- Doing this a day later than normal.
- Not a whole lot to report from yesterday.
- Nothing too good or too bad happened.
- Which to me is a negative thing because I never want to get comfortable with a Sunday just being “average” and “we did our thing”.
- That’s where the negative side of religion can begin to creep in…doing the same things over and over without thought as to why.
- Now don’t get me wrong…we had some incredible things happen yesterday…3 more people prayed and asked for Jesus for His forgiveness and leadership in their lives!
- That alone makes for a great day!
- The only thing out of the ordinary was I did some filming in preparation for our 1 year birthday party coming up during the October 16th Experience.
- Don’t forget to mark your calendars for that. It’s going to be an incredible morning looking back at our 1st year and kicking off the “Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them” series.
- Oh wait there was one other out of the ordinary thing yesterday…the Cafe was serving soft pretzels…they looked really good.
- Had a decent sized crowd but nothing like the previous weekend…energy levels were way down as well…going to blame the weather…ughhh I hate cold weather.
- For those that might have missed it, I continued the Unveil series by sharing how we shouldn’t read God’s Word looking just for promises but rather for principles.
- You can listen to it here…many shared with me afterward that they enjoyed my opening story that further illustrates how much of an idiot I can sometimes be.
- Oh yeah…one last thing that happened…my best friends Andy and Gayle bought me a gift and gave it to me yesterday that I absolutely HATE.
- Yep you read that right…and they knew I’d hate it before they even gave it to me.
- They could have given me a satanic cat, wearing a Steelers jersey that sings country music and I’d have liked it better.
- And you know what…
- …I still love them both anyway.
- It’s great having friends that can joke with one another, know how to push each others buttons in a loving way and most of all will follow you to Harrisburg, PA to plant a church if you ask them.
- Thanks Krull family for your sacrifice…happy 1 year anniversary in Harrisburg….now I must go plot my revenge. :)
Inside Today’s Experience
- The ups and downs of being a church planter continued today…
- Unlike last week, today was an up.
- We had our 3rd highest attended day ever!
- More importantly yet another person came into a relationship with Jesus!
- The day started out not so good though when I realized I had left my bible at home.
- Luckily Lisa had not yet left the house so she was able to bring it.
- Although we only live 3 minutes away so it really wasn’t that big of a deal.
- It was foggy and chilly this morning as Mike and I put signs out. I told him it reminds me of last year the first couple of times we did it.
- Hard to believe we’re coming up on our 1 year anniversary.
- Speaking of…we’ll be celebrating it on October 16th and we’re asking everyone who has ever come (even if it was just once) to be with us that day.
- Also for those of you who have been meaning to come this would be a great day to come as well.
- We have some special things planned and expect it will be a great day.
- Ok back to today…set-up went extremely smooth although it was really warm because the theater wasn’t sure whether or not to turn on the AC.
- Glad they did because I was drenched by the time set-up and practice was done.
- I think because of the big crowd, the band had their best day yet.
- The energy was incredible and the band and the crowd seemed to feed off of each other.
- It was great seeing so many people engaged in worship and hearing them singing loud during some songs that have “crowd” parts.
- I continued with the Unveil series by talking about what you need to do when you need to know God’s will quickly or when your facing a deadline.
- You can listen to it here.
- I didn’t feel like it was one of my better messages, yet many have already told me they really liked it so I guess that’s a good thing.
- Loved meeting so many new people today out in the lobby.
- Especially great to see a number of people that we’ve helped through www.HarrisburgFloodRelief.com.
- So today was a good day…from the bad end however…
- I shared briefly that one of the greatest challenges for a church plant is financially.
- To be honest we’re not doing well right now.
- So two things…
- First please pray.
- Second, if you’re feeling lead, please continue or perhaps for the first time consider supporting us financially.
- In 11 1/2 months we’ve had 108 people come into a relationship with Jesus and we’ve been able to help so many people in all kinds of ways in the community both from a practical and spiritual level.
- What I’m saying is your financial support WILL make an eternal difference…but we can’t do it without you.
- Thanks in advance…and thanks for your continued prayers through both the ups and downs of getting a new church off the ground.
- Next week we’ll continue the Unveil series by looking at how to discover principles in God’s Word that will help us determine what God’s will is for us…hoping we can keep the momentum going!
Inside Today’s Experience (Thursday edition)
- Wanted to wait this week to post this until I was done speaking Sunday – Wednesday nights at the Greenvillage Church of God.
- I’ll start though with our Sunday morning at ExponentialChurch.tv.
- The morning went pretty smoothly however I was probably as discouraged afterwards as I have at any point in our almost 1 year of existence.
- We did a big mailer for our new series on how to discover God’s will for your life, plus I figured everyone would be done with vacations, etc.
- Guess not…we had 12 alone from our serving team gone and by the time the day was done we had even less people than we had the weekend before.
- It’s frustrating putting all the time, energy and resources into something and then not seeing the results you had hoped for.
- Oh well, God knows what He’s doing and our job is to continue to be faithful and plant seeds and He’ll bring the results.
- Speaking of…we had 2 more people pray to ask Jesus for His forgiveness and leadership on Sunday!
