 50 people have applied.  We will be seeking the right person to lead us in Chapter 3”.
  • “We want to challenge you to pray…for search committee…for the right person…Gilbert…myself, staff and leadership…yourselves”.
  • Ephesians 3:14-18
  • Earl’s talking about Avatar and 3-D.  “God is 4-dimensional”.
  • “2nd challenge is to not fall away just because leadership is changing”.
  • “Some leadership is not changing…one person is Brian Miller”.
  • Brian now on stage.
  • “Leading you in worship is amazing”.
  • More applause for me…Oh stop.  :)
  • Brian is talking about praying after finding out I was leaving.
  • “God slapped me across the face”.
  • God spoke to him that it wasn’t Gilbert or Brian or the team that built this building, saved, hundred, etc.   It was all God.
  • AMEN Brian, good word!
  • “God is not leaving us, nor are the 70,000 people in our community who don’t yet know Christ”.
  • Brian is having people yell, “I’m excited”.
  • Earl speaking again…”Don’t stop inviting people, Gilbert will still be here for a few months and then the next person will come on to start chapter 3…again the best is yet to come.”
  • “We also want you serve so the next person coming on can say ‘wow'”.
  • “Gilbert and Mike are two completely different people yet their passion was the same.  The new person will be different than Gilbert, but the passion and vision will be the same.  Don’t miss Chapter 3”.
  • Earl praying.
  • Brian and team back on stage finishing out with “The Time Has Come”.
  • Well that was fun…have a great week everyone!

Filed Under: Inside Today's Experience's Tagged With: Adam Swisher, Andrew John, Andy Krull, Brett Hultzapple, Brian Miller, Chris Short, Cressa Coldsmith, Earl Mills, Gayle Krull, gilbert thurston, Higher Hope Church, Jerry Snyder, Mike Schooley, Thom Lambert, Tim Kuhns, United Worship Experience

Other Weekend Thoughts…and Beyond

April 27, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

First Baptist Orlando

  • Wow sorry I haven’t been able to blog as much this past week or so…things have been crazy.
  • Many of you were following me on Facebook last week, so you’re at least partially in the loop.
  • If you haven’t yet signed-up for a Facebook account it’s easy to do and an awesome way to keep up with all of your friends at United.
  • Had a great trip to Orlando for the Exponential Conference at the First Baptist Church of Orlando.
  • Got to spend time with a few other guys from our region, including Mike Schooley who started United back in 2005 before heading to New York to start his own church.
  • Mike and I roomed together and every night after we’d turn the lights out we’d talk and dream about church stuff for a long time.
  • I told him the last night I was going to miss our “Walton’s Family” chats.
  • The worst part of the trip was when my good friend Chuck Frank had to fly home early because his wife, Tammy, fell and broke her ankle.
  • Please keep them in prayer…it’s going to be a long recovery process and may still require more surgery.
  • I got a ton of great ideas at the conference and can’t wait to try some of them out.
  • The pic above is of their sanctuary.  To try to give you some perspective, there were 3000 people at the conference and almost everyone sat on the floor level.
  • Perhaps the highlight of week was the very last thing.  Not only did Francis Chan deliever a great talk, but the intro that was given for him left everyone…including Francis saying wow!
  • Got to meet Francis then at the airport that day and he was still talking about it.
  • Was finally able to get the interview with Satan video online from the “Finding the One” message.  To watch it, click here.
  • Satan will be making another appearance this week as a part of the message about sex called, “It’s Business Time”.
  • Seriously the entire Experience is something that is going to be talked about for a long time…
  • …we have things in store for you that you just simply will have to be there to believe.
  • For those that can’t make it, the number of downloads I’m sure is going to not just break but shatter every record we have.
  • Tomorrow (Tuesday) I’m speaking for our denomination on how to reach the 18-35 crowd.
  • Please say a quick prayer for me.
  • Night!
  • Filed Under: Random Thoughts Tagged With: Chuck Frank, Eastern Region Conference, Exponential Conference, Facebook, First Baptist Church-Orlando, Francis Chan, Higher Hope Church, Mike Schooley, Re:Married, Tammy Frank, United Worship Experience

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