- Thank you all so much!
- We couldn’t have asked for a better send off.
- The Experiences, party, cards, gifts, plaque, poster, etc all meant so much to Lisa and I.
- We are emotionally exhausted but praising God for the 3 1/2 years we spent together and the awesome send-off you gave us.
- Thanks to Thom Lambert for driving me to church this morning.
- Thanks to Brian, Earl and Aaron for putting together a very moving Experience.
- Loved all the testimonies and the video’s.
- Thanks as well to visiting family members and denominational leaders who came in to be a part of the day!
- Thanks to Chris and Amanda for heading up the party…I’m stuffed!
- Wow, I’m so tired and my mind is swimming so I’m sure I’m forgetting tons of things and people to thank.
- In any case, thanks again for a great day and all the support we’ve received.
- Again we’d appreciate your prayer support. If you’re interested on being on our prayer team, please e-mail to prayerteam@exponentialchurch.tv
- Also other ways you can help us financially and thru short term missions trips can be found at the links.
- I’ll hopefully post some video’s and pics soon, but for now it’s time for a nap and then Lisa and I will be off for a vacation before we start the real work of getting the new church up and running.
- Thanks again and much love to you all!
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Wow can’t believe that I just preached my final messages for United.
- I’m sitting in a hotel room up in Harrisburg typing this…I’m drained and could use a nap but we’ve got meetings tonight and tomorrow so I’m pushing on.
- What a hectic day.
- It started out earlier than normal because we wanted to practice the magic trick a few times.
- YES…after 3 1/2 years I finally did a magic trick on stage.
- Keeping with the theme of the day being Iron Man, we made him magically appear.
- In case you missed it, I could see a couple of people were using their phones to record, so hopefully they’ll post it on Facebook or Youtube and then I’ll link to it.
- Thanks for Thom and Brian for their hard work in helping me make this a reality.
- Essentially I took an idea that is usually done for making small things like rabbit’s appear and made it human size.
- Was lots of fun to perform and while I’ve heard some crazy theories on how it worked, no one has come even close.
- Of course the band did awesome as usual covering the Iron Man theme song.
- Also, this morning, our children’s check-in system went haywire and so I was running around checking on things and trying to get hold of our reps down in TX.
- Turns out it was a nation-wide glitch so I wasn’t the only one feeling the pressure.
- Of course when it came time to preach, I was emotional but felt really pleased with my final message.
- I’ve had quite a few people say how much they needed to hear what I shared and would keep me posted in the future as they do whatever God asks them to do.
- I’m always amazed in the differences between the early and late Experience crowds. The early one loved my LOST finale joke. The 2nd Experience just sat there.
- Can’t believe how many parallels there are to Paul’s story as he left the church of Ephesus and my story leaving Chambersburg.
- I’m praying that some of the things like never seeing each other again, my having to undergo persecution and you guys facing spiritual attack do not come true.
- All in all it was a really good day, but I’m glad it’s behind me now.
- Looking forward to celebrating with you next week what each of our collective futures look like and looking back at the past 3 1/2 years. Don’t forget there is a meal immediately afterwards and there will be an opportunity to help support our new church financially.
- Have a great week…still got a couple of minutes that I can catch a quick nap before heading off to my meeting.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Sorry I haven’t gotten to these the last two weeks.
- Great day today as we started my final series as the pastor of the United Worship Experience.
- Had 7 more people make 1st time professions of faith…as I said at the end of the message…”Don’t ever let that get old”.
- We started the “What’s Hot Now” series by taking a look at what spiritual meaning can be taken out of One Republic’s hit song, All the Right Moves.
- As usual the band did and awesome job with not just the worship stuff but doing a cover of this as well.
- Brian was excited because in addition to the drums we also used a drum machine to get some other cool effects.
- Great energy in both crowds today…think the 2nd Experience crowed actually was a bit rowdier than the 1st Experience crowd which is unusual…great job everyone…love that excitement.
- I had fun preaching today’s message..already getting lots of positive feedback…or maybe it’s just that I told everyone to tell me it was a great message.
- If that doesn’t make sense, you’ll have to listen for the context.
- Funniest thing that many might not have been able to see was the band dancing off stage to Imma Be which is the song in the bumper video Aaron created.
- Fun that is until Thom knocked over a light getting his groove on during the 2nd Experience. :)
- Can’t wait until next week as we do some cool things as we look at Twitter.
- Don’t forget to sign-up this week.
- Remember as long as you have an account and can text from you phone you’ll be easily able to participate.
- Just go to the Twitter account settings page and add your cell to turn on this feature.
- Ok time for a nap…have a great week.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Another solid day.
- Got off to an early start because Thom was sick on Thursday night and was unable to make practice. So everyone came in early to make sure we could run through everything at least twice.
