- I give up!
- What I mean by that is…I give up trying to figure out attendance patterns.
- Today being Memorial Day weekend, most churches see a dip in attendance.
- This week I personally knew of 18 people that said they wouldn’t be with us…who knows how many I didn’t know about.
- So my expectation was a really low attendance day…
- So of course we end up with our 2nd highest attendance ever…God amazes me.
- Best of all we had 5 more people pray today for Jesus forgiveness and leadership!
- Funny thing is I didn’t plan on offering a call for commitment today, but I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me at the end to do it any way.
- Glad I listened!
- As for the rest of the day, we couldn’t have asked for it to be much smoother.
- In fact, the band got set-up, had their warm-up and run through and still had so much time that they were actually able to do some Thursday night practice kind of stuff.
- Big thanks to Kristie Frownfelter for stepping up and leading the Children’s Ministry today while Chelsea was away on vacation.
- I peeked in and it looked like you were doing an awesome job.
- Speaking of an awesome job, the pic for this post (sorry it’s so dark) is of our tech team. Andy, Mike, and Cris have 3 computers to run with the assorted programs we use plus then the sound board.
- They consistently accomplish the best thing a tech team can do…not be noticed.
- If the technology itself or the operators through error draw attention, that means the attention is off of Jesus. So thankful to have a team that knows what they are doing and do it with excellence.
- Mike though did do a funny thing this morning when he and I went out to set up signs. We got to an intersection that we put a sign out at. The plan is for me to jump out, reach in the back to get the sign, then Mike takes off and turns around while I’m putting the sign in the appropriate place. This is all done at a busy intersection and it’s best if the light is red when we get there. Today though it was green and so imagine my surprise when I jump out and Mike starts to take off before I’ve been able to get the sign out of the back. Not sure if this is making sense, but it was funny.
- This was the 5th part to our iLife series and I’m not sure why but on Thursday I started to get really excited about today’s topic which was gaining professional margin.
- Was also nervous a bit though because the one visual illustration I wanted to do involved me juggling. Now I have juggled for years but in order for the illustration to really work it was vital that I not drop any. You’ll have to listen to the message to understand why. Whew…was able to do it!
- Always great to be able to look out and seeing a visiting pastor. Today we were excited to have Charlie Hostetter and his wife Linda with us from the Mechanicsburg First Church of God.
- Charlie said they wanted to come check us out because they’ve heard so much.
- Never really sure how to take that since as much negative is said about us as positive.
- They seemed to like it though and we were able to provide Linda with a pair of complimentary ear plugs in case the music got too loud for her.
- I know it seems silly but it’s the little things like this (and the mints and hand lotion we provide in the restrooms) that really help create wow experiences for people.
- Noticed afterward a lot more people hanging out in the lobby. That’s great that people are getting connected with one another. Technically we need to get out of the theater ASAP, but as long as were not in the way, then I’d love to see these interactions continuing.
- Had lunch with my mom and dad today and then Lisa and I went swimming. Our pool is already at a very comfy 82 degrees…tomorrow should help even more.
- On a personal note, today marked the one year anniversary since my last day on staff at the Chambersburg First Church of God.
- Wow do I miss them tremendously. At the same time though I’m so grateful for the new relationships we’ve made here in Harrisburg as we’re getting ExponentialChurch.tv launched.
- I have no doubt we’re exactly where God wants us but it still doesn’t make it easy to be away from so many great friends. Thanks United and CFCOG for 3 awesome years together.
- Next week at Exponential we’ll wrap-up the iLife series by discovering how to get moral margin in your life.
- I want to talk to 3 groups of people…teens, singles and married couples about how to make sure when it comes to purity (especially sexual purity) you have the margin that God desires.