- Hard to believe but today is our 1 year birthday as a church.
- What a year it’s been…to see for yourself here’s a recap music video we put together.
- The morning seemed earlier than normal since Chad and I spent the beginning of the week at a church conference out in Vegas and my body hasn’t adjusted back to Eastern Time…so 6:20am felt more like 3:20am…ughhh.
- The adrenaline though of a big day helped to make it better.
- Set-up went well but we had a few things happen that made for a longer than normal pre-Experience time.
- First the band had to practice an additional 4 songs that they were doing for their mini-concert and I had to create 30+ slides quickly for the comedy bit Bill was doing during the welcome time.
- We had tried it during the warm-up without slides but it fell a bit flat…but during the Experience it went well with the addition of the slides…and oh yeah the noise makers certainly helped!
- Today we had balloons and a huge birthday cake (pictured in this post) in the lobby in addition to party music.
- It was really a great atmosphere and something we’ll need to replicate in some way each week.
- One problem we’ve had is getting people from the lobby/cafe area into the Experience on time. This week at the conference I heard an idea and came home and made it happen.
- Essentially I wrote a song that encourages people to get out of the lobby and into the Experience.
- Big thanks to Matt Cassidy for helping me put the music to it and for recording it.
- Best thing is I’m told it actually worked.
- Lisa said at first people were laughing but then realized, “Oh I actually need to get moving” and they did!
- While the lobby was buzzing with energy the band was doing their mini-concert which was really cool.
- We then launched into the Experience with a cover of “Lies of the Beautiful People”.
- It was perhaps the best cover they’ve done…not an easy song yet they killed it!
- Bill followed with his 1 Year Birthday Quiz which went over well…again especially with people blowing noisemakers.
- The band then did a few of their and the crowds favorite worship songs from our first year.
- As always they did a great job…special shout-out to Gayle for coming in and playing/singing despite the fact she’s been really ill all week long.
- As I got up to speak it was great to look out to a big crowd…in fact we had our largest crowd ever!
- I knew I was in trouble though because we were already 10 minutes behind by the time I started speaking…but it all worked out.
- Today we started a new series called, “Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them”. Today’s first message was about how all of us should come with an “As Is” tag. You can listen to it here.
- The balloons from the lobby were brought in and placed on either side of the stage…113 in all…1 for every person that made a decision to become a follower of Jesus in our first year.
- One of them though got loose and went all the way to the ceiling of the theater…so when I referred to it during the Experience I said about the 112 here and the 1 up there.
- I didn’t think about it in the moment but afterwards the step-mom of JT Fox said it made perfect sense to her. Why? Because shortly after becoming a follower of Jesus at Exponential, JT passed away. Wow…only God!
- After the Experience everyone enjoyed the cupcakes provided by Cindy’s Sweets and Treats. Thanks Cindy…awesome as always!
- Afterwards it as great to talk with everyone…especially those who came in from out-of-town (some hours away) just to be with us on this special day.
- Thanks to all our leaders and apprentice leaders who serve so hard and well each week…it’s been a pleasure serving with you this past year…the best is yet to come!
- Next week we’ll continue the series by looking at Jesus plan for people to escape loneliness.
- Also as I mentioned, the greatest struggle we have right now is financially.
- If you believe in the vision of what we’re doing then please support us.
- If you attend Exponential that means a tithe…for others whatever you can give is certainly appreciated.
- In year 2 we want to live up to the Exponential name and see God do exponentially more than what we saw in year 1…thanks in advance for supporting us in that.