- Great job by the band as usual to come through despite everything happening.
- The middle projector burnt out right before the 2nd Experience…arghhhh.
- Other than that, everything went well behind the scenes today.
- Heard the message connected with quite a few people.
- I’m always amazed that even the ones “I’m not excited about”, God still uses to touch the hearts of people.
- Pretty clear though…forgive others or God will not forgive you.
- Watching people from backstage write their enemies names or hurts on the wall was interesting…you could tell some were deeply moved and others were just going through the motions.
- Jesus said that the seed of His Word will land on different types of soil and that some will spring to life and others will die.
- Not a knock on anyone…I’m sure each message touches people differently…just interesting to watch the dynamic.
- I was drained before the 2nd Experience even started…not sure why…had a great nights sleep.
- Both Experiences got done at least 5 minutes early today…making up for last week!
- Got to talk with a great couple in visiting from OH…neat story and praying that God’s will be done in their lives.
- Reality is starting to sink in…only 6 more messages I’ll be preaching in United.
- Let’s make this stretch drive something memorable…invite like crazy so we have great momentum for whoever my replacement ends up being.
- If you haven’t checked out what I’m doing in Harrisburg yet, the web-site is www.ExponentialChurch.tv
- Plenty of ways you can help out even from a far.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Just now getting home after a full day of church and family activities.
- Amazed by today’s Experiences…so awesome.
- Won’t have the final count until tomorrow but we know of at least 12 people who made decisions to follow Jesus today!
- Makes all the hard work and spiritual warfare I mentioned earlier this week worth it!
- Big props to the entire team for working nearly around the clock to make all the elements today so successful.
- Special thanks to Brian and Thom for the two huge 20 foot truss crosses.
- Leave it to United…if we’re going to have crosses they will be big and they will have all kinds of cool things they do.
- Basically loved everything about today…
- Brian had an idea to do a live countdown with video and light show and it definitely had the crowd pumped more so than the normal countdowns.
- Thought the roof was going to blow off the place during the first two songs at the 9:45 Experience. Man you guys were loud and rowdy…just the way we like it. :)
- Good laugh playing the Here Comes Peter Cottontail song during the fill out connection card time…hilarious.
- Loved the Desperate People song…it started the whole tear down the walls theme if you were listening to the lyrics carefully.
- The Slam Poet definitely kicked things into another gear. Jesse Fisher is the guy who did it and he is amazing. I included it on the beginning of the message recording if you’re interested in hearing him do his thing.
- About 6 weeks ago as the guys pitched me the idea of doing a series called Absolution, all I could think of was someone going into a confessional booth and the wall that separates them. This led to me having the idea to make Easter all about walls.
- A few weeks back as I was ready to write the message, the idea then came to put a wall on stage that I could put graffiti on represent my sin. Then last week I had the idea to tear down the wall and then Thursday night as we were practicing it, God spoke to me that we needed a cross to be the only thing left standing.
- Brian had the idea to do the song Tear Down the Walls a few weeks back and the rest as they say is history…from what I’ve heard it was one of the most memorable and touching moments we’ve ever created.
- I know it was for me. Seeing my sins written on that wall and then getting to tear it down was very emotional. At the first Experience I couldn’t help but break down and cry. At the 2nd Experience I got more physical with the wall and took out my frustration on the wall like it was Satan himself.
- Long story short…between both Experiences, kicking, punching and tearing down a wall, has left me hands and arms scraped and cut up.
- But I don’t regret a moment up it…in the moment I didn’t feel a thing.
- As I reflected on that this afternoon, it made me think of Jesus. It was because of His great love for us that He endured the pain of the cross.
- Certainly a few cuts on my arms pale in comparison to what He endured so I’m not going to complain.
- Ok funny story. Thursday night we did a full walk through of Sunday morning like we normally do. When it came time to tear down the wall, Andrea said, “This isn’t going to be dangerous is it”? I assured her no, but then as I began to destroy it, the prototype that had been built completely feel apart, framework and all. It went toppling towards Andrea…she dodged out of the way…and it barely missed crashing into the keyboard. The guys then set out to build the mother of all walls…which they did…that frame today wasn’t going anywhere!
- Also funny is that in the first Experience as I was tearing the wall apart, I wasn’t thinking about how forceful I throwing pieces of drywall. Imagine my surprise when I turn around and there are pieces lying at the feet of people in the front rows. Oops.
- So much to say about today and so many people to thank…what an incredible day.
- Overall we had 1211 people in attendance today at all services and Experiences…so awesome to see everyone invite like crazy to make sure as many people as possible could hear the good news about Jesus.
- Hopefully later this week I can post some other stuff about today, but for now I’m whupped and ready for some sleep. Thanks again for celebrating Easter with us…have a great week!