- Amazing how that puts everything into perspective.
- That makes 107 salvation’s now in 11 months!
- Even though I don’t understand it all and get frustrated, God continues to do amazing things so my I’m just trying not to hinder His work.
- Speaking of good work, it was great to have Greg Hench and George Jensen with us on Sunday.
- They are both pastors in our denomination doing a great job.
- The band as always did an amazing job on Sunday and it was cool having my niece Taylor help out in the tech area.
- She was so nervous that she was going to mess up but she, Mike and Cris did a great job in Andy’s absence.
- For those of you who might have missed the message, you can listen to it hear.
- As I mentioned earlier Sunday-Wednesday night I spoke at Greenvillage on relationships.
- It was a great 4 nights getting to know people and share God’s Word about marriage, dating, relationships and sex.
- I essentially used a lot of the content from the ONE series I did in February here at Exponential if you’re interested in hearing what I shared.
- The only exception was last night I did a message on communication instead of doing the Q&A like I did at ECTV.
- For those of you who were there, you can probably figure out why.
- I was surprised they wanted me to do the content for the 1st 3 nights much less what gets discussed in the Q&A.
- Monday night I left the house at 5:10pm for the 45-50 minute drive. This would still put me there with an hour to spare.
- By 6pm I had gone all of 11 miles. I knew right then and there I was in big trouble.
- Turns out they had closed I-81 because of a bad accident.
- I contacted the church and told them I’d get there ASAP.
- It was 7:35pm until I arrived but they were very gracious.
- In now 22 years of doing various types of public speaking, this is the first time I’ve ever been late.
- The only thing I kept thinking though was…”At least now I can use a joke I’ve always wanted to use in a situation like this”.
- I’m not sharing what it was in case you are ever at a place I’m late for, but let’s just say it got a roaring laugh!
- It was great seeing the crowd get younger and younger each night…young people definitely need to hear what I shared.
- Last night I guy shared a funny story with me that you’ll will get if you’ve ever heard me talk about sex (which I did on Tuesday night). He said he went home and started folding laundry. His wife looked at him funny and said, “What are you doing”? His response, “Starting the crock pot”! :)
- All in all it was a great 4 nights and many said how much they enjoyed it so hopefully I’ll be invited back someday.
- I also challenged them to be more evangelistic as a church so pray that those seeds I planted take root as well.
- Pray for their church as they are between pastors right now and seeking who and what God has for them next.
- I’m pretty exhausted but yet excited at the same time for what God has in store for us at ECTV this week as we continue the Unveil series.
- See you then…don’t forget to invite a friend.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Another fun day!
- Any day where people are giving their lives to Christ though is a good day in my book!
- Both crowds today we’re really energetic…especially the 11:15 crowd.
- I loved the band’s version of the song, “Second Chance”.
- We had Andrea hold out the one note twice as long as it is in the original and in both Experiences I got goose bumps…she and they did awesome!
- It’s been great to add some new band members recently…today we added Steve on drums and Andrew on guitar.
- That’s in addition to recent additions of Brett, Dan and Cressa.
- All the new people are doing great and adding nice depth to the team.
- Of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Brian, Adam, Andrea, Alex and Gayle for their years of hard work on the team.
- I really enjoyed this series…I always get as much out of them preaching as you probably do listening to them.
- Remember, “The clearer the vision, the fewer the options, the easier the decision”
- Also don’t forget, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down”.
- Next week we’ll only have the 9:45 Experience so make sure you’re there early to get a good seat and don’t forget to invite someone as we launch a new series called “Reality Check”.
Inside Today’s Experiences
- Great day today.
- School’s back in and vacations are over!
- So nice to have the energy of a big crowd again at 9:45.
- Now we need to do a great job of inviting more to the 11:15 so we can get the momentum going there.
- Funny to think that last year at this time it was exactly opposite…huge crowds late and sparse crowds early.
- In any case, things ran pretty smoothly today with the exception of one funky light that didn’t want to stay the proper color.
- We also had an unexpected absent by a key person on the tech team and another key person missing so we were scrambling there.
- I ended up running some of it and Josh Schlotterbeck stepped up to “learn on the fly”. Thanks Josh.
- If you are interested in helping with tech, let me know.
- Also don’t forget we need some more volunteers in the set-up and tear down crews. Again let me know and I’ll get your name to the proper people.
- It was great to have Aaron back for a week…love his energy.
- Speaking of energy, I think Andrea had an energy drink this morning…she was pumped up and I love hearing her sing “Unveil”.
- Had a few people tell me how much they appreciate that we cover hit songs. Aaron and the team did a great job with Kings of Leon’s, Use Somebody.
- We do this so that hopefully when it comes on the radio, a new association has been made in your mind between the song and the message.
- I had a ton of fun with the message at 9:45. Not so much at 11:15…just couldn’t get into a good rhythm.
- Guess which one got posted online? :)
- Met some great people today at the guest receptions…we’re so fortunate to be attracting so many people that are hungry to have God speak into their lives.
- All in all, a good day…I’m already looking forward to next week!
- Tonight we’ll be hanging with some of our small group peeps.
- Also excited about the Redskins game today!