Gilbert Thurston

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Inside Today’s Experiences

August 2, 2009 by Gilbert 1 Comment

Gilbert 1970's look

  • What a great day!
  • I promised an unforgettable opener to the Experience and I don’t think the team disappointed.
  • The 9:45 crowd was about to explode our of their seats…the energy was incredible.
  • If you missed it, you definitely missed something special.
  • One of our core values is that…”Excellence honors God and inspires people”.
  • Even the midst of the band covering 70’s music, I couldn’t help but get a little choked up as I saw the team giving their all to God in the hopes that something like that would prepare hearts for what was yet to come.
  • The band worked incredibly hard and the video plus medley was the perfect start to the series.
  • Great job by Brian in  coming up with the arrangement and I thought Andrea knocked her parts out of the park.
  • Brian and the stage team did an awesome job creating a new set…definitely one of my favorites.

DSC01665

  • I think the new times periods worked out great.
  • I felt so goofy in my 70’s garb and wig, but I was pleased that the fu-manchu grew in.
  • Gayle as well did a great job in covering “Imagine”…such a beautiful song, too bad as we saw in the message that the lyrics are so unrealistic.
  • Thankfully though Jesus has a better way…”Love your enemies and pray for those the persecute you”.
  • I’m also still amazed at how seriously Jesus takes the whole forgiveness thing…in essence…if you don’t forgive others, God will not forgive you.
  • The energy at 11:15 was completely different…however still a good day!
  • Right before the first Experience I was in my office and the phone rang.  I answered and it was a man (not from the church) asking if he could meet with me ASAP.
    • I told him I could meet at 12:30 and he said that was fine.
    • When I met with him you could tell he was broken and struggling.
    • To make a long story short, after a few hours and many tears, he prayed to ask Jesus for His forgiveness and to be the leader of his life.
    • I’m not going to mention the man’s name or his struggles, but if you could generically pray for him and his family this week, God knows who it is you’re praying for.
  • I told you this story because again there is nothing else in life like helping people discover Jesus.
  • Yes we had 2 great Experiences and yes I got to be up front doing my thing…but sitting with someone in my office and leading them into a relationship with Christ was by far the highlight of my day!
  • So who are you inviting next week…again we’ll be doing something special as we look at the 1980’s and I’ll be preaching a message based off the song, “Everybody Hurts”.

Filed Under: Inside Today's Experience's, Rewind series Tagged With: Andrea Miller, Brian Miller, Core Values, costume, forgiveness, Gayle Krull, gilbert thurston, Imagine, Jesus, love, Rewind series, salvation, United Worship Experience

Inside Today’s Experiences

July 26, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

  • Sitting in my office getting ready for our staff picnic.
  • Had a great day!
  • Couple of minor glitches in the set-up portion and the keyboard died in the 10:45 (RIP), but other than that we couldn’t have asked for a smoother day.
  • First, any day when people come into a relationship with Christ, it’s awesome…4 more today…God is so good!
  • I’m really loving the new song “Yours Forever” that the team has done the past few weeks…great stuff!
  • I also liked the new song today called “Ready Now”.  It was cool to intro it at the beginning of the Experience and then use it as a response song to the message.
  • I love doing vision messages.  Nothing gets me fired up more than reminding people why we’re doing what we’re doing.
  • The response so far to the message has been incredible…the real test will be in actually applying it…hope for a lot of new faces next week!
  • The bumper video that Aaron put together was awesome.  What’s funny though is it took he, Brian and I almost 2 hours to record the voice overs.  For some reason we couldn’t get the equipment to record it right…so we did it again…and again…and on a different machine…and again…and on a different machine…and…
  • It’s a shame some of them didn’t come out…Brian and I were having a lot of fun coming up with different things to say.
  • The two videos I used today I thought were powerful as well.  Here are the links.  Pauline Jacobi getting robbed.  Penn Gets a Bible.
  • I love that line…”How much do you have to hate someone to believe that there is a heaven and hell yet not tell someone how to escape it”. (paraphrase)
  • Again it amazes me that an atheist understands that better than many people in churches.
  • So one more time…Do whatever you can to invite people next week as we begin the REWIND series, by looking at the decade of the 70’s and specifically John Lennon’s, “Imagine”.
  • Also be sure to check out the new web-site and join the United Worship Experience fan page on facebook.

Filed Under: Inside Today's Experience's Tagged With: Aaron Schwindt, atheist, Brian Miller, Facebook, gilbert thurston, Imagine, John Lennon, Pauline Jacobi, Penn & Teller, Ready Now, Rewind series, salvation, United Worship Experience, vision, web-site, Yours Forever

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